Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is set in a dystopian society where fire is comforting and everything in the society has a grudge on itself. Guy Montag is a fireman, burning everything in his path. Each person Guy Montag comes in contact with will be set on fire by his actions. Bradbury uses fiery imagery to reinforce his idea that Montag’s disregard for conformity causes his whole world to be engulfed in an oppressive flame that he created by his ignorance of the world he lived in.
In the beginning of the book, his emotion about the world around him is that his world is fine. “It was a pleasure to burn.” (Bradbury 1) Since he felt that way, the world is fine around him. He met the new neighbor girl. Clarisse spoke with intelligence and asked him if he has read the books he burns. She also asks him if firemen ever put out fires instead of create them He laughed but she slowly was making him question his world. Once he returns home, he finds his wife, attempting to overdose on sleeping pills. His world begins to fall apart. The hound at the fire station knows Montag is slowly starting to think for himself. The hound growls at Montag and intimates Montag, trying to scare him back to conformity. He begins to question his survival. “I wouldn’t want to be its next victim.” (25) He starts to believe that he is in danger since he is guilty for talking to Clarisse. “I’ve tried to imagine just how it would feel if firemen came to burn our houses and our books” (31) Then he asks his boss, if firemen prevented fires rather than start them. This shifts the book into a fiery downward spiral,