Okay I had three quotes that I had marked in Fahrenheit 451 that I didn't talk about in my question responses, but they are really cool/interesting/possible symbolism, so I will make the quotes there own post. First quote really isn't a quote, its the whole page. Clarisse and Montag are chatting on page 8 and many weird and wonderful things are said. First is the firefighters' official slogan of "Monday burn Millay, Wednesday Whitman, Friday Faulkner, burn 'em to ashes, then burn the ashes." (Bradbury 8) That was funny. The irony is that firefighters should try to save the burning books, not burn them twice over. The slogan is missing four days and when I has initially read the book I came up with a list of authors that could be paired with days. Sunday Shakespeare, Tuesday Twain, Thursday Thoreau, Saturday Stevenson. Other alternatives are Shelley, Sophocles, Stoker, Swift, and Tolkien. Personally I would have picked Melville for Monday and Flemming for another choice for Friday, but that is just my opinion. The other quote from that page comes from when Montag laughed after Clarisse had asked if it was true that, "long ago firemen used to put fires out instead of going to start them? ... and they need firemen to stop the flames?"(Bradbury 8). The quote showed how brainwashed he is. He didn't even think about what Clarisse had said, just laughed on instinct. Clarisse is right, but Montag has been drilled into thinking that firemen have always burned book and is closed minded and can't even imagine the possibility of firemen putting out fires.
Beatty said in a rant to Montag, "Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal" (Bradbury 58). In this futuristic America at least they have something right. Everyone should be equal, no matter who they are, where they're from, or what they did (oohhh man, bringing the Backstreet Boys to the English blogs), or what they look like. I know that I took this out of context as the censorship thing made everyone equal as there wasn't any media that made a group look bad, but as a stand alone quote everyone should be equal, if they are "made" then in the long run its okay since they have the same rights as everyone else.
The last thing is something that bothers me. I am sure it is some sort of symbol, but nothing that I could think of. All the cars mentioned in Fahrenheit 451 are Beetles! The police have "glittering beetle cars" (Bradbury 36), Mildred drives a Beetle (Bradbury 64), Beatty drives a yellow beetle (Bradbury 63), Mildred got a "beetle-taxi" (Bradbury 114) to take her from her soon to be burned house, Montag almost got hit by a Beetle (Bradbury 128) after running by a gas station full of Beetles (Bradbury 126). Why are all the cars Beetles? Also Montag has a "black beetle-colored helmet" (Bradbury 4). What's up with all the beetle references? There has to be a hidden or symbolic meaning in that! Or I could just be paranoid...
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine, 2003. Print.
You're not paranoid. Bradbury repeatedly uses insectoid imagery to describe technology. He does this to reinforce his belief that technology can have a dehumanizing effect on people. Think about it for a moment. Everyone in the society of Fahrenheit 451 is plugged into a constant buzzing of information from their thimble-wasp earpieces. They recklessly scuttle about in their beetle cars at insane speeds with little regard for other people's lives and the world around them. The undead, eight-legged hound is the murderous enforcer of of society's status quo. Describing these things as insects is only logical since insects are about as far from familiar human traits as one can get in the animal kingdom. Insects are alien in appearance. There is no warmth or empathy to them.
ReplyDeleteYou're not paranoid. Bradbury repeatedly uses insectoid imagery to describe technology. He does this to reinforce his belief that technology can have a dehumanizing effect on people. Think about it for a moment. Everyone in the society of Fahrenheit 451 is plugged into a constant buzzing of information from their thimble-wasp earpieces. They recklessly scuttle about in their beetle cars at insane speeds with little regard for other people's lives and the world around them. The undead, eight-legged hound is the murderous enforcer of of society's status quo. Describing these things as insects is only logical since insects are about as far from familiar human traits as one can get in the animal kingdom. Insects are alien in appearance. There is no warmth or empathy to them.
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