Symbolism In Fahrenheit 451

Throughout English literature there are a number of authors who use symbolism to get a point across to the reader. Symbolism is a chance for the author to show the reader instead of tell. The futuristic book Fahrenheit 451 is a novel based around symbolism and ulterior meanings. Water and fire are symbols commonly used in all types of literature. These elements are especially apparent in mythology. Also, within the novel the parlor walls proved themselves to be more than what was initially apparent. These symbols give this book a very specific tone and mood.

In the first section, titled The Hearth and the Salamander, Montag shows perseverance. In this section he meets a teenage girl named Clarisse McClellan. She teaches him that it’s okay to think freely he questions if burning books is the right thing to do. When Montag returns home after meeting Clarisse he finds his wife, Mildred, had overdosed on pills, but she survived. Daily Montag met Clarisse and he got used to seeing her, until she went missing. Later on the firemen have to burn down a book-filled house of an old woman. The old woman cherishes her

Fire. The symbol of destruction, warmth, and renewal, is a prominent theme in the novel Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury. Guy Montag, lives in a bleak, advanced United States where any and books have been made illegal and are replaced with entertainment and technology. The use of fire in the past was to give warmth and heat and has now been replaced for the use destruction and satisfaction. Montag’s job as a fireman is to burn books and houses that have books stowed away. Montag’s view of fire and burning items in the first act is destruction and is completely changed by the end of the book, when he views fire as a symbol of

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

Throughout the novel, Montag tries to bring realization to the people around him and waits for the day that the civilization experiences a rebirth. This corresponds to the symbol of fire. It mirrors the transformation of Montag's choices from killing his boss to burning his house down. The fire was the solution to set Montag free from the bondage of his culture, and without it, a change would not have ensued (1). Once Montag escapes from the city, he discovers a group of men sitting around a fire. It is in this scene that the fire portrays comfort. The metamorphosis that occurs in Montag is symbolized by the fire due to the fact that he is surrounded by a group of men who share his same beliefs. The comfort Montag feels in the fire is similar to the way God is a constant comfort in a Christian's life. In John 14:16, it says "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever" (NIV). God sets the rules for his people, but He will never leave their side and will always love them unconditionally. A critical altercation becomes obvious when Montag views the fire for the first time in his life as

Bradbury uses allusions and metaphors through an analogy, Beatty’s dream, to strengthen his message regarding the importance and power of language and literature. In Fahrenheit 451, the fire captain Beatty tells the rebel firefighter Montag about his dream where they both argue what books teach and through this the importance of language and literature is exposed.

Fire and flames have been used as symbols by many authors. Fire is representative of Montage. He was a fireman who made fires rather than put them out. He was around them all the time, whether it was around a campfire or burning down a house. Montag and fire were

Montag worked as a firemen, a feared member of the society, who do not fight fires, but started them. His main job was to burn books and the houses in where they were hidden. After years working as a firemen Montag, never questioned why books were banned. He accepted his life and the work he do every day. In the novel Bradbury, states “It was pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history.” This quote show us that Montag was a firemen who believes enjoying doing his job, he felt a pleasure burning books and houses. However this changes when he meets his neighbor Clarisse McClellan, a 17 year old girl who claims being “crazy” because he decides to follow her own path. Clarisse helped Montag realize the emptiness of his life, he thought of whether he actually was happy, and if what he was doing was right. “So it was the hand that started it all...His hands had been infected, and soon it would be his arms...His hands were ravenous” Montag shows resistance to social control because he steals books from the

Unquestionably, all novels can convey multiple meanings depending on a variety of factors with the most important being the manner in which the audience interprets the author’s words. More importantly, to professionally draw conclusions concerning the message the author demonstrates throughout a text, it is essential to discuss and apply the five literary elements of literature to the text. In greater detail, when a work itself is criticized or evaluated, usually one literary element is focused on to prove an argument pertaining to a novel. To bring the topic into focus, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 possesses many points that could be argued in contradictory ways based upon factual

Ray Bradbury, the author of the well-known science fiction novel Fahrenheit 451, was alarmed by how much time he felt the public devoted to watching television in the 1950’s. “If this [trend of television watching] goes on…” he wrote, “nobody will read books anymore” (XIII). This thought of a television-obsessed future public frightened Bradbury. He was particularly fearful of how technology might prevent people from forming relationships with each other and connecting with the world around them, which would make them unable to develop human consciousness. He used the format of literature to describe his fears in the futuristic science fiction novel Fahrenheit

Montag at the beginning of the book is a person that you could love and hate. Montag was a person who loved his job as a firefighter. To Montag he got pleasure out of burning the books. One of Montag's favorite things from burning the books was he would put a marshmallow and put it on a stick and roast it.When Montag's done and goes home he goes to bed with a smile on his face. Then everything changes once he meets Clarisse.

In the novel, Fahrenheit 451, author, Ray Bradbury, uses symbolism to feed the reader with a deeper more insightful meaning of the story by guiding his protagonist and the mindset of the society in which he lives, from a brainwashed technology driven society lacking independent thought, to a human-focused society through the use of the symbols fire and mirrors.

One of the major changes in this new society is depersonalization, the loss of self and intimacy. After an alarm is sent to the firehouse for a home possessing books, Montag travels to the location with the other firemen. He then discovers that this is his own house, and his wife Mildred turned him in to the firemen. Then, Beatty, the head fireman and Montag’s acquaintance, forces him to burn it down himself. After doing so, he stands outside and watches his house burn. He ruminates, “A great earthquake had come with fire and leveled the house and Mildred was under there somewhere and his entire life was under there…” (112). Despite some of these things that are a part of Montag’s life not being the most pleasant, they are still a large part of who he was. As the house is being burnt down, Montag realizes that everything about him is being destroyed with it. Without his house, Montag has nothing familiar left, and registers that his whole life is essentially gone. After killing Beatty as revenge for forcing him to destroy his home, Montag starts his escape. He stops at the house of Faber, an ex-professor he met prior to the events of the story, for help. In shock, Montag voices his wonder about how he ended up in this situation. He

Ray Bradbury once stated, “I never consciously place symbolism in my writing. That would be a self-conscious exercise and self-consciousness is defeating to any creative act … During a lifetime, one saves up information which collects itself around centers in the mind; these automatically become symbols on a subliminal level and need only be summoned in the heat of writing.” (The Paris Review). Bradbury’s may not have consciously placed symbolism in Fahrenheit 451, but his use of symbolism throughout the story allows the reader to relate back to their most basic instincts, all while seeing a deeper meaning to what they are really looking at.

The chapter titles of the novel Fahrenheit 451 are significant in providing a foreshadow of the events that unfold within them. The first chapter, starting on the first page, is titled The Hearth and the Salamander. The word hearth is typically a home or a fireplace in a home, which is relevant to the woman that asked to be burned inside her own house with her banned books. Typically within a home, there is a fireplace in the living room where people sit and spend time with one another. Montag and his wife portray the irony in the this because they don't spend time together like normal married couples do. The 'salamander' represents a fireman, like the one Montag is.