Symbols and Farenheit 451

Adolph Gottlieb once wrote, “My favorite symbols were those which I didn’t understand.”  Ray Bradbury in writing Fahrenheit 451 definitely uses some rather obscure symbols, but he also uses some very rich descriptions, that of themselves become symbolic of the “nature” of what he is describing.  Hoses become massive writhing serpents, dogs or hounds are no longer man’s best friend, and the list could go on.  This paper will deal with a few of the uses of animals as symbols and their implication that were found interesting by the author of this paper.  Not all of the animal symbols used in the text are looked at in order to maintain the brevity of this paper.

            We will be looking at four basic animals.  We will maintain a wide focus as to the animal and not delve into the greater minutia of subspecies.  Having said this we will look at the following ideas.  A look will be taken at the salamander, as it is the symbol of the fireman.  The hound will be looked at as in the story of Fahrenheit 451 it takes an atypical role of the general description of dogs.  Birds will be looked at as well as Bradbury refers to burning books repeatedly as falling birds at one point in the story when they are burning a house.  Last but not least we will turn our focus to the use of serpents to describe the gastrointestinal hose and the kerosene hose.  The criteria that will be used to look at these animals are the ideas of their importance of their iconic role as they are handed down to us through society, religion, etc…  We will also look at them in light of their sociological impact as they stand in the story. 

            Girardin, p. 2           

As the firemen played such a central role of the story, let us turn our eyes first to the noble symbol of their profession, the salamander, “… and then when she seemed hypnotized by the salamander on his arm…” (Bradbury 451).  This turns out to be an interesting choice of symbol for the firefighter profession of the future based on the life cycle of many salamanders.  They change!  Salamanders often start out as a creature of the water, being born there.  Later they grow older and larger and move to the waters edge.  These animals occasionally wander rather large distances into the above water environment (Ford, Salamanders).  They can also be rather colorful as Bradbury’s description often suggests.  Where this plays an interesting role is with our hero and villain.  Capt. Bailey has some experience with books as he shows toward the end of the text, as he is perpetually quoting Shakespeare and other notables.  An example of this is the discourse when Beatty and Montag are at the climax of the story, “There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats…” (Bradbury 451).  He is a flamboyant character in personality as well as in his profession’s symbol.  Where the salamander suits him is the idea that he left the “pool of knowledge” came back and left again, rejecting it as a false ideal that only muddles the world.  Montag on the other hand does not have this travel.  He goes from ignorance of the beauty of the ideas of the books around him and their lack of homogenized ideals to a full awakening and awareness of the glory of the ideas held in each of the books time honored pages.  Just as Bailey goes back and forth from the pond, like a

Girardin, p. 3

salamander, eventually rejecting where he came from wholesale; Montag goes in the other direction fully.  He returns to the pond of human experience as recorded in the dreaded books and becomes more colorful as well as we are left with the idea of a type of ideological reproduction at the end of the book, as the men turn to return to the city after it has been bombed.  The Salamander returns to his brook or pool in order to continue on.  His progeny assured.  Montag does the same.  He enters back into the life of free thought, which would be our pond, and continues to grow in those ideas.

            Our next idea is that of books.  Bradbury describes the books burning as birds falling, “While the flapping pigeon-winged books died… They fell like slaughtered birds…” (Bradbury, 451).  This is a very interesting way of describing them.  Not only does it bring about the idea of the color of pigeons, and the thought of them falling with a certain graceful air with their covers open and pages flayed, much like wings, but it also gives us an idea of the perceived meaning of the continuation of the wisdom that is held in them.  In Celtic mythology birds take on a meaning of wisdom, bloodshed, and prophetic knowledge (Nood’en, Celtic Mythology).  On a personal level, as this writer was reading the text there was a certain feeling of des ja vu that gave the feeling of the idea of prophesying a possible path that mankind could take.  The concept of

books holding wisdom goes without saying.  We pass on all of our greatest and darkest thoughts through writing.  Faber actually puts it this way, “So now do

Girardin, p. 4

you understand why books are hated and feared?  They show the pores in the face of life.” (Bradbury, 451).  Hitler’s Mien Kempf is as alive today as ever, how many decades after his death.  Just as the optimistic belief in the ability of man to overcome all obstacles is still with us today in Homer’s Odyssey.  Each of these great works shows us paths that can be walked by mankind.  Books grant us with the wisdom of the ages, just as in Celtic mythology birds took on the form of being providers of wisdom.

            Birds also take on an interesting concept from the perspective of life as shown through religion.  On many first century Christian tombstones birds are shown as symbols of eternal life and resurrection (byui.edu).  Surely in a culture where the knowledge to be gained from the experience of various writers through history have been cast aside, it is a type of intellectual and creative death.  The ideals of intellect and free thought have, in the text, been murdered on the altar of homogeny.  Describing the books as birds gives us the picture that intellect is not dead.  Just as the dark ages descended over Europe, knowledge thrived elsewhere under the constant care of loving hands.  So in this scene we see loving caretakers handling these books with devotion in recognition of the life giving and freedom providing ideals that are held therein.  The concepts of philosophy, science, the freedom of fiction, the past trod trail of history all

remain to come back to life just as the Phoenix of Native American lore

Girardin, p. 5

Bradbury uses many illustrations based on snakes, “with the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting…” (Bradbury, 451) and the related animal known as the dragon, “Below the orange dragon coughed to life” (Bradbury, 451).  This particular animal proved to be interesting as it was the opposite of itself.  Many cultures reviled this animal as pure evil, while others developed an ideal that considered it to be the keeper of wisdom and a sacred animal as well.  The most curious were the Greeks who began considering the snake/dragon as a sacred animal and then time and the culture castigated it to the evil hydra(Rings, Hydra).  For the most part though, the more negative and menacing attributes seem to apply to the descriptions of Fahrenheit 451. 

            In Christian thought the snake is always remembered as the animal that tempted Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit and ruined the rest of our lives interminably.  The temptation of Eve by the serpent ruined the utopian society that was initially created according to Genesis 1-3.  In Celtic mythology, serpents and dragons symbolize trouble, strife, infertility, and are a counter symbol to kings (Nood’en, Celtic Mythology).  In later Greece the serpent became the Hydra of mythology, a multi headed destructive beast (Rings, Hydra).  In the end, the majority of cultures end up viewing the serpent the same way that Bradbury makes use of them, conniving, deceitful, and destructive animals.  The

Girardin, p. 6

hoses that destroy the books eat and consume the culture that is found in those hallowed tomes.  Interestingly though, we also see serpents used in a dark sense,

but reflecting their more positive attributes.  We see this when Montag’s wife has her stomach suctioned out after overdosing herself, “One of them slid down into your stomach like a black cobra down an echoing well looking for all the old water and old time gathered there” (Bradbury, 451).  Thus the serpent is evenly portrayed but the overall “feeling” is that of the darker side of this animal.

            The final animal that figured prominently and repeatedly as the antithesis of itself is the dog.  The character of the dog in 451 is a conniving, underhanded animal that serves the purpose to kill book owners (Bradbury, 451).  Through the majority of cultures, the dog is an animal that is a respected part of the culture.  For the Druids, they were the guardians of mysteries, in India they are symbols of the caste system in that they show the lesser becoming the greater, they are also a symbol of motherhood as they are generally caring and nurturing (Smith, Animals).  It is worth noting though that dogs have been used for less caring purposes, although they continue in their role to protect.  They have been used in war, and to search out the evil that surrounds us in drug sniffing dogs, and things of that nature.  Curiously the dog of 451 resides in the ideology of the enforcer and shows none of the redeeming characteristics of “man’s best friend”.  The fire hound is a dark threatening specter that resides over everywhere it resides

            Girardin, p. 7

Each of these animals proves to be an interesting study on the use of animals as symbols.  We can see that many of the chosen descriptions add a

depth and vitality of character that is not had without them.  Bradbury grasps both the ancient and more contemporary meanings of these symbols providing for a complex and varied story that requires the reader to look into themselves to find what they are providing to the culture around them, as well as to look at the society we are building based on our values.

Please forgive just the repost of a paper, but why reinvent the wheel? 


P.S. Works cited list available upon request