Fahrenheit 451 - Symbolism Essay -- essays research papers

Symbolism in Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury, perhaps one of the best-known science fiction, wrote the amazing novel Fahrenheit 451. The novel is about Guy Montag, a ‘fireman’ who produces fires instead of eliminating them in order to burn books (Watt 2). One night while he is walking home from work he meets a young girl who stirs up his thoughts and curiosities like no one has before. She tells him of a world where fireman put out fires instead of starting them and where people read books and think for themselves (Allen 1). At a bookhouse, a woman chooses to burn and die with her books and afterwards Montag begins to believe that there is something truly amazing in books, something so amazing that a woman would kill herself for (Allen 1). At this point in the story Guy begins to read and steal books to rebel against society (Watt 2). Montag meets a professor named Faber and they conspire together to steal books. Montag soon turns against the authorities and flees their deadly hunting party in a hasty, unpremeditated act of homicide, and escapes the country (Watt 2). The novel ends as Montag joins a group in the county where each person becomes and narrates a book but for some strange reason refuses to interpret it (Slusser 63). Symbolism is involved in many aspects of the story. In Fahrenheit 451Ray Bradbury employs various significant symbols through his distinct writing style. First, burning is an important symbol in the novel. The beginning of Fahrenheit 451 begins with, "it was a pleasure to burn. It was a pleasure to see things blackened and changed" (3). Burning rouses the "consequences of unharnessed technology and contemporary man’s contented refusal to acknowledge these consequences" (Watt 1). In these first two sentences he creates a sense of curiosity and irony because in the story change is something controlled and unwanted by the government and society, so it is very unlikely that anything in Guy Montag’s society could be changed. The burning described at this point represents the constructive energy that later leads to "apocalyptic catastrophe" which are the "polls" of the novel (Watt 1). At one instance, after Montag rebels, he tells Beatty something very important, "we never burned right†¦" (119). In his personal thoughts, Montag reminds himsel... ...thout arms, hidden with darkness" (145). In this group each person becomes a book and each narrates his book, but out of some unusual apprehension of the fatal intellect, refuses to interpret it (Slusser 63). Montag realizes a part of the future that "someday†¦it’ll come out of our hands and mouths†¦" (161). This quotation means that one day good will come out of thinking, talking, and especially doing (McGiveron 3). Through Bradbury’s imagery and symbolism of hands he seems to recommend that actions do in fact speak louder than words (McGiveron 3). In conclusion, symbolism is a greatly significant element in the novel. A symbol is something that stands for or represents something else. Fahrenheit 451 "probes in symbolic terms the puzzling, divisive nature of man as a creative/destructive creature" (Watt 1). A large number of symbols arising from fire emit various "illuminations on future and contemporary man" (Watt 2). The symbols in the novel add much insight and depth to the storyline. Ray Bradbury uses various consequential symbols such as fire, burning, the Mechanical Hound, and hands in Fahrenheit 451.