Allusions In Fahrenheit 451

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In the novel Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury alludes to Willam Blake’s “The Tiger” and the Book of Job to further explain how Montag’s gaining of experience and knowledge causes his actions throughout the novel. The first allusion that explains how Montag’s newfound familiarity of knowledge leads to his actions is the title of section 3 which is “Burning Bright” (107). This alludes to Willam Blake’s poem “The Tiger”, as the very first line of the poem is, “Tiger, Tiger, burning bright”. In the poem, the speaker questions the tiger as an animal, specifically questioning its creation and creator. Within this poem, Blake alludes to another one of his poems “The Lamb”. In line twenty of the poem it states, “Did he who made the lamb make thee?”. This …show more content…

These poems were published in separate anthologies, “The Lamb” being a part of the “Songs of Innocence” and “The Tiger” a part of “Songs of Experience”. This is significant because “The Lamb” is speaking from a state of innocence and doesn’t have much knowledge so it is being told about its creation and who its creator is. However, “The Tiger” speaks from a point of experience and they are questioning authority and its purposes so the poems directly contrast how one asks authority in a state of innocence and almost child-like wonder while the other questions authority along with the never ending question of why behind it. The reason Bradbury chooses to allude to “The Tiger” rather than “The Lamb” is because at this point in the book, Montag is like the speaker from “The Tiger” who is questioning authority and defying its laws. Montag keeps questioning the world around him because he has new understanding and exposure from the books and no longer understands the world surrounding him. Montag went from being a lamb of innocence in the beginning of the novel to a tiger burning bright with experience questioning the world he has come to accept his whole life that he is now choosing to rebel

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