Symbol Analysis
As for symbols in the novel, the mechanical hound is a very strong one, representing the attitude of the society that Montag lived in. The hound was a machine designed designed to keep people in order, exactly what that society was trying to do. Both were very dangerous if gotten too involved with, and both used fear and harm as devices to keep people acting in ways that they were “supposed to.”
Montag’s society’s goal was to keep people uninformed and indifferent to what was going on around them, but they always had a back-up plan if something did happen. An example of this was when Montag was running away after he killed Beatty. The city sent their Hound after him, but Montag destroyed it with his flamethrower, thinking he would not have to deal with it anymore. However, when he gets to Faber’s house, Montag learns that there is another Hound looking. THis shows that this society is willing to do anything to destroy any problems that it may have with force, there is not time to fix things any other way before the rest of the public catches on the the real problem. The government is probably scared of what would happen if the public realized that they could actually think for themselves, and that they didn’t have to think the way that their “relatives” told them to think.
Quote Analysis
“A book is a loaded gun in the house next door.”
Beatty says this while he is explaining to Montag the history of firemen. He explains to Montag that books are dangerous and should be burnt, or else the whole society which had been built around this idea would crumble, and then everyone could use books as weapons. This speech Beatty gives, though, is very contradictory of his attitude towards books. He is so familiar with so much literature that he can quote it at will. Only people who are unfamiliar with literature (the general public, in this case) can not know how good it is, and how helpful and empowering it can be. Beatty knows this, though, and uses it to his advantage, gaining the rank of Captain within the fire department, having access to books himself, and torturing Montag and most likely other firefighters when they come to this point in their career and become curious about books. With this speech, Beatty tries to scare Montag into submission and make him conform to what their society’s standards for firefighters are. After this quote, Beatty goes on to ask, “who might be the target of a well-read man? Me?” This is another statement that he uses in order to scare Montag into thinking that books are bad; anyone, including him, a fireman, is susceptible to the dangers that books might bring.
Thoughts
I thought that Fahrenheit 451 was a very interesting novel, and Bradbury’s writing style kept me wanting to know what was going to happen next. I had never thought that I would enjoy science-fiction, but this novel changed my mind and made me want to read more of is. At first I was a little bit confused abut what was supposed to be happening, but the farther that I got into the book the better it became.
This book made me think about what would happen to our society if books became something to be feared. Would people today even let things get that far before someone about it? I don’s believe so, that are so many people today that stand up to say when they think something is wrong, no matter how trivial it may seem to let something that big go by them. Then there is the question of “is it already happening?” So many more people today watch t.v. and are on the computer more often than they are reading, but, then again, there are still many who believe in the power of a good book and who stand up for what they believe in.
