Fahrenheit 451 Literary Analysis Essay

Literary Analysis Essay
One theme demonstrated in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, is ignorance versus knowledge. It is a certain kind of knowledge that most people in this future-set world lack. Not the knowledge that is about facts and how well you retain them, but the knowledge that is awareness, consciousness, and realization of what is going on around and using it to good use. Knowledge has power. Guy Montag slowly starts gaining this intelligence throughout the book, and strives to find other people with the same knowledge. Ray Bradbury discusses this theme through many different forms of figurative language including symbolism, personification, imagery, and similes. Clarisse McClellan is one symbolic form on how knowledge can be beautiful and unforgettable. The imagery used to describe her is white, pure, and full of light in comparison to a world that is darkly lit. Similes are also used for the imagery to describe Clarisse and everyone else in this city. She was “bright as snow in the moonlight.” (Bradbury 11). As “people were torches blazing away until they whiffed out,” Clarisse’s “torch” took in its surroundings and showering its light all around “like a mirror.” (15).
Even their silences were even described as different. Clarisse’s being thoughtful while Montag’s being uncomfortable. (13). Like when a
Fire is a way to symbolize the destructive nature of ignorant people for in the hands of ignorant people fire is damaging and violent. At the beginning of the book, Montag is ignorant to the world he lives in. Personification is given to fire frequently in Fahrenheit 451, as the fire eating things or in a sense, destroying them. (7) Personification and imagery are used on the first page of Bradbury's book to describe how fast destruction can be caused when it is purposefully created. “The house jumped up in a gorging fire that burned the evening sky red and yellow and black. He strode in a swarm of fireflies.”