Preview

Theme Of Symbolism In Fahrenheit 451

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1386 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Theme Of Symbolism In Fahrenheit 451
“A Song of Pages and Fire”

In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, symbolism is used all throughout the story.
Not only is it the title of Part 1 of the story, but they are also the two most important symbols used by Bradbury: The Hearth and the Salamander. Each of these symbols have a significant relation to fire. The hearth symbolizes a fireplace, providing comfort and warmth to those around. While the Salamander symbolizes the firemen because it is the official symbol for the firemen and is also the name they give to their fire trucks. The juxtaposition of both symbols in the title suggests a conflict between Montag’s work and home personalities.

The hearth and the salamander can represent a multitude of ideas. Mentioned earlier,
…show more content…
Not far into the book, Montag meets Clarisse McClellan, a 17 year old free thinker who ponders the world around her. Clarisse’s odd personality and thoughts eventually gets Montag to start thinking about the world he lives in and causes him to question the reality of the emotionless world where he lives. She ‘awakened’ him, and he is now becoming part of the 3

“solution” for Montag and those who think like him. Montag and the others who have been awakened to the truth wish to take action, they no longer accept the reality imposed on them by the government, along with others who are scared to question society and why things are the way they are. Clarisse is responsible for sparking the change in Montag and she unknowingly sets him on a course that Montag does not want to abandon because it makes him feel alive and he is motivated to cause a change in the community.

Clarisse helped Montag realize that society is wrong, she makes him start to think about things he never would have imagined, Montag starts exploring and questioning things.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    He never even thought to mention or think about it until he met Clarisse. Most people in this time prefers to watch tv or have a good time. Clarisse is a very knowledgable 17 year old girl who is interested in other things beyond what the society around her is interested in, or being forced and limited to. She draws Montag into the life she has lived and became so interested in. Montag starts to genuinely become interested in the things that she are saying and starts to question and also wonder what is really going on around him. After the burning of a woman’s books, house, and also herself, he decides to see for himself. After realizing that everyone is on edge about him confiscating the book from the woman’s house, he then realizes that its not only the decreasing use of books in the society that is the issue but the content that they hold. A content that could possibly change lives band change how they…

    • 859 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To Begin with, Montag in the beginning of the book was a good citizen for many reasons, he loved his job and was obedient worker. I have found many reasons why he is an obedient worker, It was a pleasure to burn books. He did what society wanted him to do. Thats where he went wrong. You don’t always have to act the same as everyone else. Society wants people to stop thinking for himself, that's why they are taking away books so they can not think for himself. The society is acting melancholy, nobody care about the citizen, When Clarice tried to commit suicides they…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    With Clarisse, Montag can see the problems of the society in Mildred, and the comforting natural world in Clarisse. The contrasting characters show that humans need to take a break from the artificial world, or they will lose their humanity. It takes both Mildred and Clarisse inspire a change in Montag’s views on…

    • 495 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When Montag meets Clarisse he realizes there is something different about her. Clarisse's personality is something Montag has never seen before. After going on a walk with Clarisse, Montag has many thoughts. On page 9 it says, “ What incredible power of identification the girl had; she was like the eager watcher of a marionette show, anticipating each flicker of an eyelid, each gesture of his hand, each flick of a finger, the moment before it began. How long had they walked together? Three minutes? Five? Yet how large that time seemed now. How immense a figure she was on the stage before him; what a shadow she threw on the wall with her slender body!” Montag thinks this in his head when he gets home from the walk with Clarisse. This is the very beginning of Montag’s realization that there is more to life than what his society is telling him.…

    • 509 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Clarisse spread the seed of curiosity inside Montag’s heart. She affected his ability to trust and obey; just like the snake within the book of genesis. Her question small and innocence radiating within Guy’s soul; was he happy? At last once those words were spoken the wheels in Guy’s head turn. Even Montag himself didn’t realized it; he let Clarisse change him inside out. He sought knowledge and what it meant to be "happy". Clarisse could be seem as the Prometheus and Montag humanity as a whole. Lost without fire to guide his way out of the darkness, She was the flame that make him realized that the world they live in had lost the real meaning of knowledge, love, and what meant to be…

    • 831 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fahrenheit 451 Themes

    • 667 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Both, the novel, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and the poem, “Do not go gentle into that good night” by Dylan Thomas discuss the topic of fighting for what one believes. In Fahrenheit 451, we see Montag challenge the society and fight for his beliefs in knowledge and books. While in “Do not go gentle into that good night”, the author challenges the belief of dying without a fight. In essence, both works highlight the theme of challenging the inevitable, rather than accepting fate.…

    • 667 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fahrenheit 451 Analysis

    • 669 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, the main character, Guy Montag, has many different shifts in attitude and thinking. Montag goes from being a mindless, government-operated drone, to a self-sustaining, enlightened thinker. In the beginning of Fahrenheit 451, we are introduced to Montag, a fireman who makes fires instead of putting them out. He sees burning as a pleasure, and he hates books. However, once he meets Clarisse McClellan, his mind begins to blossom like a flower. Therefore, Montag’s ideological progression truly started when he met Clarisse.…

    • 669 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fahrenheit 451 is a novel based on the role of burning books in order to eliminate their dissenting ideas. Guy Montag is a fireman who burns houses containing books, rather than putting fires out. In his community, laws are enforced to prevent folks from thinking. These rules try to hide the reality that the government is controlling people, as well as the faults in the world. The novel begins with the quote, "If they give you ruled paper, write the other way," from Juan Ramon Jimenez. I believe the quote reflects how you shouldn’t follow principles just because a society tell you to do so, instead, you must march to the beat of your own drum.…

    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    So he contacted an old man he met awhile ago that he suspected of storing books in his house which would be illegal. The old man ended up being a retired English professor named Faber who gave his three things that are missing in their society. The first reason he gave to Montag he stated books “...show the pores in the face of life”, and that statement shows that people don’t like literature because shows the bad qualities of humans (Bradbury 83). The second reason is that people can be convinced of something because they don’t have the “leisure to digest it”, or time to think of something deeply so they believe the first thing that is said is true (Bradbury 85). The last reason was “the right to carry out actions based on what we learn from the interaction of the first two” (Bradbury 85). All of these missing things can make people believe the world is a perfect place and everyone is happy. Life needs imperfection, and if we think we know everything we would believe everything is just…

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ray Bradbury puts motifs to represent and show the audience hints for what is going to happen.…

    • 344 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Beatty’s death gave Montag a new way of life by forcing him to understand what he has done. That it is a harsh world and it is either burned or be burned (125). Upon this realization Montag is on the run, fighting for his life. “Yes, he thought, where am I running?” (124). The Montag before is gone and a new Montag is born. Now, there is a Montag who cares, a Montag who sees the truth in the lies, a Montag who is on a mission to repair society.…

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fahrenheit 451: Symbols

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages

    From the firemen’s perspective, fire symbolizes destruction and power. “With his symbolic helmet numbered 451 on his stolid head, and his eyes all orange flame with the thought of what came next, he flicked the igniter and the house jumped up in a gorging fire that burned the evening sky red and yellow and black” (3). In this passage, fire symbolizes the great power the firemen have and the damaging nature of fire; they ruthlessly burn down houses and even do it in a joking manner as in continues on to say that he wanted to “shove a marshmallow on a stick in the furnace” (3). Another evidence of the destructive nature of fire is portrayed in the scene where the woman decides to die rather than live without books (40). The fire not only burned books and houses, but it also caused the death of people like Beatty. “And then he was a shrieking blaze, a jumping, sprawling gibbering manikin, no longer human or known, all writhing flame on the lawn as Montag shot one continuous pulse of liquid fire on him” (119). In my opinion, this passage best depicts the devastating power of fire because it describes how the fire changed Beatty into something “no longer human”.…

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In life there are many things that people are willing to give up in order to help others or maybe even yourself. The giving up of something of value or someone is identified as a sacrifice. Giving up possessions or even your life is extremely unfathomable, but in throughout Fahrenheit 451 Montag makes it seem extremely facile. When you find something that is of greater value to you than what you already have, then it would make it easier to sacrifice. Montag, in this novel, find the value of books and reading materials to be of more value than his life, in others words he sacrifices his life for books.…

    • 722 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Fahrenheit 451 Themes

    • 299 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the short article “The Future Of 'Short Attention Span Theater” it talks about how…

    • 299 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Montag vs preston

    • 603 Words
    • 2 Pages

    After Montag and Clarisse are walking together, Montag "tilted his head back in the rain, for just a few moments, and opened his mouth"(24). Clarisse's unique personality intrigued him and after meeting her, he began trying new things. In this situation Montag copies what Clarisse previously did to see what it would be like. He is now beginning to think for himself instead of blindly following the government and living his life unhappily. Similarly, when Preston is interrogating Mary, she asks him "why are you alive?" He begins to understand he has a duty and was put on Earth for a reason, and it is not to serve the government. The main reason he was put on Earth is to feel, otherwise he is not really alive. He now understands that anything without feeling is not really anything at all so he takes Mary's advice. Preston and Montag would still be the same people if they had not met Mary…

    • 603 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics