Three Motifs In Fahrenheit 451, By Ray Bradbury

Fahrenheit 451 Essay

Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury is about how people cannot read books because they are banned. They live in a dystopian society where firemen do not put out fires, but instead they start them to burn the books. Here are three motifs that are very important to Fahrenheit 451. They are fire, being both alive and dead, and mirrors. In Fahrenheit 451 motifs symbolize something bigger than an object or an idea.

In Fahrenheit 451 fire symbolizes many things. From warmth and comfort, to destruction and chaos. Like when Captain Beatty said “Ten minutes after death a man's a speck of black dust”(57). This shows that people do not care anymore. All they want is to be happy, so they do not have to think about their dystopian society. he also talks about books and how they make people unhappy. Saying “Burn them all, burn everything.”Fire is bright and fire is clean”(57). Implying that fire will destroy anything and everything, leaving nothing behind.

Montag said this after he started to realise what kind of society he is living in. Where people walked, talked, and socialized. But didn’t think for themselves,like robots. Doing what is expected of them without asking questions like “why?” or “how?”. He started to notice that more people and things were both alive and dead. Like Mildred, the hound, and the black tube that replaced Mildred’s