Symbolism In 'Fahrenheit 451' By Ray Bradbury

The entirety of Ray Bradbury’s life revolved around literature. Ever since Bradbury was a child, he had possessed an affinity towards to writing. Bradbury’s writings were not purely influenced by his passion of literature, however. Growing up the author would’ve learned about the frail nature of books: the destruction of the Library of Alexandria, the Nazi’s book burnings, and Stalin’s “Great Purge”. Bradbury also witnessed the golden age of radio and its transition into the golden age of television, all of which Bradbury believed detracted from the beauty and knowledge that could be attained through a written medium. The American author worried about the fall of his beloved literate dreams. The seemingly imminent doom of literature struck fear into the American author’s heart. It is of no surprise, then, that Bradbury urged the importance of books for society. Under a layer of various devices, Bradbury debates to

Because fear is the fundamental origin of Bradbury’s argument, the author uses the same device as evidence of fear across all three books: symbolism. Once the most basic block of Bradbury’s argument is established (the existence of fear), the author will use more diverse devices to compliment his more diverse pieces of evidence. In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury uses symbolism of the Mechanical Hound to represent the idea of fear. The benevolent dogs utilized by firemen in our reality cannot be further from the Hounds used by the perverted firemen of Bradbury’s dystopian universe. The Mechanical Hound is a grotesque “beast” (11) with “eight incredible insect legs” (12), possessing “so many acids, so much Sulphur, so much…alkaline” (12) used to “[threaten]” (12) and punish in a manner that was as “silent as a drift of death itself” (62). Bradbury’s grim description of the Hound clearly indicates its intended usage as a symbol of