Theme of Fahrenheit 451

Andres Rosas
August 7, 2014
English III B Unit 10
The theme of duality in “Fahrenheit 451” The book “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury is an extremely powerful novel. It speaks volumes about the nature of human society, and how it behaves under the circumstances of a bleak dystopia. In achieving this, Bradbury pushes the theme of duality via the specific instances of Montag, the destruction of the city, and the Phoenix. He does this so he can illustrate clearly the duality of how creation can be derived even in the wake of utter destruction. Guy Montag is the anti-hero of the story; he is a Fireman in the dystopian city, whose job is to burn books. Montag’s initial destructive nature is made apparent by the fact that he took great pleasure in burning books. Even from the beginning of the book, when the first thing written is “It was a pleasure to burn”, the nature of Montag is made very obvious. The duality of this circumstance arises when, after Montag witnesses an old lady commit suicide to protect her books, he begins to steal and hide books. He does this because he seeks answers, answers to questions like why people like the old lady do what they do, and why depression overwhelms and haunts him. Montag’s creative nature in stealing books is made even more obvious when it is explained in the novel, via the quote “So it was the hand that started it all”, that he takes the books subconsciously, without even thinking about it. Montag’s initial love for burning books, but later love for hiding them, clearly illustrates the duality of creation arising from destruction. Moving on, another instance within the novel that illustrates the duality of creation coming from destruction is when the city is destroyed in the Great War by bomber jets. Throughout the novel, it is mentioned here and there that jets fly over the city often, hinting at a coming war. This fact eventually manifests itself when, at the end of the novel, the city is finally destroyed by bombers jets. At this point in time, Montag is not in the city, he’s with a group of homeless intellectuals and scholars who have made it their goal in life to preserve books for when humanity will one day, need them again. Right after the city is destroyed in a great explosion, the group deems that it is time to return to society. In the quote, “We’ll have a bite. Then we’ll turn around and walk upstream. They’ll need us that way.” it is made apparent that the group plans to return to the city to help the survivors rebuild society. The duality here is that even in the wake of destruction, not only from the war, but also from the toxic nature of society that initially cast these homeless intellectuals out, the group still deems it necessary to go back and help them rebuild, proliferating the idea of creation coming from destruction. The final instance in the novel that serves to aid the progression of the theme of duality in the book is a bit more blatant. This instance takes places when Montag is exchanging dialogue with the leader of the group of intellectuals, Granger. In their talk, Granger goes into depth about the nature of the Phoenix. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the Phoenix was a mythological bird that roamed the deserts of Egypt and at the end of its life, killed itself in a great blaze, but was reborn in the ashes. Granger explains all this to Montag, and muses about how the Phoenix served as a good symbol for the entire ordeal they had to face. He explains how humanity has time and time again, destroyed itself in great blazes. This time the blaze was a great war. He then goes on to say that despite this self-destructive nature; humanity is reborn every time in the ashes, emerging stronger. This final discussion between Montag and Granger at the end of the book, drives home the duality of how creation can emerge from destruction, and shoves it into the face of the reader, in case they missed the two aforementioned instances during their reading. In conclusion it can be deduced that in the novel “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury, the theme of duality is pressed, but more specifically it is pressed how even in the face of utter destruction, creation can be derived and proliferated. It is also obvious, from simple deduction, that the author, Bradbury, achieves in properly and powerfully illustrating the aforementioned theme only because he managed to correctly use the character Montag, the event of the city being destroyed, and the idea of the mythological Phoenix.