Le Renaissance Of The Phoenix
...of the Phoenix
Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 speaks of a futuristic, dystopian, and not-to-similar society, in this society, a fireman named Montag, whose occupation is to remove illegal and deviating' contraband (books in this context) from society's eyes, is dragged into a series of unforeseen, unfortunate yet life changing, life-changing yet socially destructive and powerful yet so insignificant events. The complex implication of this story is the conflict between knowledge/individuality and ignorance/conformity reflects tomorrow's possible future. However, the implication does not just stop there; it speaks the way for humanity's ignorance to be reborn, like a phoenix. Bradbury's ingenious methods of embedding specific symbols and circumstances allow many readers to comprehend the closeness of Bradbury's dystopian society and the society in which people [we] live. Bradbury uses symbols such as blood, the sieve and sand and the phoenix to describe the cyclic nature of humanity to fall into spiritual death and be reborn unto knowledge (individuality) and truth. Furthermore, he uses circumstances such as Montag's conversations with Clarisse or Faber to further the idea of ignorance versus knowledge. Finally, Bradbury underlines the topic of indifference throughout the story, which mirrors ignorance and knowledge.
In the beginning, Montag is like everyone in this society except he has a specific job. His job is to burn books and contraband. He never questions the society he lived in; he loved his job. To him, "it was a pleasure to burn" (part 1, page 3) books, he believed it was something "special to see [a book] eaten" (part 1, page 3) However, his life is reversed when he meets an eccentric (by society's definition of eccentric) girl named Clarisse. A free spirit characterizes Clarisse. She, by standards is naïve and ignorant' because she sees...
View Full Essay
