Through the novel Fahrenheit 451 the legendary bird of fire known as the Phoenix, not only symbolizes the main character Guy Montag but the entire book. The legend of the Phoenix is that when it is time for it to die it bursts into flames and from its ashes it is reborn. Guy through the novel begins to realize the problems with society and himself and is finally “reborn” as a new character. Bradbury later seems to describe world history as new civilizations and powers are born from the ashes of the old ones. Bradbury used this symbol to portray is understanding of the world and its problems. The phoenix is used to symbolize Guy Montag and how his old life is reborn after the destruction of his old life at his own hand. Montag before he meets Clarisse doesn’t show much interest in reading and didn’t even bother to think ever was he happy. As the story progresses thanks to Clarisse, Montag begins to realize the problems with society and begins to wonder about books. He also begins to try to handle thoughts as he could not earlier in the book. He begins thinking about taking walks and sitting in the rain. This leads Montag to call a man he met in the park who seemed interested in reading poems and had a book on his person. During his discussion with Faber he begins to really question society and the value of books. Through these thoughts he is eventually busted for reading books as his fire squad is called to his house. He discovers his wife and her friends were the ones that sounded the alarm. His fire captain Beatty makes him burn down his house. Later Montag is forced to burn Beatty out of fear that Faber would be caught. Thus Montags old life with his house, his wife and his job literally go up in flames and his life is reborn just as a phoenix. Bradbury even states this when he narrates “He was moving from an unreality that was frightening into a reality that was unreal because it was new”. However Bradbury also seems to feel that throughout history new civilizations are
A World Without Books Fahrenheit 451 is a science fiction novel written by Ray Bradbury in the 1950s. Fahrenheit 451 takes place in the future where all books are banned. Guy Montag is a fireman who, instead of putting out fires, burns any house which contains books. Ray Bradbury's purpose for writing Fahrenheit 451 is to show how television and other forms of media make people less interested in information. This causes people to become mindless and not have ideas of their own. Bradbury uses…
Commentary This passage would be inserted after the line “He listened and his wife was singing under her breath”. In this passage, the distance between Montag and Mildred is captured to break down, showing the progression of their relationship. The first line instantly presents Mildred as her formerly uncaring and distant self as she purposefully “turned away from Montag” at a time of need and support. The lack of dialect between the couple is significant throughout the novel, as in previous conversations…
practicing their religion or any number of other things. Unfortunately the difficulties of our First Amendment rights are not so limited. There are just as many intangible dangers which influence our freedom then the obvious. For the purposes of this essay I will be limiting the discussion to that of the medias influence. Though it is often overlooked, perhaps because of it being a staple of our lives, the effect of media should not be underestimated. The manipulation of the media is broad in its occurrence…