Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Literary Analysis

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is an awakening novel about how society is against the law to possess any form of literature. In a time so unenlightened, where those who want to improved themselves by thinking, are outlawed and killed. In this novel the government tries to prevent knowledge of the past, since books promote questions that lead to war and rebellion. Bradbury uses literary devices, such as symbolism, in which he portrays the thoughts of man. Symbolism is key element to understand the book because the author expresses himself by using words that have meanings beyond a simple definition.

Clarisse McClellan represents the consciousness not corrupted by the government. She had the freedom of thinking, of feeling, of seeing things as they are with a transparent mind. Although she doesn’t stay in the story for long Montag seems to always remember her and relates her with things. For example, in Fahrenheit 451 it says, “But Clarisse’s favorite subject wasn’t herself. It was everyone else, and me. She was the first person in good many years I’ve really liked. She was the first person I can remember who looked straight at me as if I counted.”(page 68). She's the one who, without knowing, made Guy to start asking himself about the world he lives in. She didn't cope with the system, not even at school, as a reminder of being true to beliefs and ourselves. In a dysfunctional society blindfolded by the system, she's the one who can see.

The symbol of a Phoenix is used throughout the novel. The Phoenix symbolizes the rebirth after destruction by fire. “There was a silly damn bird called a Phoenix… he built a pyre and burned himself up… But every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again.” (page 156). Bradbury uses the phoenix to symbolize man because just as the phoenix destroys itself, man does likewise. Just as a phoenix burns and is reborn from it's ashes, humankind makes mistakes and falls, only to rise up out of the "ashes" and prosper again. 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".

Fire seems to mean a lot of different things at different moments in Fahrenheit 451. Beatty and his fireman minions use it to destroy. But the woman whose house they burn interprets it another way: "Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out." For her, it represents strength. Montag himself discovers an alternative use for fire at the end of the novel, when he realizes that it can warm instead of destroy. Like that whole cycle of life thing, fire has a constructive and destructive half.