FREE ESSAY ON FAHRENHEIT 451

FAHRENHEIT 451

Fahrenheit 451 is a futuristic novel, telling the story of a time where books and
independent thinking are outlawed. In a time so unenlightened, where those who want to
better themselves by thinking, are outlawed and killed. Books and ideas are destroyed,
books are incinerated, where as ideas thinking becomes a danger to society and is not
tolerated. Bradbury uses literary devices, such as symbolism, in which he portrays
thethoughts of man. The book recalls the effects of the Nazi's, and their destruction of
literature and text, in a new day and age. Symbolism is a key element to understanding
the book and its message of anti-censorship and common ignorance.
The Hearth and the Salamander, the title of part one. This example of symbolism suggests
two things having to do with fire, the hearth, a center of emotion and heat. Whereas a
salamander will embrace heat and fire to gain warmth. The salamander represents the main
character of Guy Montag. Montag's occupation as a fireman is to burn books and text to
erase their existence and impact on thinking. The symbol of a Phoenix is used throughout
the novel. The Phoenix was a mythical bird of ancient Arabian legend. The Phoenix
symbolizes the rebirth after destruction by fire. Firemen wear a crest of the Phoenix on
their uniforms. Montag, after realizing the truth of his job, opens his eyes and sees
that fire and destruction has indeed destroyed his newly gained ideals, he wishes to be
reborn. With his new ideas of knowledge, he goes to Faber with ideas to save the books,
and he hides books in his house. Montag even goes as far as stealing books from houses
that he is supposed to be destroying. Phoenix is reborn only to get burnt and destroyed,
again. Like the Phoenix, Guy's life is a cycle of getting burnt and rebirth, until one
time the away
Montag escapes and where Montag kills Capt. Beatty by igniting him with the liquid fire.
Fire, another example of symbolism, Fire has a dual image in the book, the obvious one,
destruction, and a symbol of warmth. For Montag, fire has been good to serve the purpose
of being a fireman. Fire is one of the only things Montag knows, and the only thing he
knows as a solution is to burn the problem. Capt. Beatty has taught Guy that fire is the
solution to everything, when in reality, fire destroyed books, homes, people, Capt.
Beatty, Montag's house, and in the end, it destroyed the city from which Montag barely
escaped. However, fire also symbolizes something else, warmth and hope. It is not until
the very end that Guy realizes that fire does not have to be destructive, it is a tool
which can have many uses. After meeting the other escapees, he is able to associate fire
with good. Sitting around a campfire while sharing ideas and reading helped open Montag
eyes. The campfire is no longer destruction, it is providing warmth for them. They are
memorizing the books, and passing them along by word of mouth, and then they are placing
the books in the campfire.
Symbolism added to the impact this book had. The symbols were usually descriptive of
something or somebody, such as the Phoenix, and the salamander. Destruction and the use
of fire came to be a symbol of both good and bad. Perhaps this novel, written in the
early 1950's, spoke out against the recent acts of the Nazis in WWII, to warn the future
of what man is capable of.
.
There was a silly damn bird called a Phoenix back before Christ, every few hundred years
he built a pyre and burnt himself up. He must have been first cousin to Man. But every
time he burnt himself, up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again.
And it looks like we're doing the same thing, over and over, but we've got one damn thing
the Phoenix never had. We know the damn silly thing we just did. We know all the damn
silly things we've done for a thousand years and as long as we know that and always have
it around where we can see it, some day we'll stop making goddamn funeral pyres and
jumping in the middle of them. We pick up a few more people that remember every
generation. Page 163.