Fire In Fahrenheit 451
Fire can be used for many purposes, good or bad. It can heat and light up a room or it can completely destroy a room. In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, fire is used to destroy things; especially books. In their society reading books is against the law and anyone caught reading a book will get their house burned down with the books and all of their possessions inside. Fire is a recurring theme throughout the book. Bradbury uses fire as a symbol of destruction to demonstrate its power and how it can change things.
At the beginning of the book fire is used to destroy things. Firemen go around and set houses that contain books on fire. The firemen don’t see that there’s a problem with burning books. Many of the firemen, including Montag, thought …show more content…
He recalled it when when he glanced at the fire that cooked their breakfast. He recalled that the Phoenix would, ‘“build a pyre and burn himself up’” every couple hundred years and would be reborn (156). The Phoenix would do this over and over again. The Phoenix and the Harvard Degrees were very similar, except the Harvard Degrees knew, “‘the damn silly thing [they] just did”’ (156) They were able to remember all of the bad things that had happened in the past and wanted to keep on remembering them for the future. The Harvard degrees knew that eventually they will stop “‘build[ing] a pyre and burn[ing themselves] up”’ (156). He explained that as long as they realized that they were doing this, eventually they would stop doing the same, “‘damn silly things [they’ve] done for the past thousand years”’ (156). After Granger explained this to Montag, Montag saw that fire no longer only symbolized destruction. It now gave the Harvard Degrees new hope in their world.
Montag’s understanding of fire drastically changes throughout the novel. At first he didn’t understand the meaning of fire and how powerful it can be. Towards the end of the novel, he finally understood the true symbol of fire. He understood that fire is sometimes required to have anything change. Although fire can be destructive, when it’s used correctly it can change
At the beginning of the book fire is used to destroy things. Firemen go around and set houses that contain books on fire. The firemen don’t see that there’s a problem with burning books. Many of the firemen, including Montag, thought …show more content…
He recalled it when when he glanced at the fire that cooked their breakfast. He recalled that the Phoenix would, ‘“build a pyre and burn himself up’” every couple hundred years and would be reborn (156). The Phoenix would do this over and over again. The Phoenix and the Harvard Degrees were very similar, except the Harvard Degrees knew, “‘the damn silly thing [they] just did”’ (156) They were able to remember all of the bad things that had happened in the past and wanted to keep on remembering them for the future. The Harvard degrees knew that eventually they will stop “‘build[ing] a pyre and burn[ing themselves] up”’ (156). He explained that as long as they realized that they were doing this, eventually they would stop doing the same, “‘damn silly things [they’ve] done for the past thousand years”’ (156). After Granger explained this to Montag, Montag saw that fire no longer only symbolized destruction. It now gave the Harvard Degrees new hope in their world.
Montag’s understanding of fire drastically changes throughout the novel. At first he didn’t understand the meaning of fire and how powerful it can be. Towards the end of the novel, he finally understood the true symbol of fire. He understood that fire is sometimes required to have anything change. Although fire can be destructive, when it’s used correctly it can change