Symbols In Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

Fahrenheit 451

“Each generation wants new symbols, new people, new names. They want to divorce themselves from their predecessors.” Jim Morrison. In Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 the futuristic community has made new symbols that represent actions that have destroyed the society. In this community reading books is against the law. Since Montag has starting reading books and is curious to know the meaning of them, he realizes what is happening to their society, Faber, Montag’s friend, has as well. Although some people such as Mildred, Montag’s wife, are ignorant of what is happening around them. Other people, such as Beatty, Montag’s boss, know what is going on but prevent and hide it from the others. In Fahrenheit 451, three symbols:

Mildred betrays Montag by telling Beatty that he has been reading books. Captain Beatty comes to Montag’s house and is going to make him burn his house down. Secretly, Montag is communicating with Faber through a special earpiece. Faber is trying to give Montag advice on how to get out of the situation but it is no use. Faber says, “ Montag, can’t you run, get away! No! cried Montag helplessly. The Hound! Because of the Hound! ” (110). The people in this city are scared of the Mechanical Hound because if they disobey the law and start reading books they will be hunted down and killed. This destroys the society because then people will never go against the rules and nobody will read books and then all of them will be burned and the facts will be lost. What Montag means by he cannot get away is that if he runs the Hound will hunt him down and kill him with his poisonous needle. There are very few people that have taken the risk to disobey but by doing this they read the books and absorb the information. Although many people are too afraid to take that risk, the Mechanical Hound destroys the society by having so much control over it that people will just obey all the rules and will not question them. This next scene shows another example. When Montag burns Beatty, escapes from the Mechanical Hound and runs away from the police, he goes to Faber’s house for safety. They were both curious about how far the police have come with the search. The TV set said, “ ¬–Mechanical Hound never fails. Never since its first use in tracking quarry has this incredible invention made a mistake. ” (126). The Mechanical Hound represents everything cruel about the government. Instead of dealing with crimes by bringing the people to trial, they hunt them down and kill them. The Mechanical Hound is programmed by the government to kill a citizen if it senses that the person has done something