"It was a pleasure to burn." In Fahrenheit 451, author Ray Bradbury opens his novel with a menacing declaration of satisfaction and enjoyment from main character, Guy Montag. While burning books as an isolated event may seem like an arbitrary act of relative indecency, this passage introduces the fact that a worldwide book ban and burning is not only a harmful deed, but a direct attack on the preservation of history. The baleful tone is conveyed through the metaphor of the hose spewing kerosene being a python; it is also revealed through his dark diction such as the use of the words "blackened," "pounded," "venomous," "blazing," and "ruins." He also utilizes a shift in imagery, which is displayed in the contrast between him seeing "things