Fahrenheit 451 Comparative Analysis

Both “By the Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benet and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury are different tales, by different authors, of different genres, but they share a lot more than they seem. While there are some differences between the characters of the book, Guy Montag and John, are apparent on their journey to Enlightenment, the similarities are stunning. In both stories each journey are very similar yet very different, from the figure that sets them on their journey to even the journey itself, and finally how they share their new-found knowledge with those around them. While their plots share some differences in some parts and similarities the similarities can be obvious and not as obvious.
Fahrenheit 451 and “By the waters of Babylon”

At the beginning of Fahrenheit 451 Guy living in a civilization that has a government that ruined its society by controlling almost every aspect of their lives. The following quotes, “For another of those impossible instants the city stood, rebuild, and unrecognizable...a top for a bottom, a side for a back, and then the city rolled over and fell down dead”(160), “He could feel the Hound...It carried its silence with it, so you could feel the silence building up a pressure behind you all across town. Montag felt the pressure rising, and ran”(137),”He tossed his own clothing into the river and watched it swept away. Then, holding the suitcase, he walked out in the river until there was no bottom and he was swept away in the dark”(139), show Guy on his way to enlightenment when he has to escape from the city that is later bombed, evade the mechanical hound and has to leave the city by river. While in “By the Waters of Babylon” John goes on his own journey. In the quotes,“E-yah! I have come to the great river. No man has come there before. It is forbidden to go east, but I have gone, forbidden to go on the great river, but I am there”(179), “When I had reached the god-road, I saw that there were others behind him. I had just found a door I could open when the dogs decided to rush. Ha! They were surprised when I shut the door in their faces.”(181),”Everywhere in it there are god-roads, though most are cracked and broken. Everywhere there are the ruins of the high towers of the gods.”(179). The quotes explain that on his path to enlightenment John overcomes living in a primitive society after the bombs destroyed his country years before, crossing a river to reach his destination and escaping the hungry dogs guarding the city. While both Montag and John cross rivers for different reasons, the river symbolizes how they are both being transformed and reborn with their knowledge.