Symbolism In Fahrenheit 451

Imagine a society where the firemen start fires instead of putting them out, where your television surrounds you on all four sides, or where schools have screens instead of teachers. This is the fantasy that Guy Montag has spent his whole life living in. In Guy Montag’s world, things are moving non-stop, the cars, the technology, and the people. “It’s perpetual motion; the thing man wanted to invent but never did” (page 115). In Ray Bradbury’s book, Fahrenheit 451, perpetual motion is an important theme.

Fire is one example of perpetual motion. A flame is constantly moving, which is both a positive and negative commodity in the story. On one hand, we have the firemen who rely on the constant motion of a flame, to burn their history. On the other hand, we have the people who are cowering away from the fire, praying that the flame will die before consuming their books and homes. Fire is a symbol that connects many details of the story, but most importantly, it symbolizes the highs and lows of perpetual motion and what it represents for both parties.

Technology is an extremely important part of Montag’s society.

Everyone is so absorbed in their four-walled televisions or their speeding cars, tuning out the outside world in the process. Montag’s wife, Mildred, is so absorbed in her TV that she scarcely even notices her own husband. The technology of Fahrenheit 451 is an example of perpetual motion because the gears are constantly turning, the earbuds are constantly drowning out and to Mildred it has always been this way. In some ways the technology is a good thing, masking the unhappiness that most of the people in Montag’s world feel, but in other ways the technology is harming these people by cutting off their relationships, communication and

emotions.
History is a constant cycle of good and bad, that humans repeat persistently. It is this cycle that is referred to at the end of the book when Granger, a man who was part of the minority of intellectuals, speaks of a Phoenix. Granger compares their society to a Phoenix that burns itself up and then emerges from the ashes. “There was a silly damn bird called a phoenix back before Christ, every few hundred years he built a pyre and burnt himself up. He must have been first cousin to Man. But every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again” (page 163).
Perpetual motion is an important theme in Fahrenheit 451 because it reveals that there is more than just one side to the story.