Symbolism In Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 is a novel authored by Ray Bradbury. The author is able to express his thoughts on a totalitarian society through the science fiction novel. This can be seen from his choice of language and also the styles he employs to pass his message forth. In the novel the most prevalent style employed in developing the plot of the book is the use of symbolism. Symbolism as a style is the use of a person, an object or a situation by an author to represent something else in a work of literature. The symbols used have a much deeper meaning in the context of the full story. In Fahrenheit 451 we see a great deal of the use of symbolism as a major style in the book. Although the author has used many styles symbolism is the most common and together

The sand symbolizes the truth sought by Montag while the sieve symbolizes the human mind, which at times does not allow one to grasp the truth (Blackstone 27). In this act Montag together with his wife Mildred are reading books in order to gain knowledge. While they are reading the protagonist realizes that the wife does not understand anything and all she knows is that reading is an illegal act and one who breaks the rules should be punished. That makes him to leave his home and go to one professor he met who would be his

When the mechanical hound started hunting down Montag after he murdered captain Beatty. That was after their long discussion with the captain when he was telling him about the dangers of keeping books. The captain was referring to him indirectly, just until the alarm for the next place to destroy books emerged. The unfortunate thing was that this time it was the protagonist home. When they arrived Guy was surprised to see it was his home. When the captain wanted to destroy it he hesitated a bit where Montag murdered him (Buchanan 83). From then on he turned and became a criminal who started to be hunted down as he fled. He went and stayed at Professor Faber place until he realized the mechanical hound was catching up with him were he went and crossed the river and went to join the forest people. The river is the one that saves him from destruction thus the water serves as a positive