Symbolism In Fahrenheit 451

The Inaugural Flame Throughout the novel, Fahrenheit 451, the protagonist experiences the most enlivening and vitalizing journey in pursuit of a happiness known as a foreign concept to the citizens in the futuristic, totalitarian society. For the duration of the novel, the common themes comprise of government censorship and the restriction of intellectual freedoms (Patai 42). The protagonist, Guy Montag, is a fireman who had his life completely unraveled with one girl that went by the name of Clarisse McClellan. In the novel, Fahrenheit 451, due to her feminine presence, Clarisse sparked Montag’s curiosity about life. Conversely, others oppose whether or not the status of Clarisse’s gender acts as a dominating cause to his growing aversion

Evidently this appears in the beginning of the novel. Smolla represents this truth when he says, “A young girl whom Montag meets on his way home from work one evening, Clarisse McClellan, also spurs much of his self-doubt” (Smolla 897). Opened up from Clarisse’s introduction into Montag’s life are the occurrences that take place in the novel leading until the end. The way she unnerves Montag with her questions set the inaugural flame to the keg of his adventure that ended with the city in ash. She acts as a mirror to show the society and Montag, himself. Evidently, Bradbury wrote, “How like a mirror…her face. Impossible; for how many people did you know who refracted your own light to you?...How rarely did other people’s faces take of you and throw back to you your own expression, your own innermost trembling thought?” (Bradbury 11). McGiveron supports this when he says, “Clarisse is a mirror because she is mirrorlike in her informing. She “talks[s] about how strange the world is” and “she has no clear direction the way a mirror does not” and “she has no ideological agenda” (McGiveron 284). Unmistakably, the intention for Clarisse’s role in the novel is to be a mirror reflection of Montag and the society that refracts back onto himself. In fact, Clarisse is one of the first characters to be introduced, showing a heavy motivation toward Montag’s actions as the novel progresses.

According to Patai, “crucial themes of censorship, book burning, and the baleful effects of television – appear most forcefully in the novel” (Patai 42). Before the novel is able to delve deep into the core themes and messages of the novel, the protagonist must come to realize that there is a deep issue with the society that he has been accustomed to living through in a blinded perspective. Montag has to first discover and accept that there much exists an issue in the world that he had taken so much comfort in living and then go on a journey to seek the truth. Once the fireman is able to remove the figurative blindfold from his eyes he is able to sift through the illusions that contrast heavily with the truth he has misjudged and dismissed throughout his life for the sake of passivity. His obedience steadily begins to wane as he begins to learn things that he had never dreamt to imagine. From the start of the novel, there is one person that made him very speculative toward the nature of what he was doubtlessly familiar as with his life. This person, Clarisse McClellan, is able to tug at the ties on his disillusionment in a way no other has been able to before him. The question is whether or not her femininity affected his capability to see the world as he never seen before. There is very much