...Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury is a futuristic novel that incorporates symbolism to represent specific meanings which are in the novel. Bradbury's use of symbolism throughout the novel, makes the book moving and powerful by using symbolism to reinforce the ideas of anti-censorship. The title of the novel: Fahrenheit 451 is a symbol itself. If you break it down and understand the hidden meaning of it, readers can see why Bradbury decided this specific title for his book. Paper burns at 451 degrees Fahrenheit and as readers read the novel they will understand what the book is about and how the title represents it. The Hearth and the Salamander, the title of part one, is the second example of symbolism. The title suggests two things which have to do with fire. Hearth, which people would think of a fire place, can be represented by warmth and goodness. It shows how fire can be used for good and in a non-destructive way. As for Salamander, this can be defined as a small lizard type amphibian which in mythology is known to tolerate fire without getting burned by it. As readers get through part one, they can see how Bradbury uses the salamander as a symbolic meaning for Guy Montag. Guy Montag’s character can be portrayed as a salamander because he works with fire, tolerating its danger yet he continuously believes that he can escape the fire and survive, much like a salamander does. The third symbol which is demonstrated in the novel is the phoenix. A phoenix can be defined as:...
Words: 1028 - Pages: 5
...Ray Bradbury is a master of characterization techniques. He uses his expertise, such as indirect characterization, in the creation of Fahrenheit 451. In addition to learning about the explicit qualities of Bradbury’s characters, readers receive deeper insight as we carefully read his stories. In Fahrenheit 451, we learn more indirect information about the protagonist, Guy Montag, through the words used to introduce this character. We have a clear view of Montag’s thoughts and feelings that lead him into his own transformation. When the novel begins, we learn that Montag’s values are similar to that of the society he lives in. The culture in which Montag is accustomed to is one without cogitation or analysis. Their society believes that books cause pain and should not exist. Everyone in this society believes they live in a carefree, painless world beyond having burdens. In the first sentence of the novel, Montag shows how much he loves his work as a fireman: “It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed” (Bradbury 1). The job of a fireman in this society is to set fires, not to eradicate them. Houses that are revealed to contain books, by those who set off the alarms, are destroyed by firemen. Montag enjoys watching books wither and disintegrate in front of his eyes, but never thinks why he does it. His ideas begin to change when he walks home one evening and runs into a young woman named Clarisse McClellan, who lives on the same street as...
Words: 1147 - Pages: 5
...Charlene Henderson Professor Davis English 102 13 November 2014 Fahrenheit 451 and the Society of Americans Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451, illustrates a future that is remarkably similar to our current society. His science fiction novel tells the story of a community that relies on technology advancements to guide them in their everyday lives. His characters live in a fast passed society where they don’t read books, watch a lot of TV and drive very fast just like the people today. Bradbury does a nice job at predicting what the world would be like. We are always demanding more advanced machinery, and from the past, we have grown into a much more technological society. Lately, more and more people not only want more technology, they want it to be faster and faster. Faster computers, faster internet connections, better and faster cell phone connections, faster phones, and faster and more powerful cars, just to name a few. People don’t want to waste time anymore waiting for things to load even though they spend hours and hours doing meaningless things on their phones and computers. We want things done quicker without as much effort. We want things to take less to do them so we can have more for other things. Although Bradbury’s technology is more advanced than ours, we too are becoming a world consumed by technology advancements. Our society is similarly addicted to television and many people aren’t choosing to read for leisure anymore. Especially when TV...
Words: 780 - Pages: 4
...Fahrenheit 451 extra credit Fundamentals of communication 11- 09-15 Fahrenheit 451 1. Clarisse describes a past that Montag has never known: one with front porches, gardens, and rocking chairs. What do these items have in common, and how might their removal have encouraged Montag's repressive society? This was a very interesting scene that vividly depicted a picture with just a couple of simple words. The lines that she acted were superb. Clarisse sat out side during the dark when montage walked by and noticed that this girl figured out who he was before she saw him she announced that “I can smell the kerosene of you. So you must be a fireman! Not the ones that used to put fires out like in the past but ones that start them”. He responded with “well this is my job”. She then preceded and look up in the sky and wondered to herself and asked Montage if he ever noticed the green grass, aroma of the flowers, etc. She then abruptly said, “What about those cars? Do you think they ever look down and think about this stuff”? Do you think they even notice it? I mean these cars drive so fast that they even needed to make the billboards larger. She said. there use to be a time when they were only 25 feet long but now days they are a 100. She asks Montage, “Did you ever look down and notice this”? He replied “No not really”. The reason I depicted this scene is because it gives a lot of detail about the repressive society that is brainwashed to take pills, watch TV, and be anti-social...
Words: 1656 - Pages: 7
...Name Professor Class Date Fahrenheit 451 (word count: 1,426) The book “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury conveys to the reader that censorship and technology can be a tool used by governments to restrict human freedoms supported by endless access to knowledge and intimate relationships. The message of the book is that censorship and technologies, without limit, will erode the nature of human freedoms experienced in a society that values access to knowledge, books, and deep thinking. The world within Fahrenheit 451 can be characterized by a population controlled by media and extreme levels of knowledge censorship. The media is the tool employed by the government and embraced by most citizens as a means of steering the group aimlessly through life; vicariously living out any lingering ambitions and motivations towards non-conformity through the characters inside the television. In an effort to stifle creative thinking, spiritual growth, resistance, and the human tendency towards a general thirst for knowledge, the government has issued legislation that makes books illegal. Books are considered a social evil due to their inherent ability to encourage individuals to question existing frameworks and think for themselves. Therefore, the society in the book lives in a world where history does not exist and the reality is constructed and delivered through the television. The book’s protagonist, Montag, represents an individual that makes a transition from a...
Words: 1457 - Pages: 6
...Bradbury's novel, Fahrenheit 451, was written at the onset of the fifties as a call to the American people to reflect on how the dominant social values of their times were effecting both the lives of individual Americans and their government. Fahrenheit 451 attacks utopian government and focuses on society's foolishness of always being politically correct. (Mogen 113). According to Mogen, Fahrenheit 451 depicts a world in which the American Dream has turned into a nightmare because it has been superficially understood. (Mogen 107) In order to understand Bradley's social critique, it is essential to realize that he wrote Fahrenheit 451 in the wake of World War II and the early days of the Cold War, in a political climate that was increasingly favoring security over the civil liberties of individuals (Mogen 124, 114). Due to the Cold War, Americans continuously felt threatened by the idea of communism and the idea of hostility from communist countries (Mogen 115). Any association with communism would immediately ostracize an American politician (Mogen 115). In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury displays a futuristic utopian society where "the people did not read books, enjoy nature, spend time by themselves, think independently, or have meaningful conversations." (Mogen 111). About sixty years later, some would argue that our society has been guilty of similar downfalls. (Book Rags) The government in Fahrenheit 451 bans books because they do not appreciate the thoughts books created peoples...
Words: 1357 - Pages: 6
...The book “Fahrenheit 451″ by Ray Bradbury was about a fireman name Guy Montag. Montag does the opposite from what regular fireman do. He starts fires instead of putting them out. Books in Montag society is forbidden to read and if caught reading the book would be set on fire. Instead of reading, that society watches large amounts of television as big as the wall and listens to the radio attached to their ears. It was not normal for pedestraisn to talk and have meaningful conversations until Montag met a teenager name Clarisse. Clarisse was a strange girl that opened up Montag thoughts. She asked him about his work and what made him become a fireman. One question that really got him to think was the statement “Are you happy”(Bradbury 10). Montag believed that Clarisse was odd. She wasn’t like the norm of the society. She read books, walked the city like a pedestrain and, had meaningful conversations. After that encounter with Clarisse a number of events started to happen to him; his wife Mildred tried to commit sucide with perscription pills, a woman that hid books in her home decides to burn a live with her books, and Clarisse is killed in a car accident., With all these tragic events occuring, Montag tries to find a solution to this epidemic. The society has become controlled from power, a since of censorship. Bradbury has shown his viewpoint of society through this novel. Through this attempt, Bradbury got Readers views for Fahrenheit 451 qnd the meaning that goes...
Words: 654 - Pages: 3
...In Ray Bradbury's futuristic novel Fahrenheit 451, the protagonist, Guy Montag, is influenced by several characters. In this novel, the government does not want their citizens to think; therefore it is illegal to read books. At the beginning of the story Clarisse, Montag's neighbor, is walking with Montag and she asks him a very eccentric question. “Are you happy?” (10). As a result, Clarisse influences Montag in that he is not sure if he really is happy or not. Throughout the book, he is questioning himself. Soon, he realizes, “He was not happy. He was not happy. He said the words to himself” (12). This change occurs in Part One and continues on with him for the duration of the novel. In addition, Montag begins to question his role as a fireman and whether he, likes his job or not. Throughout this novel, Montag changes greatly. “Rain even tastes good” (21). Clarisse says that rain taste like wine. She wants Montag to taste the rain, but he refuses. Later, he tastes it when he is alone. This action symbolizes change or rebirth. The elderly woman also influences Montag to change. The elderly woman possesses books and was reported to authorities for it. The elderly woman makes Montag curious about why books are so astonishing. “The woman knelt among the books, touching the drenched (with kerosene) leather and cardboard, reading the gilt titles with her fingers while her eyes accused Montag. 'You can't ever have my books'” (38). The elderly woman did not want to leave her books...
Words: 332 - Pages: 2
...Fahrenheit 451-“ The temperature at which book paper catches fire, and burns” (title page). In Fahrenheit 451, science fiction author Ray Bradbury wrote a novel about censorship and about governments taking away the rights of citizens. In several ways, Bradbury’s theme seems to describe the circumstances Americans have been living in since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. In the novel, as well as in the film, Bradbury presents the reader with his viewpoints on censorship which provide a parallel perspective comparing how American citizens have lived prior to and after the 9/11 attacks. Bradbury’s novel begins with explicit details describing the burning of books. The opening is somewhat alarming because burning books is not what a normal person would consider to be the duty of a firefighter. The government has made it forbidden and unlawful to read books. As a reader, I could not help myself from thinking back to the times of Communism in the Soviet Union and Nazism in Hitler’s Germany. During the 1950s, in protest to Communism and Nazism, many of the same token books were being burned here in the US. In the film a symbolic relationship between black, evil, Communism, and death is painted by the firefighters jet-black hardened helmets and their jet black flameproof jackets. The color black seems to symbolize the coming of death. The firefighters wore all black uniforms and they rode on a very red box-like shaped vehicle filled with petrol. The red could symbolize...
Words: 1562 - Pages: 7
...Have you ever walked into a library and just sat there? The books in a library give off a feeling of comfort and safety. Their scent gives a sense of exciting mysteries, exotic places and extreme adventures. In all my fifteen years, I have only stepped on a plane once, but I have traveled the world over in my imagination. Through books, I have explored dark caves, deep oceans, and high mountains; experiencing thrills that most people will never experience. A book’s golden pages have the ability to take all who are willing to go to far away and forgotten places. I could not imagine a life without books, until one day I chanced upon a book written by a well known science fiction novelist, Ray Bradbury. He tells of a dark, miserable world. A world where firemen, no longer protect and put out fires, but burn the only treasure the world has left, books. People loathe books. Books are useless and empty. The few people that understand the importance of the books are either locked away by the firemen, or can’t understand anything that is written in the books that may have survived. In fact, Beatty, the fire chief, tells the main character this about books: “… I have read a few in my time, to know what I was about, and the books say nothing! Nothing you can teach about or believe. … You come away lost” (Bradbury 62). In this shadow of a world, people’s minds are constantly being numbed by meaningless commercials and television that lack plot, substance, and morals. The society replaces...
Words: 700 - Pages: 3
...Fahrenheit 451 Part 2: The Sieve and the Sand Ilana Oleynik 11. Montag’s society programs thoughts so completely that “firemen are rarely necessary”. The firemen are used for burning books, to make sure that no one in the society reads or owns them. The firemen aren’t really necessary because the society already doesn’t read books or seem to care about them. They are in the world of technology and don’t want to gain knowledge or have anything to do with learning new information or facing the real world. Montag’s society programs their thoughts to have fun and be care-free. Books are something they already naturally don’t want to read or think about. This is why the firemen aren’t really necessary. 12. The society’s wall-to-wall television has made the society forget about Christ. Television and technology has influenced the society incredibly. Since books are prohibited, people don’t read the Bible. They are shut out from religion and learning about God. Television has taken the society away from reality and the important things in life. The society seems to praise technology more than they praise God. 13. Montag is intrigued by the information in the books and wants to learn more about them, and is curious about what secrets they hold. Mildred knows the trouble that one can get into when seen with the book, so she wants to leave Montag and not be a part of his life. 14. Montag’s childhood memory of trying to fill a sieve with sand on the beach to get a dime from...
Words: 1194 - Pages: 5
...Symbols or the act of symbolism is when select things are used to represent another. For example, a fire could represent a passion or love. Green in the novel The Great Gatsby symbolizes the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. It represents Gatsby's deep love to Daisy and his American Dream. Another example of symbolism is spirit in Copper Sun. Spirit seems to be used as a description of the underlying essence of someone, something that gives an individual his or her purpose. Spirit is that everlasting quality of a person that can still be present even after the individual is dead. It can also be broken when a person is still alive. In the novel Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury uses symbols to display how something can be quickly overlooked as...
Words: 1100 - Pages: 5
...In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Guy Montag the protagonist, goes through many different challenges in a futuristic dystopian society. At the beginning, Montag never thinks or questions anything. He has a wife named Mildred, who spends all of her time watching television which she refers to as her “family”. One night he meets an odd girl named Clarisse. She introduces the past to him explaining that people actually read books and thought for themselves, instead of being hooked to technology.And that firemen put out fires instead of creating thmem. Therefore, this society relies so much on technology that literature is on the edge of extinction. This relates to our society, because every day more and more people are being exposed to technology. People are becoming so attached to their phones, iPads, computers, television ect. They are becoming more and more careless towards reality, emotionally detached and unstable in simple everyday situations. As a result, technology dictates this society. Especially television, in...
Words: 569 - Pages: 3
...We have everything to be happy but we’re not. We lack something more. In Fahrenheit 451, people aren’t happy, although they think they are. Ray Bradbury interprets happiness as knowledge. Knowledge being the key to happiness, is unfortunately censored in their society. In order for people to be truly happy they must have obtained quality information, leisure, and most importantly freedom. Quality of information in our society is the key to opening the doors to a happy life. Occasionally, society throws a web of lies at us. In Fahrenheit 451, the firemen are disposing of the knowledge, truth, and life by burning the books. Bradbury describes that quality information contains “texture”. Throughout the whole book, Montag is in search of finding quality information. Faber tells Montag that he isn’t interested in the books, he’s interested in the meaning, authenticity, and detail. The...
Words: 761 - Pages: 4
...In Fahrenheit 451, owning and reading books is illegal. Members of society focus only on entertainment, immediate gratification and speeding through life. If books are found, they are burned and their owner is arrested. If the owner refuses to abandon the books, as is the case with the Old Woman, he or she often dies, burning along with them. People with interests outside of technology and entertainment are viewed as strange, and possible threats. In the book, Bradbury doesn't give a clear explanation of why censorship has become so great in this futuristic society. Rather, the author alludes to a variety of causes. Fast cars, loud music, and massive advertisements create an over stimulated society without room for literature, self-reflection, or appreciation of nature. Bradbury gives the reader a brief description of how society slowly lost interest in books, first condensing them, then relying simply on titles, and finally forgetting about them all together. Bradbury also alludes to the idea that different "minority" groups were offended by certain types of literature. In his discussion with Montag, Beatty mentions dog lovers offended by books about cats, and cat lovers offended by books about dogs. The reader can only assume which minority groups Bradbury was truly referring to. Finally, in the Afterword to Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury clearly expresses his own sensitivity to attempts to restrict his writing. For example, he feels censored by letters suggesting he should...
Words: 260 - Pages: 2
