Significance Of Fire In Fahrenheit 451

At the beginning of the novel, Montag considers it a pleasure to burn due to the power it gave him. For Montag, burning was the only thing he knew, and to him the only way of life. Getting to be apart of the wonderful experience of helping your government made Montag feel important, being able to help out. It also let him have control over the fire, which all means for him burning is a good thing.
Faber means by this quote that the book is just a body that holds the real jewel of learning. The actual book is just something to display the information on, but what really matters it the actual content. In the story, this shows to be true since at the end, all of the men memorized the stories and the meanings behind them.
Both of the women were

very distressed over the idea of having illegal books in their presence and someone who was breaking the law along with them. Mrs. Phelps even goes on to tears due to her absolute shock of the law breaker before her.
When Captain Beatty dies, the men are at the fire when Beatty eggs on Montag, pressuring him to shoot him and end his life. Montag, already being angry, listens to his pleas and shoots him with the fire gun. Overall, it’s Beatty’s fault that he’s dead, since he was practically begging Montag to shoot. If a person didn’t want to die, they wouldn’t ask someone to shoot them, or end their life in anyway.
-One symbol from the novel is the phoenix. The phoenix represents redemption, and resurrection from troubled times. He shows the burning and the fall of the city, then he rises from the rubble to show how humanity will go on.
-Another symbol is the hound. The hound represents the totalitarianism government, and the absolute power it has over its people. The hound is a ruthless mutt, who can kill anyone in an instant, such as an overpowered government. The government, acting as a huge power in the story is very over controlling and uses things like the mutt to make the people live in fear, and display how much they actually control their lives.

The novel Fahrenheit 451, is a daring tale of rebellion and redemption, to fight for what’s right.

The major theme of the novel, being individuality goes along with the use of the symbol fire. Fire is a huge part of the novel, and acts as many different things throughout the story, and changes as it goes along. Individuality acting as the main theme in this novel, is emphasized by the use of the symbol fire, and acts as a very important piece to the novel.

One reason the symbolism of fire fits into the theme individuality is the use of censorship throughout the novel. The government uses fire as a censorship to people being individual and having a creative thought process. The government uses fire to burn books, and bans them from all people. Books have critical knowledge in them, and drive society as a whole to become better. Without learning materials, people wouldn’t be able to express themselves as freely as they choose. The government actually forces people to have a certain mindset by using fire as a censorship to all creativity. The novel states on page 38, “The books lay like great mounds of fishes left to dry. The men danced and slipped and fell over them. Titles glittered their golden eyes, falling, gone. “Kerosene!” They pumped the cold fluid from the numeraled 451 tanks strapped to their shoulders. They coated each book, they pumped rooms full of it.” This shows that books are a thing of wonder and importance, and the fire is something to dull the shine, and take

away people’s right to creativity. In this case, fire is being symbolized as bad, and something used to cover up the good, and take away people’s independence.

Secondly, individuality is stripped from the people of this town due the world that Montag lives in. It is a very fast paced world. In order to keep up pace, fire is used as something to get rid of unwanted things quick. In order to send a message to the people who choose to break the laws and rebel against the rules, the government uses fire to leave a lasting effect since fire is so dramatic, and easily disposes of things. In this case, books are what is being disposed of, and they are burned with fire to be quick and show the government means business. In the text on page 55, it says, “Speed up the film, Montag, quick. Click, Pic, Look, Eye, Now, Flick, Here, There, SWift, Pace, Up, Down, In, Out, Why, How, Who, What, Where, Eh?” The use of capital letters and italics emphasises time passing extremely quickly. Which is normal for the people who live in the town, but is way too fast for anything to get accomplished correctly. The use of fire fits into the fast paced life by acting as something to make everything ten times quicker, by making people’s lives easier by making sure burning the books is fast. This prevents people's individuality and creates a barrier in which they can’t stop and think, or enjoy time to read a book, but instead get it snatched away from them, and not let them do what they want, or stop for a little while and rest.

Finally, fire fits into the theme of individuality by finally letting people receive it at the end.

Fire gets a new meaning that helps support the idea of people being independent, and not fitting to the government's cookie cutter mold. The fire’s new meaning is rebellion and life. When the city is bombed and it all crumbles, fire is calming and sweet. Page 145 states, “The fire was gone, then back again, like a winking eye. He stopped, afraid he might blow the fire out with a single breath. But the fire was there and he approached warily, from a long way off. It took the better part of fifteen minutes before he drew very close indeed to it, and then he stood looking at it from cover. That small motion, the white and red color, a strange fire because it meant a different thing to him. It was not burning, it was warming.” The fire shows change in the world, and how good things can come from bad. Since the government has fell, and they were the ones controlling who can be what, all individuality is restored, and people are free to be who they so choose. Fire was once something to be fearful of, or something taking away people’s special qualities, is now something people can use to be inspired and reach for something more than what the government says they need to

be.

In conclusion, fire and individuality are very tied together throughout the novel, and end up helping one another tell the story. With the theme of independence and individuality, as well as fire being used as a symbol greatly impacts the story for the good.