Fire In Fahrenheit 451 Essay

1376 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay on fire in farenheit 451

It starts small. It grows large. It dies out. It rekindles. It grows large. It dies out. It rekindles. It grows small. It dies out. It is over. The phases of fire depend on who is caring for it. Is someone looking over it? Is someone adding logs or leaves when it is dying out? Is it rekindled with a match? Fire is in the hands of the beholder. One can control how he or she handles fire. Fire can do a number of things. It can demolish everything known to man. It can give warmth. It can give light. It can purify. In a society in which fire is an essential to man, the interpretations of it may vary. Fire can be seen as a destruction method that benefits society and generally makes people happier. Fire can be seen as a destruction method that ruins society and takes away people’s knowledge and happiness. Fire can be seen as a method of renewal and purification of the past. The main protagonist, Guy Montag, in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, is a dynamic character whose understanding of fire drastically changes throughout the novel.
A model citizen in the dystopian society Bradbury constructed is molded to view fire in a specific way. The public is led to believe that books must be forbidden to prevent quandaries. Eliminating books from the society leaves the community with an emptiness of knowledge and happiness. Fire allows the government to get rid of all the books. The firemen annihilate the hidden or leftover prohibited books. As a loyal fireman, Guy Montag takes pride in his ability to burn books as a living. The beginning of the novel focuses around Montag as a strong supporter of the conflagration of books. Montag has yet to notice the detrimental effects the burning of books is ultimately having on society. To Montag, “It was...

... middle of paper ...

... is running smoothly, and that the burning of books is perfectly acceptable. Towards the middle of the book, Clarisse makes Montag question his beliefs about society. He finally sees what a model citizen is, and decides not to be one. Professor Faber pushes Montag away from being a fireman. In the end of the novel, Granger shows fire in a way Montag has never seen. Fire is seen as both a chance to destroy and renew. Granger introduces the Phoenix and its similarities to the society. He explains how the society constantly is making the same mistakes just like the Phoenix did. Granger, full of hope, makes the decision to rebuild the city. All of Granger’s views influence Montag greatly. Guy Montag’s understanding of fire changes dramatically throughout the novel from it being a destructive element of society to it being a chance of hope and a new, non-regulated life.

Show More
Related

  • Fahrenheit 451

    515 Words  | 2 Pages

    Montag, a fireman who ignites books into glowing embers that fall into ashes as black as night. In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury expresses a message in which society has opened their doors to mass devastation. Guy Montag, a “fireman”, burns houses that have anything to do with books instead putting fires out like the job of a real firemen. In Montag’s society, books are considered taboo, and owning books can lead to dire consequences. Ray Bradbury portrays a society in which humans have suffered a loss of self, humanity, and a powerful control from the government resulting in a fraudulent society.

    Read More

  • Symbolism In Fahrenheit 451, By Ray Bradbury

    721 Words  | 2 Pages

    His job as a fireman is not the usual one. He is to find out of anyone in the community that has a book of any kind, a copy, anything and when they are found they must burn the house to the ground. By this time, at the end of the novel, Montag has fled the town in fear of getting killed. The town was going downhill fast.

    Read More

  • Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury

    1080 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by author Ray Bradbury we are taken into a place of the future where books have become outlawed, technology is at its prime, life is fast, and human interaction is scarce. The novel is seen through the eyes of middle aged man Guy Montag. A firefighter, Ray Bradbury portrays the common firefighter as a personal who creates the fire rather than extinguishing them in order to accomplish the complete annihilation of books. Throughout the book we get to understand that Montag is a fire hungry man that takes pleasure in the destruction of books. It’s not until interacting with three individuals that open Montag’s eyes helping him realize the errors of his ways. Leading Montag to change his opinion about books, and more over to a new direction in life with a mission to preserve and bring back the life once sought out in books. These three individual characters Clarisse McClellan, Faber, and Granger transformed Montag through the methods of questioning, revealing, and teaching.

    Read More

  • Fahrenheit 451 Analysis

    857 Words  | 2 Pages

    To start, the novel Fahrenheit 451 describes the fictional futuristic world in which our main protagonist, Guy Montag, resides. Montag is a fireman, but not your typical fireman. In fact, the firemen we see in our society are the ones, who risk their lives trying to extinguish fires; however, in the novel firemen are not such individuals, what our society thinks of firemen is unheard of by the citizens of this futuristic American country. Instead, firemen burn books. They erase the knowledge of the world.

    Read More

  • The Significance of Technology Depicted in Bradbury's Novel, Fahrenheit 451

    1219 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ray Bradbury's novel, Fahrenheit 451, is based in a futuristic time where technology rules our everyday lives and books are viewed as a bad thing because it brews free thought. Although today’s technological advances haven’t caught up with Bradbury’s F451, there is a very real danger that society might end up relying on technology at the price of intellectual development. Fahrenheit 451 is based in a futuristic time period and takes place in a large American City on the Eastern Coast. The futuristic world in which Bradbury describes is chilling, a future where all known books are burned by so called "firemen." Our main character in Fahrenheit 451 is a fireman known as Guy Montag, he has the visual characteristics of the average fireman, he is tall and dark-haired, but there is one thing which separates him from the rest of his colleagues. He secretly loves books.

    Read More

  • Comparing Lois Lowry’s The Giver and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451

    2199 Words  | 5 Pages

    His job is to start houses on fire that contain books. Guy loved his job until he came across a professor who told him of a future where people could think. Suddenly, he realizes there is something he needs to do. Both Jonas and Montag live in highly disciplined societies that depend on an effective means of enforcing rules by acts of punishment. The conflict between the power of the individual and the power structures of the communities suggests that radical, yet positive social change may be possible through courageous acts of resistance.

    Read More

  • A Burning Intellect in Fahrenheit 451

    1202 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the 1950 novel Fahrenheit 451, AUTHOR Ray Bradbury presents the now familiar images of mind controlING worlds. People now live in a world where they are blinded from the truth of the present and the past. The novel is set in the, perhaps near, future where the world is AT war, and firemen set fires instead of putting them out. Books and written knowledge ARE banned from the people, and it is the firemen's job to burn books. Firemen are the policemen of THE FUTURE. Some people have rebelled by hiding books, but have not been very successful. Most people have conformed to THE FUTURE world. Guy Montag, a fireman, is a part of the majority who have conformed. BUT throughout the novel Montag goes through a transformation,  where he changes from a Conformist to a Revolutionary.

    Read More

  • The Meaning of Fire in Fahrenheit 451by Ray Bradbury

    900 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many times there are numerous meanings of a single thing, and Ray Bradbury effectively demonstrates the different implications of fire through the progression of Montag’s thinking. From the start Montag just knows the damaging force of fire, yet gradually comes to comprehend that fire can be comforting and reviving. It is this advancement of believing that helps Montag in turning into an individual and breaking the obligations of his mindless society. As addressed by Bradbury, while fire can result in death and devastation, the warmth, hope and solace of flame supports and replenishes through the ages, and the same fire that controlled Montag in the recent past, will now aid him in making a new city assembled from knowledge.

    Read More

  • Dystopian Society In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451

    874 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ray Bradbury introduces in his novel, Fahrenheit 451 (1953), a dystopian society manipulated by the government through the use of censored television and the outlaw of books. During the opening paragraph, Bradbury presents protagonist Guy Montag, a fireman whose job is to burn books, and the society he lives in; an indifferent population with a extreme dependence on technology. In Bradbury’s novel, the government has relied on their society’s ignorance to gain political control. Throughout the novel, Bradbury uses characters such as Mildred, Clarisse, and Captain Beatty to show the relationships Montag has, as well as, the types of people in the society he lives in. Through symbolism and imagery, the audience is able to see how utterly unhappy Clarisse, as well as Faber and Granger, represent the more thoughtful minority population.

    Read More

  • Duality in Fahrenheit 451

    456 Words  | 1 Pages

    There are many dualisms in the outside world of Fahrenheit 451. For example, Montag receives contrasting lectures from Faber and Beatty on what to do with the books and how to be. Beatty and Faber are like black and white: total opposites no matter how you look at it. This "flip-side of a coin" clearly compares the book burner to the book reader, the hatred to the love, and it also gives the reader the opportunity to "choose" their side. In addition, the fire is used to burn houses and books, to destroy possessions; it also is used by the outcast men to cook their meal, warm themselves, and provide light for them. The fire has, in itself, two conflicting sides which includes destruction and preservation. The fire gives Montag as well as the reader the understanding that one thing can have both good qualities and bad qualities at the same time, and that many powers can be spoiled if used for negative intentions.

    Read More

  • How Clarice Influenced Montag in Fahrenheit 451

    814 Words  | 2 Pages

    Guy Montag is a fireman who is greatly influenced in Ray Bradbury's novel, Fahrenheit 451. The job of a fireman in this futuristic society is to burn down houses with books in them. Montag has always enjoyed his job, that is until Clarisse McClellan comes along. Clarisse is seventeen and crazy. At least, this is what her uncle, whom she gets many of her ideas about the world from, describes her as. Clarisse and Montag befriend each other quickly, and Clarisse's impact on Montag is enormous. Clarisse comes into Montag's life, and immediately begins to question his relationship with his wife, his career, and his happiness. Also, Clarisse shows Montag how to appreciate the simple things in life. She teaches him to care about other people and their feelings. By the end of the novel, we can see that Montag is forever changed by Clarisse.

    Read More

  • Complacency In Fahrenheit 451 Essay

    782 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the beginning of the book, Guy Montag never once thought of what his job really entailed or why he was burning houses and books down. Until one night, he met a girl named Clarice; the girl who changed everything. She might not have been in the book long but her character was essential. Clarice was the start of Montag slowly realizing what it exactly is that his job is making him do. “ ‘Do you mind if I ask? How long’ve you worked at being a fireman?’ ‘Since I was twenty, ten years ago.’ ‘Do you ever read any of the books you burn?’ He laughed. ‘That’s

    Read More

  • What Are The Flaws Of Society In Fahrenheit 451

    749 Words  | 2 Pages

    Fire is one of the primary symbols in Fahrenheit 451, as it represents destruction of ideas. People do not like books, they want to be happy, and not have to think.People in Montag's society are ignorant about the content of books and therefore casually burn them. However, Montag comes to the realization that books could leading to destruction. Montag expresses to Mildred “ And I thought about books. And for the first time I realized that a man was

    Read More

  • Symbolism in Fahrenheit 451

    1011 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first role that fire plays in Fahrenheit 451 is apparent from the very beginning of Bradbury's novel. "IT WAS A PLEASURE TO BURN. It was a pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed" (3). In these first two sentences, Bradbury 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 catastrophe. A clear picture of firemen is first seen when the narrator says, "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). Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which books burn and is symbolically written on the firemen’s helmets, tanks, and in the firestation.

    Read More

  • Meaning of Fire in "Fahrenheit 451"

    774 Words  | 2 Pages

    Fire represents change in the novel because fire allows Montag to undergo a symbolic change in which he stops using fire to burn knowledge but instead help him find it. Guy uses fire to change by burning his house and Captain Beatty. This is demonstrated when Montag said, “We never burned right...” (119) This quote exemplifies that now, in setting the Captain on fire, he was using the fire equipment for a sound and valid purpose, the right reason to burn, to purify and get rid of that which was poisoning the society, starting with Captain Beatty. Also He burns his own house and then turns his flamethrower on Captain Beatty, killing him. Montag then makes his escape from the city and finds the book people, who give him refuge from the firemen and Mechanical Hound that is searching for him. The burning of his house and his Captain as well as the fire trucks symbolizes Montag's transformation from a mechanical drone that follows orders, to a thinking, feeling, emotional person, who has now broken the law and will be hunted as a criminal. He is an enemy of the state once he turns his back on the social order and burns his bridges, so to speak, he is set free, purified and must run fo...

    Read More

More about Fire In Fahrenheit 451 Essay

Open Document