Symbolism Of War In Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

“It was a pleasure to burn.” Ray Bradbury, the author of Fahrenheit 451, uses the symbols war, phoenix, and hearth to show the theme, “Knowledge is both joyful and painful”, throughout the story. In Fahrenheit 451 they live in a futuristic society where all books are banned. Due to all books being banned, to keep the people in line they have firefighters who burn the books reported. This causes people to break the rules and go behind the governments back because they don’t trust them. Bradbury uses symbolism to represent the dystopian society and how banning books can bring joy and pain to the readers. One of these symbols is war. War can represent how the actual war going on relates to the inner war in Montag’s head. In part one Montag

In part three it says, “ He touched it, just to be sure it was real. He waded in and stripped in darkness to the skin, splashed his body, arms, legs, and head with raw liquor; drank it and snuffed some up his nose. Then he dressed in Faber’s old clothes and shoes. He tossed his own clothing into the river and watched it swept away. Then, holding the suitcase, he walked out in the river until there was no bottom and he swept away in the dark”(Bradbury 133). A phoenix represents Montag washing off his past and becoming a new person in a way. In the past Montag’s knowledge became a pain to everyone around him because they feared him. This caused big problems for him within the society which is why he needed to be rebirthed as new. In this case, knowledge brought joy to Montag but pain to everyone else within the

Hearth represents the heart of the home. Knowledge became Montag’s home and when everything went wrong it was the only thing he had left. Which raises a question, is knowledge worth risking everything for? To Montag it is. It’s the one thing that brings him life in a world full of people walking around like zombies. Knowledge is Montag’s home. In part three it says, “ He burnt the bedroom walls and the cosmetic chest because he wanted to change everything, the chairs, the tables, and in the dining room the silver ware and the plastic dishes, everything that showed that he had lived here in this empty house with a strange woman who would forget him tomorrow, who had gone a quite forgotten him already listening to her Seashell Radio pour in on her and in on her as she rode across town, alone”(Bradbury 110). Montag sees how empty this house truly was and how empty and lonely he felt living there without the ability to learn anything. The society was filled with zombies who didn't know anything and his house was the worst. His so called wife didn’t truly love him, to her he wasn’t even there he was just a ghost in existence. Knowledge and books became Montag’s home when he had nothing left. His wife was gone, Clarisse was gone, his house was gone, and most of all his identity was gone. If he had a choice, would he do it all again? Is knowledge too painful to