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How Does Bradbury Use Symbols In Fahrenheit 451

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Symbolism in Farenheight 451 by Ray Bradbury

Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury is a futuristic novel, taking the reader to a time where books and thinking are outlawed. In a time so dreadful where those who want to better themselves by thinking, and by reading are outlaws as well. Books and ideas are burned, books are burned physically, whereas ideas are burned from the mind. Bradbury uses literary devices, such as symbolism, but it is the idea he wants to convey that makes this novel so devastating. Bradbury warns us of what may happen if we stop expressing our ideas, and we let people take away our books, and thoughts. Bradbury notices what has been going on in the world, with regards to censorship, and McCarthyism in America. That is …show more content…

As part of his "rebirth", he goes to Faber with ideas to save the books, and he hides books in his house. Montag even goes as far as stealing books from houses that he is supposed to be destroying. But a Phoenix is "reborn" only to get burnt and destroyed, again. Guy's life is a cycle of getting burnt, then coming alive once again, then being burnt, until one time the Phoenix survives and flies away (where Montag goes to the
"escapee" camp), or the Phoenix dies in the flames, never to be reborn again (where Montag kills Capt. Beatty by igniting him with the liquid fire). At the end of the book, Granger makes reference to the Phoenix once more by talking about the city going up in flames in the bomb blast."There was a silly damn bird called a Phoenix back before Christ, every few hundred years he built a pyre and burnt himself up. He must have been first cousin to Man. But every time he burnt himself, up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again. And it looks like we're doing the same thing, over and over, but we've got one damn thing the Phoenix never had. We know the damn silly thing we just did. We know all the damn silly things we've done for a thousand years and as long as we know that and always have it around where we can see it, some day we'll stop making goddamn funeral pyres and jumping in the middle of them. We pick up a few more people that remember every generation."

Fire is another great example

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