Symbolism Of Books In Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

What if there was a world where books are outlawed and are burned on site, but someone gets the chance to take one? It's been so long though to know the purpose of books were used for before? What significance do they have to be curious about them? Well, that is what Guy Montag, a fireman tasked to burn those books, will try to figure out. Ray Bradbury, the author of Fahrenheit 451, uses books to be symbolic of knowledge in an ignorant world, and that idea of books develops through the eyes of Montag. There are three main phases that the idea of books goes through in the story: books hold nothing, books hold the answers, and books hold a danger. At the beginning of the story, books are meaningless to people, and are burned with amusement.

Montag tells his thoughts to his wife Mildred, “‘She was the first person in a good many years I’ve really liked. She was the first person I can remember who looked straight at me as if I counted.’ He lifted two books. ‘These men have been dead for a long time, but I know their words point, one way or another to Clarisse’”(Bradbury 68). Clarisse’s sudden death has Montag erratically looking for answer to “find” Clarisse. In actually, Montag is subcutaneously looking for a way to change how he sees things like the way Clarisse did. She was more knowledgeable about the world, and wondered how ignorant people worked. When he further looked into his emotions, he found the true goal of his searching, “‘I don't know. We have everything we needed to be happy, but we aren't happy. Something’s missing. I looked around. The only thing I positively knew was gone what's the books I’d burned in ten or twelve years. So I thought books might help’”(Bradbury 78). Montag has realized that he is not happy with his life, and his only rational thought is that books have the happiness he needs. Books usually always hold a second meaning to them, the message or lesson they teach people. That is what Montag is looking for, the

Beatty tells Montag how they do this, “‘You can't build a house without nails and wood. If you don't want a house built, hide nails and wood. If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give them two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none.Let him forget there is such a thing as war. If the government is inefficient, top-heavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that people worry over it. Peace, Montag’”(Bradbury 58). Hiding the knowledge make them able to create the world ignorant and oblivious to the world’s problem. They want to make people have an easy life, but fail to see, in the long run, how this could affect their future. The book's climax revolves around consequences of having them could lead to. Montag gets caught by Beatty with his books and spouts out to him how much of an idiot he is, “‘Alone, hell! She chewed around you, didn't she? One of those damn do-gooders with their shocked, holier-than-thou silences, their one talent making others feel guilty. God damn, they rise like the midnight sun to sweat you in your bed!’”(Bradbury 108). Beatty is talking about how Clarisse and her questions made Montag feel guilty about his life. It is true that Montag feels much regret for his life choices, but that is the price for knowing and seeing more. Though it gives the right of freedom for people to have their own