Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a dystopian novel set 100 years in the future. The main character is Guy Montag, who burns illegal books for a living. When he meets his neighbor, his world is flipped upside down. Then he accidentally reads part of a book and realizes that they are good. He struggles throughout the book to not give away his secret and stay alive. A main theme for this book is that it’s hard to keep big secrets to yourself.

In the beginning of the book, Guy has no problems or secrets to keep. Later, he accidentally reads a book when burning someone’s house down. He thinks that the book is amazing and steals it, even though it is illegal. He struggles to keep it a secret, and you know this because when he goes home that night, Bradbury describes his wife’s suspicion. The next day, Guy wants to stay home and see what the big deal is about books, so he’s going to call in sick. Just as he’s about to call, his boss Beatty knocks on the door. He proceeds to give Guy a big lecture on how it’s OK to feel guilty every once and a while about burning someone’s house down. He also says “Every fireman gets an itch,” referring to books. Guy gets the feeling that Beatty is on to him and almost cracks, asking, “What if, theoretically, a fireman brought a book to his house?” Beatty shows that it would be OK, and Guy feels more at ease, even though he almost gave his secret away.

There are a lot of things towards the middle of the book that show that he has many secrets. Later, his wife finds the book that Guy hid. He tells her about 20 or so other books that he’s stolen to get it off of his chest, which may get him into trouble. On page 75, Guy is on the bus and loses it when everyone is talking about a new shop. The book says “The people who had been sitting a moment before, tapping their feet to the rhythm of Denham’s Dentifrice, Denham’s Dandy Dental Detergent, Denham’s Dentifrice Dentifrice Dentifrice, one two, one two three, one two, one two three.” This long run-on sentence shows a sense of urgency, and losing one’s mind. This shows that he is going insane from keeping this huge secret from everyone. On page 80, Guy tries to prove his point to Faber saying, “But let me tell you my plan”, and recruits him to help. And on page 95, Guy absolutely loses it. His wife is having some friends over, and while they’re talking, Guy decides they’re all insane and grabs a book. “But Montag was gone and back in a moment with a book in his hand.” He proceeds to read the book in front of the three guests and makes them believe he’s insane.

Now, it is a fair point that maybe Guy is just really bad at keeping all secrets. However, he has been able to keep many secrets. One example is at the beginning of the story, he doesn’t tell his wife that Clarisse, his new neighbor, doesn’t fit the mold. She talks to much and is really weird, but he doesn’t tell anyone. This proves that Guy is capable of keeping secrets, it’s just that some secrets are harder to keep than others.

At the end of the story, Beatty discovers Guy’s secret and shows him by quoting books that he’s read, and the other firemen don’t suspect a thing. Guy starts getting sweaty and shaky, and Beatty confronts him about it.  After Beatty confronted Guy he says “God, what a pulse! I’ve got you going, have I, Montag?” This shows that Beatty is very aware that he is making Guy nervous with his quoting and that Guy is having trouble not showing it. Basically, the next 20 pages or so is: Guy gets his house burnt down, he kills Beatty for doing it, he’s chased after by the mechanical hound, and he gets away. He meets a bunch of kind homeless people outside the city and they invite him to join their group. Guy says, “I don’t belong with you,” said Montag, at last, slowly. “I’ve been an idiot all the way.” He acknowledges that he hasn’t been good at keeping secrets. After he joins the group, the city gets bombed by the country that they’ve been at war with in the background. Guy feels more at peace now that he can say whatever he would like to his new friends, as shown on page 157. “…they would begin to talk, or just say the things they remembered, to be sure they  were there, to be absolutely certain that things were safe in them.”