F451 - Symbols

There are quite a few symbols within Fahrenheit 451.  One that sticks out to me, almost as a recurring theme, is fire.  It has a few symbols representing it.  Essentially it is fire that is laced through out the body of this novel, tying it all together as one piece.  It is the fire that destroys lives, physically and mentally.  Guy Montag starts these fires, burning the literature right out of people's hands.  The Hearth and the Salamander are both symbols of this fire.  The hearth known basically as a fireplace within the home may be a symbol of the fires Montag is starting within the hearts of the people around him.  Although they do not know it, these people are being stripped of their important emotions that control personality and they are being burned.  All the explanations that cause great deep thought within the mind are now ash.  The salamander is a symbol for fire as well.  The salamander is what the firetruck is nicknamed.  This is the match to the fire.

"The sight of it rushed the men out and down away from the house. Captain Beatty, keeping his dignity, backed slowly through the front door, his pink face burnt and shiny from a thousand fires and night excitements. God, thought Montag, how true! Always at night the alarm comes. Never by day! Is it because the fire is prettier by night? More spectacle, a better show?(Bradbury 39)" This quotation shows how much fire is an intriguing point within the novel.  Like a train wreck, no one can keep their eyes off the burning of the human personality.  It is like these people are watching the death of their own souls with their own two eyes.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine, 2003. Print.