preview

Symbolism In Fahrenheit 451

Decent Essays

Imagine living a life where everything stayed the same – nobody ever learned anything, and everyone acted the same way day in and day out. Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 is set in a futuristic time where knowledge and thinking is outlawed. The novel represents a time so dreadful where those who wanted to better themselves by learning are outlaws as well. Books are burned physically by the firemen and valuable ideas are burned from the mind. In this case, Guy Montag who is the protagonist of the novel, believes that he is satisfied with his life. An inquisitive teenage girl named Clarisse comes into Montag’s life and shows him all the important details that he is missing– one example being happiness. Throughout the novel Montag realizes that he is not enjoying his life and decides to take action. He is determined to find the true meaning of life and put an end to destroying valuable knowledge and thinking. Ray Bradbury uses the symbol of fire to demonstrate the ever-changing meaning of purification, destruction, and balance to reveal that everything in life has a light and dark side. The symbol of fire is used to highlight purification. The very first sentence of the book creates millions of questions in the readers’ minds. Readers do not know what is being burned and by who. The biggest question that comes into readers minds is: Why is burning something a pleasure? The narrator starts off the book with, “It was a pleasure to burn. It was a pleasure to see things

Get Access