"An unreality that was frightening"

“He was moving from an unreality that was frightening into a reality that was unreal because it was new” (Page 140, Narrator)

This scene seems to be one of 2 crucial divides of the story. The first of which is after Clarisse opened Montag’s eyes to the world beyond just Seashells and Parlor walls. It seems that after wading around confused in a fog of blurred images and sounds that have assaulted him for so long, Montag’s finally out of it. Similar to the feeling that you get after you finally wake up from a long nap and you splash some water on your face. The water wakes you up from your old dreams, snapping your attention to the present. Strangely this revelation of Montag’s just happens to take place by a river, which shows the author’s skill at connecting his tale with real life scenarios. At the same time though, this hope is tempered by fear of the unknown, which is perfectly natural considering that Guy Montag is a fugitive from the law. On the plus side, he’s finally out in nature. After all this ideal concept of nature was referred back to in the book as soon as the first 20 pages, with this in mind, I’m looking forward to seeing how the author portrays this nature after idealizing it so much. It’ll be interesting to see if nature can live up to the high expectations Montag has of it.