Adi Malhotra
Mr. Garza
English I Honors
April 13, 2023
Literary Devices in Fahrenheit 451
“It was a pleasure to burn”(Bradbury 1). The burning of books and the burning of people’s individuality. Bradbury makes frequent use of figurative language such as similes and symbolism of paradoxes in the novel in order to show dangers of brainless pleasure and conformity in his dystopian society to warn us of dangers that might come to pass.
Ray Bradbury portrays the figurative language of similes throughout his novel Fahrenheit 451 to make sense and represent a lucid representation for his readers. The novel explores Montag's decisions, reactions, feelings, and thoughts to the society he lives in. Bradbury conveys similes to attract the reader and help them imagine Bradbury’s society to life. "How like a beautiful statue of ice it was, melting in the sun."(Bradbury 85). Montag is given an explanation by Faber of how society gradually lost interest in literature and reading books over time. The ice structure represents literature in society. When it melts, the structure loses its beauty like literature becoming forgotten. It represents society turning towards conformity and literature disappearing from Bradbury’s dystopian world and soon ours.
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Paradoxes symbolize to the reader how emotionless and mechanical existence is for the characters in the novel. They are a lot like machines because they exist, but don’t really display any feelings. An example of this is Clarisse’s death. Society stood by and let a young innocent and sweet girl die and didn’t even care or show any emotion or attention to her death, furthermore they rather supported it. A girl who was just curious with society and refused to conform to its norms. As Beatty states “The poor girl’s better off dead”(Bradbury