Themes and Symbols

Importance of Reflecting and Actively Engaging in Life

The novel deals with the importance of books as purveyors of knowledge. The author stresses on the role of books in inculcating a critical sensibility that helps in leading a purposeful life. In fact, this influences all spheres of life where collective dialogue, communitarian activities and contemplative walks promote an enlightened existence. Such activities were banned in Civilization. It is the involvement with these activities that highlights the differences between the unenthusiastic Mildred and the vivacious Clarissa.

Granger talks of the deep impression his grandfather leaves on his consciousness: “Grandfather’s been dead for all these years, but if you lifted my skull, by God, in the convolutions of my brain you’d find the big ridges of his thumbprints” (157). Montag introspects on his and Mildred’s contribution to society. He realizes that he participated in nothing but destruction, and Mildred led a vacuous existence.

Montag gave only ashes to the city. The contribution of the citizens was a naught. Granger said that each individual must contribute something. While some people build, others destroy. The world would be a better place if the destroyers had not existed. The accomplishments of the contributors stay for long.

Importance of Education

Autocratic regimes burn books in order to suppress the free spirit of their citizens. They cripple education and make the lives of people miserable because of their proclivity to war, repression and despotism. While they promise a dreamland, they end up creating hell on the Earth.

Fahrenheit 451 sees education as integral to thinking and rumination. Due to his personal experience, Bradbury did not regard formal education highly; instead, he stressed on the importance of observing nature along with reading books, analyzing their contents and deploying them in the upliftment of the self.

Technology as Durkheim’s Rationalism

A propensity for technology invariably brings with it a feeling of isolation, dissatisfaction, disillusionment with religion and indifference to the wonder and mystery of nature. Distinguished sociologists have identified overuse of technology as the cause for increasing alienation in humans.

The main theme of the novel is dispossession. The characters who are obsessed with technology are the insipid ones. For example, Mildred goes on merry rides on her beetle, communicates with the Seashell and has all the walls fitted with huge screens. Her interaction with fellow humans, even her husband, is laconic, and when she engages in it, it is matter-of-fact and banal.

In contrast, Faber and Granger have small television sets with them. It is noteworthy that as Montag becomes more contemplative, he also becomes more thoughtful and keeps technology away. This suggests that when humans utilize their intellectual capabilities, they are less reliant on technology.

It is to be noted that sociologists such as Durkheim opined that technology has a deleterious impact on humans. However, Bradbury’s critique is mainly targeted at television but extends to other gadgets too. He foresees the time when television would be disastrous. He thinks that he is already going through such an era.

The novel indicates that robots substitute the role of human effort and devalue the role of humans in society.

War makes the world a fearsome place where technology devalues humans. When robots are accorded greater significance, human lives become insignificant. For example, teenagers mow down people while driving their beetles.

War

Civilizations are destroyed by war. The mass extermination brought about by atom bombs–the creation of evil minds–reduces human beings to smithereens. Bradbury could correlate philistinism and technocracy with violence. He shows that indifference to knowledge leads to a blinkered and shallow understanding of the world. Technology curbs intellectual capability and creativity. Consequently, human bonding is displaced by war. Violence becomes a form of entertainment and makes people sadistic. The novel cautions us about the uncritical admiration of technology and mediocre entertainment. It establishes the relation between hedonism and war.

Symbols

The Television

The purpose behind Bradbury writing Fahrenheit 451 was to show the threat posed by television. Bradbury was concerned because people replaced actual engagement in real-life issues with television watching. Though the novel was seen as a work against censorship, it brought out the role vapidity in humans. The television is an important symbol in the novel, with the size of the screen being a commentary on the nature of their owners. For Mildred, the television encompasses all the three walls, highlighting her lack of engagement with humanity. The television for Mildred was like family, often being referred to names such as uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews and cousins. By including her first name, the “family” appeased Mildred, and it was more crucial to her life than her husband.

In contrast, for Faber, the screen shrunk to the size of a postcard. He explains: “I always wanted something very small, something I could walk to, something I could blot out with the palm of my hand, if necessary, and nothing that could shout me down, nothing monstrous big” (132-133). Similarly, the television was a simple gadget for Granger. The booklovers controlled the device and restricted it to its proper place, instead of allowing themselves to be dominated by it.

Beetle

The beetle was an instrument of pleasure and a symbol of prestige, just like the television. It could be driven only at 95 miles an hour. However, Mildred and others derived sadistic pleasure in driving it beyond the specified limit and counting the number of people they ran over. The lesser a human was engaged in thought, the faster they drove their beetle. The beetle represents emptiness in life and the impulse to dash through it. It focuses on material comfort to the detriment of hard work and contemplation. Clarissa was fatally knocked down by a beetle and Montag almost suffered the same fate. In both the instances, the beetles were driven by adolescents. Perhaps, the author is pointing at the relation of adolescence with immaturity, rashness and lack of contemplation.

Burning/Flames

Flames literally destroy things. They symbolize everything that stands in opposition to creation. In the novel, fire eliminates everything that is human. Civilization has degenerated and there is hopelessness all around. Those who choose books over other modes of pastime, such as television, are imprisoned or subjected to psychiatric therapy. Flames aptly depict all these aberrations.

However, flames are also shown as symbols of expiation and purging. After Civilization is burnt to ashes by the flames of the atom bomb, there is hope for a fresh, salubrious and peaceful world.

While the novel does not explain the contours of the future, it exemplifies the promise of a new world with the example of the phoenix. After flames reduce the phoenix to ashes, it rises up. This is also a lesson to humanity. “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, someday we’ll stop making the god damn funeral pyres and jumping into the middle of them” (59). Thus, the flames represent destruction of bad thoughts and the rise of a new consciousness in us.

Although the nature of flames is to burn, they also create a new opportunity. Flames destroy books, but the people around the campfire are bibliophiles who give hope to the next generation.

Robots

Machines have a predominant role in the novel. They are the quintessence of Civilization. They not only resuscitate Mildred when she takes an overdose of sedatives, but also inject more lifelessness into her. In the service of the fire department, they ferret out books and are used to transport firemen. The Seashell is the means of communication in the city. Entertainment is dished out on television screens as big as entire walls. The door heralds guests. Since humans have chosen to give up intellectual thought and reasoning, they have become zombies, bereft of emotions and contemplation. Machines aptly represent the deathly state of humans.

The River and the Forest

The wilderness of the forest gives shelter to members of the academia whom the Civilization considers fugitives. Montag is directed to cross the river and go along abandoned railroad tracks to reach a place away from the bustle of the city. The river and the forest are unharmed by human destruction. Montag had to cross the river and get into the forest to be rejuvenated.

Clarissa carries the spirit of greenery and calmness of the forest, personifying enthusiasm, guilelessness and warmth. She has an angelic and child-like disposition, unlike her peers. She transforms Montag into a compassionate and meditative person.

Clarissa’s nobility is in contrast to the self-centered and degenerated ambience around her. She initiates Montag to a journey of self-discovery. Montag’s journey attains its logical conclusion when he enters the forest to be with those who are similar to Clarissa.