Rather strangely, it is the destruction of the city that
is charted in the final pages of the novel, once Montag has managed to escape the
Mechanical Hound, that is the sign that tells Montag that he is welcome in the world
because he has something to offer and contribute to its rebuilding. Having been an
outcast who doesn't fit in to the social order of the city, Montag's identity and role
in life is now transformed by the city's destruction. The rebuilding of society that
will need to occur will depend upon the book people and the kind of knowledge that they
are able to bring upon the metaphorical rising of the phoenix from the ashes of the
destroyed city. Note what Montag thinks of his changed
situation:
And someday, after it sets in us a long time,
it'll come out our hands and our mouths. And a lot of it will be wrong, but just enough
of it will be right. We'll just start walking today and see the world and the way the
world walks around and talks, the way it really
looks.
Montag now has
something concrete to offer the world, and the way in which he and the book people look
forward to being part of the process of rebuilding indicates the way that they can
belong and be welcomed by the world that once shunned them.
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