How Did The Fire Change In Fahrenheit 451

First, the motif fire in Fahrenheit 451 shows how fire can be destructive to the books to the people considered antisocial in which they fear their books being burnt. For instance" It was not burning, it was warming"(pg.139). This quote demonstrates how fire can be used to warm Montag in the book. Not only can fire be used in good ways ,but it can destroy people and their possessions. To add, the people with books fear fire- for it destroys their whole world. Further more, instead of firemen putting out fires like today, they build fires to destroy the antisocial people of this dystopian world.

Carson Namen English 1 H Mrs. Bardin 5/1/17 Fire! It is hard to imagine firemen starting fires instead of putting them out. Yet that is what occurs in Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451. Writing in 1953, Bradbury warns readers about a future that could happen. Bradbury notices dehumanization in society as technology makes people become less personable and less capable of independent thought.

Ray Bradbury introduced many different things of symbolism throughout his novel “Fahrenheit 451”. One specific that stood out to me was fire. Fire which is used as a symbol of chaos, destruction, and death can also be used as a symbol of knowledge. Fire has 3 different meanings in this novel. Fire can represent the change in which is shown through Montag’s symbolic change from using fire to burn the knowledge into using fire to help him find knowledge; fire can represent the knowledge that is thriving to stay alive as fire does, and fire can also represent the control and censorship over the town and society.

It's a mystery…Its real beauty is that it destroys responsibility and consequences. A problem gets too burdensome, then into the furnace with it....Antibiotic, aesthetic, practical” (Bradbury, page 52). In these lines, Beatty analyzes the term, and its purpose in society, which is to clear the mess and the confusion, and restoring what is believed to be acceptable. However, Guy Montag swivels away from Captain Beatty and from what fire has always meant to them as firemen. Right from the beginning “It was good to burn and to snatch, rend, rip in half with flame, and put away the senseless problem…Fire was best for everything!” (Bradbury, page ). Then, he begins to view fire differently. Montag cannot forget the woman that Captain Beatty had burned alive, and he tells his wife, Mildred, “This fire’ll last me the rest of my life” (Bradbury, page 24). With such a profound statement, Guy Montag transforms in a different person right in front of the readers. Burning books, houses, and even people is no longer pleasurable. On the opposite, it scarred the main character so deeply that he craves to make a change, in the hope that, maybe, he will be able to redeem himself from the gruesome, and almost shameful, acts that he had committed in the name of a distorted

Ray Bradbury utilizes fire, the sieve and sand, and the phoenix to give a deeper and significant meaning to the novel through destruction, how Montag thinks and rebirth. One reason why this claim is true is because fire gives a deeper meaning to the novel by symbolizing destruction. Fire was used as a tool by the firemen throughout the book, but also, “…the fire at the end also destroys them and escapes their control”, making it more of a weapon (Bloom 1). This evidence advises that fire once was helpful, but it now has become a symbol and weapon of destruction due to the fact it was used to destroy books and the people who wouldn’t leave their books. In addition, this claim also holds true since the sieve and the sand give the readers a better

Then Granger told him about the phoenix and Montag understood. The phoenix would build himself his own tomb, burn himself, then emerge new and whole again. Montag could finally see the power fire contained. It had the power to destroy, like the firemen destroyed books, or to rebuild, like the phoenix. His better understanding of the phoenix and his experiences with Granger, and the outcasts, helped him become at peace with

Fire represents change in the novel because fire allows Montag to undergo a symbolic change in which he stops using fire to burn knowledge but instead help him find it. Guy uses fire to

At the end of the book, Montag encounters fire once more, but this one completely changes the way he sees fire. He sees the fire through the trees in the wood, and it is so small and fagile that he is “afraid he might blow the fire out with a single breath” (139). Before, he had always thought thought of fire as this powerful thing that just consumd and took. Now it was a delicate flame that could vanish any second. As he continues to look on the campfire in the cold, he sees people gathered around it. It was “a strange fire, because it meant a different thing to him. It was not burning, it was warming” (139). For the first time, Montag sees fire as a comfort. This fire was not

“How long he stood he did not know, but there was a foolish and yet delicious sense of knowing himself as an animal come from the forest, drawn by the fire”(Bradbury 139). Explain quote and lead into background information. In Ray Bradbury’s 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451, he paints a picture of a society where people follow orders without question, people aren’t allowed to think and firemen burn books. They burn knowledge to stop conflicts from arising and those who seek it are condemned and thought of as “weird.” The society is crammed with information but they never think about it, they simply accept it as correct and move on to the next thing. Throughout the book the symbolism of fire change. First it is used as a weapon to destroy, then it is used to represent anger and madness, finally, in the last section, it is used to cleanse and change Montag.

When he escapes from the city “the flame of his suppressed human spirit spreads through his whole being after his…murder of Beatty,” he is transformed into someone with passion and knowledge. While also escaping the city, Montag discovers a different nature of fire he had never known, one which “was not burning… it was warming” (Bradbury 145). He sees a group of men called the book people, gathering around a fire in comfort and togetherness. Also, Bradbury expands on the positive side of fire with the story of the phoenix: “Every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again” (Bradbury 163). After the bombing of the city, the phoenix can be compared to the society, because it burns itself up and after rises out of it. The ability of the phoenix not only represents the rebirth of society, but also Montag’s transformation. Through the story of the phoenix, Montag understands that fire “could give as well as take” (Bradbury 146) even through the society’s views to exploit fire to “keep people happy”. Bradbury also uses the title of part three of Fahrenheit 451, to show the changed views of fire. “Burning Bright” represents a different ambiguity of burning, symbolizing Montag’s passion. Montag is “burning brightly”, expressing his passion.

Mankind has been utilizing fire for millennia; it has been used to make food safe, to provide warmth, to illuminate the dark and unknown, and to protect from savage beasts. It is also practical for torturing, killing, intimidating, and destroying. It only takes one glance for someone to see how fire -- as it dances, spearing the sky for but a moment before it is gone, only to be replaced by another flame -- is far too chaotic to be controlled. In the world of Fahrenheit 451, it seems, superficially, that man has conquered fire at last; the home, man’s refuge from everything undesirable in the world, is fireproof. Why, then, are things still burning in this gilded utopia? In this futuristic society where there is no such thing as an uncontrolled fire, fire has been reduced to a mere tool to be wielded by mankind. As such, fire, in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, is a reflection of the true nature of each character in the novel. In the hands of the society and especially the fireman, fire is a tool wielded for fractious and destructive intent. For Clarisse, who is compared to a candle, fire is friendly and inspiring of thought. And for Montag and the other literates hiding outside of the city, fire is a warm gathering place that fosters kinship and the proper ideals to feed a revolution.

Fire is an ever-present concept in Fahrenheit 451. In the society of the dystopian world the fire is a negative force that destroys the houses and banned books of the offender. The name of the book is derived from the temperature at which books burn. The burning books become a metaphor for the anti-intellectual violence of the novel. It eradicates every cultural article in which are books. It is used as a pressure of the government to form the citizens the way the government wants the world constructed. "The core of the novel rests in the readers ability to share Guy 's slow struggle toward consciousness, to move from

In Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, fire is a recurring idea. Bradbury used the main character, Guy Montag, to present the fire motif throughout the story. Montag, a fireman, had doubts about his career and society. He sought answers and enlightenment to cure his curiosity about the truth in books. He did not have faith in his society, nor did he understand why intellect was so terrible. In his search Montag realized that fire (and books) were not so evil after all. Montag began to see fire in a different light. Therefore, fire, in Fahrenheit 451, represented rejuvenation through cleansing and renewal.

He enjoys his job and he thinks it’s a pleasure to burn. The number 451 is written on his helmet that he uses when he is at work. The firemen wear a black beetle-colored helmet and a flameproof jacket. He met a young girl named Clarisse McClellan. Clarisse McClellan talked about the history of firefighting. “Is it true that long ago firemen put fires out instead of going to start them?” (Bradbury, page 8) Montag thinks that the houses were always fireproof but Clarisse is sure that they were caused accidentally and needed firemen to put them out. Montag thinks that Clarisse came up with something crazy because that could never happen. She asks if Montag has ever read any of the books that he has burned and he says no because that would be against the law. The fire truck was known as the salamander. “... felt the salamander etched on its silver disc, gave it a flick...” (Bradbury, page 13) Houses were usually burned at night to give people the entertainment of watching a house get burned down. The burning of the old ladys house was upsetting. She didn’t want to leave her books behind and thought life without them would be horrible, so she lit her own house on fire. Captain Beatty said to Montag, “We shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out” and “ A man named Latimer said that to a man named Nicholas Ridley, as they were being burnt alive at Oxford, for heresy,

In the start of Fahrenheit 451, Montag’s thoughts are that fire is good for society. He burns books for a living, and never thought twice about doing his job. That is until he meets characters such as Clarisse, Beatty, and the academics. Montag’s understanding of the nature of fire changes as he becomes enlightened through his relationships.