Fahrenheit symbols

							                   Symbolism
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             Symbolism
“A symbol is a person, place, an activity,
  or an object that stands for something
  beyond itself.”

From The Language of Literature,
  “Glossary of Literary Terms,” page
  1262
       Symbolism Review in The Pearl
You’ve considered the idea of symbolism before, when you
  read The Pearl:
• In Steinbeck’s story, the pearl is a physical object,
  something Kino discovers when he is diving for pearls.
• At first for Kino and Juana, the pearl represents the many
  good things they have wanted for their family: health and
  education for Coyotito, marriage for Kino and Juana, a rifle
  for Kino--all good things.
• However, as others grow to desire the pearl and threaten to
  take it from Kino, the pearl takes on a negative significance,
  drawing greed and evil from the heart.
• The round luminescent pearl as an object is neither good
  nor bad, yet it takes on positive and negative implications,
  depending of the heart of its possessor.
Just as there are symbols in
The Pearl, there are multiple
 symbols in Fahrenheit 451.
 Book 1: “The Hearth and the
        Salamander”
• Hearth = fire in a positive sense; in older
  times, the hearth was the center of the home
  because of its warmth and because it allowed
  the cooking of food; shelter, protection and
  nourishment
• Salamander = a mythical creature who could
  live in fire without being consumed by it;
  symbol of a salamander is on the firemen’s
  helmets; name for their firetrucks
   Part 2: “The Sand and Sieve”
• This section begins with Montag’s
  remembering a time when a mean
  cousin tricked him into trying to fill
  a sieve with sand.
• This mental picture symbolizes Montag’s inability to
  retain in his mind what he reads. His mind is so
  conditioned to not thinking and not questioning that,
  although he can read the words, he has a hard time
  grasping their meanings.
                   FIRE
• Fire is first associated with Montag’s thrill of
  burning -- irrational destruction and thrill-
  seeking.
• Later he uses its destructive power to his
  advantage to purge himself from his past.
• Eventually, the fire offers him protection and
  warmth when he is with the book people.
• Man’s misuse of fire is similar to his misuse
  of technology -- we both heal and destroy with
  our superior technological advancements.
• In mythology, fire was a gift stolen from the
  gods, a double-edge sword -- both a gift and a
  curse.
                   The Phoenix
• Mythology: an elegant bird
  who lived to be 500 years and
  then burned itself; out of its
  ashes, it would rise again,
  reborn
• As the phoenix is reborn
  through its own burning, so
  Montag changes as he literally
  burns his past and begins a
  new life. At the end of the story
  as the city is being bombed,
  Granger, the book man whom
  Montag meets outside the city,
  says they are waiting for
  society to self-destruct so that
  they can rebuild it.
                  The River

• Water often represents cleansing or even a
  rebirth -- consider the ritual of baptism.
• In mythology, crossing the river often
  represents moving from life to death or death
  to new life.
• Montag’s submerging himself in the river and
  then crossing it to get out of the city represents
  a cleansing, a purging, a passing from death
  (Montag’s old life) into life.