Why Farenheit 451?

I wondered what Ray Bradbury’s purpose of writing this book was. I researched a little bit and found out that the original purpose was for Bradbury to express his love of books and libraries. Over the years people interpreted this to be about censorship but it was not. Bradbury has stated that the novel is not about censorship, but is a story of how television destroys interest in reading literature, leading to a replacement of knowledge with "factoids", partial information devoid of context, such as Napoleon's birth date with no explanation of who he was.
Bradbury has also said that Montag resembles himself a lot. This is very interesting since Montag is a “bad guy” somewhat. He does change for the better. Why does he change? I think he changes solely because of Clarisse. Clarisse makes him think and realize that the society that he lives in is completely bogus. He also realizes that people need to slow down. Will Montag ever change and try to change the dystopian world of Fahrenheit 451?
Why did the woman burn herself, and what did the fireman think after she did. I think she burned herself to kind of set an example to the fireman that burn people and their houses. She wanted them to realize that what they were doing was wrong and that she would die for her books. This reminds me of a Rosa Parks but she didn’t kill herself. The fireman was probably wondering if burning all these houses were worth it. I probably wouldn’t kill myself for books I would probably try to get away. Fahrenheit 451 has had many surprises so far but I’m sure has more to come.
-Austin Stephey