In a world where toast butters itself and people are mindless, Guy Montag finds himself caught in a society devoid of knowledge and free-thinking. Trained to destory literature, he also set aflame old ideals of individuality, curiosity and intellect. Montag begins questioning everything around him, and, indoing so, empowers himself against the very government he works for. Montag proves just how powerful literature can be when reading one line out of a novel -- accidentally …showed first 75 words of 271 total…

…showed last 75 words of 271 total…Montag stopped being force-fed thoughts and actually dared to formulate them on his own. Does literacy empower people in Fahrenheit 451? Most definitely. That is, I think, the primary reason those in charge want it to disappears. In the course of a few days, Guy Montag became an individual, free-thinking, and bursting with questions. He took control of his own mind, which meant that no one else could. And that is what scared "them" the most.