What Does The Phoenix Symbolize In Fahrenheit 451

Which Came First: The Phoenix or the Flame?

With embers of coal coating its body, it emerges from the ash with a new form of youth and spirit. Arising, its wings swoosh as it sets out to explore the world, singing sad melodic chords as if telling a story. Merely years, minutes and seconds pass before it bursts into flame becoming one with the fire again. It’s a continuous cycle, so you might ask, “which came first: the Phoenix or the flame?” The concept of the Phoenix dates back to Ancient Greece, where they created it as a term to represent resurrection, rebirth, and life after death. However, in the book Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury takes the symbolism of the Phoenix and brings it to a whole new level. Fahrenheit 451 was written and published

In the novel, Guy Montag, the central character, meets a young girl named Clarisse. She is an inquisitive person who opens up the doors for Montag to take a deeper look into society. He starts to take notice of certain things and formulate questions in his head just like Clarisse. This then causes him to steal one of the books that he is supposed to burn for his job and read it. He starts to realize that society is not quite what he thought it was and that there are many things wrong with it, such as censorship. This leads him to a moral dilemma. Does he go back to the way things were before and pretend he never read what he did, or does he start an entirely different life and have to face the consequences? In this case, Montag decides he can’t go back to the way things were done before, however it is a struggle to get closure out of his new way of thinking and he does face many consequences such as having his house burned down. In the end, however, he ends up with new found knowledge and people who respect him and are like him. The Phoenix is represented in this section of the plot because the whole story of the Phoenix is how it starts out young and then grows older and older until it dies, only to be reborn with the ashes. The beginning stage of the Phoenix is represented by Montag before he began to question society, a young Montag. Next as he “grows older”, he begins to start reading

In the book Fahrenheit 451, one of its central focuses is Bradbury’s clear questioning of society which then plays a large role in the formulation of his fictional one. As mentioned several times throughout the story, the society that was in place at the beginning of the novel had not always been that way in history. It is clear that there were some key differences from the present and past society, such as much less technology (if any) and the allowance of all kinds of books. Bradbury never tells us exactly what happened to change the society prior to the book starting, however, characters such as Guy and Mildred (his wife) can’t seem to remember a time where it wasn’t like the way it is now. This is proven when Clarisse asks, “Is it true that at one point firefighters put out fires instead of starting them?” to which Montag replied “no” while appearing surprised that she would even suggest that. In this case, the cycle of the Phoenix is represented differently. The young phoenix is represented in the past society. Then, as it gets older and older, whatever conflict made it so that no more books could exist happens, causing the government, military, and society to call for the burning of books. In this case, the old society literally burned into flames and the new one literally emerged from the ashes. The burning of the books was the point at which