Symbolism Of Water In Fahrenheit 451

Water puts out fires. There are happy tears, and tears of sadness. The book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, mentions related two water such as rain and tears are used to represent individuality and juxtaposed the destruction that comes with fire.

Ray Bradbury uses water to symbolize individuality throughout the book. The first time we see this is when Montag first meets Clarisse Mcclellan, “He saw himself in her eyes, suspended in two shining drops of bright water, himself dark and tiny, in fine detail, the lines about his mouth, everything there as if her eyes were two miraculous bits of violet amber that might capture and hold him intact.” (5) Clarisse is a character who is always described as “crazy” or “different,” she does not conform to society's norms like Mildred.

This matters in relation to the book because the adjectives related to water are typically used when describing calmness, Clarisse, or individuality; something that is absent for most of Montag's life. The water is like a lifeline for Montag. When everything in his life is slowly burning and falling apart, the water puts it out.

In Fahrenheit 451, symbols involving water juxtapose the destruction symbolized by fire. “Behind him he heard the lawn-sprinkling system jump up, filling the dark air with rain that fell gently and then with a steady pour all about, washing on the sidewalks and draining into the alley. He carried a few drops of this rain with him on his face” (130). The sprinkler system is turned on to hide Montag's scent from the mechanical hound. The sprinklers and drops of rain juxtaposed the fire in the book by helping Montag escape the conformist society that he lived in, rather than keeping him trapped there. Water puts fires out, it doesn’t start them. Ray Bradbury's using water as a symbol in the