Blog 9: Symbolism & Imagery

FAHRENHEIT 451
Sept. 19, 2012

Define SYMBOLISM
the practice of representing things by symbols, or of investing things with a symbolic meaning or character

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symbolism





DEFINE IMAGERY
the formation of mental images, figures, or likenesses of things, or of such images collectively: the dim imagery of a dream.


LINK:

imagery

Discuss three different uses of symbolism and imagery in the book, "Fahrenheit 451." Post a picture of this image with each description.

Fire seems to mean a lot of different things at different moments in Fahrenheit 451. Beatty and his fireman minions use it to destroy. But the woman whose house they burn interprets it another way: "Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out." For her, it represents strength. Montag himself discovers an alternative use for fire at the end of the novel, when he realizes that it can warm instead of destroy. Like that whole cycle of life thing, fire has a constructive and destructive half. And like the books that are burned, each character in the novel is forced to interpret for themselves and confront contradictory perspectives – just like Beatty said about the books.

FIRE