Fahrenheit 451 Fire Analysis

Fire is also referenced throughout the book as a symbol of destruction, connecting to the theme of change, but when preventing change. When one thinks of fire, they think of destruction that is the meaning conveyed from the man-made fire in the book. The fire in the society is used to burn books but on another level, it is linked to the destructive ways of the society. When looking at the women in his society, Montag sees “these women twisting in their chairs under his gaze, lighting cigarettes, blowing smoke, touching their sun-fired hair and examining their blazing fingernails as if they had caught fire from his look. Their faces grew haunted with silence” (Bradbury 92). The fire represents how the ways of the society are killing its citizens,

When Mrs. Phelps and Mrs. Bowles came to Montag’s home, “Mildred ran from the parlor like a native fleeing an eruption of Vesuvius. Mrs. Phelps and Mrs. Bowles came through the front door and vanished into the volcano's mouth with martinis in their hands” (Bradbury 92). Volcanoes erupt spitting out magma and magma burns anything in its path, but on another level, if one goes back into the volcano, it is self-destruction. Ray Bradbury then uses this symbol to relate how the ways of a society causes the people’s actions to prevent change, a theme in the novel. Beatty explained why the society burned, the author’s way of explaining the symbol of fire for the reader stating that fire “destroys responsibility and consequences. A problem gets too burdensome, then into the furnace with it. Now, Montag, you're a burden. And fire will lift you off my shoulders, clean, quick, sure; nothing to rot later. Antibiotic, aesthetic, practical" (Bradbury 109). There are no problems or solutions in the society because they are removed instead of facing

Montag is now in nature and discovers natural fire which becomes a symbol of rebirth and connections. Before, Montag only knew of fire that destroyed things, but now, Montag is drawn towards fire and sees that the fire “was not burning; it was warming! He saw many hands held to its warmth, hands without arms, hidden in darkness. Above the hands, motionless faces that were only moved and tossed and flickered with firelight. He hadn't known fire could look this way. He had never thought in his life that it could give as well as take. Even its smell was different” (Bradbury 139). This fire gives new life and as well as connections for Montag is as well as sees people drawn towards the fire. On one side, fire gives warmth, but compared to the coldness and emptiness of the society, this fire represents everything missing from it and everything Montag has been striving for. This new fire also becomes a symbol of connections which is the very thing that Montag wanted so much, he rejected his society. People in the society were dissociated from each other and the world around them, compared to a place outside where people gather freely as the “fire grew larger in the early morning as the sun came up and the men slowly turned from looking up river and were drawn to the fire, awkwardly, with nothing to say, and the sun coloured the backs of their necks as they bent