Literary devices

Allusion;

“Give a man a few lines of verse and he thinks he's the Lord of all Creation. You think you can walk on water with your books.” (Page 111)

It is an allusion since Beatty is remembering the Bible: first, he refers to the Old Testament when he talks about the Creator of the world, who is God and second, he refers to a fragment of the New Testament where Jesus was able to walk on water. The allusion means that Montag felt he was god when he had his books, and he did not see the risks.

Simile;

“He turned and the Mechanical Hound was there. 

It was half across the lawn, coming from the shadows, moving with such drifting ease that it was like a single solid cloud of black-grey smoke blown at him in silence.” (Page 114)

It is a simile because it is comparing a cloud with the Mechanical Hound by using the word “like”. The simile helps us to understand that the Mechanical Hound was secretive and it was able to move easily. And it would be difficult to run away from him or destroy it.

Irony;

“Through the aluminum wall he heard a radio voice saying, "War has been declared." The gas was being pumped outside. The men in the beetles were talking and the attendants were talking about the engines, the gas, the money owed.” (Page 119)

It is an irony because people of this society showed that they don’t care about war, they just continued their lives. This shows the behavior of the society because war is not relevant, as the book said wars began and ended in an instant.

Anaphora;

“The beetle was rushing. The beetle was roaring. The beetle raised its speed. The beetle was whining. The beetle was in high thunder. The beetle came skimming. The beetle came in a single whistling trajectory, fired from an invisible rifle.” (Page 121)

It is an anaphora because the beginning of each sentence is the phrase “the beetle”. In this fragment Bradbury is describing some characteristics of the car which was just few miles from Montag, transmitting suspense and intrigue to the reader because this event was happening while Montag was escaping.

Metaphor;

“With an effort, Montag reminded himself again that this was no fictional episode to be watched on his run to the river; it was in actuality his own chess-game he was witnessing, move by move.” (Page 131)

It is a metaphor because is comparing Montag’s escape with a game of chess. In his struggle for survival, he needed to be clever and more intelligent than their opponents. Even though their opponents had better technology and more men, if he knew how to move his chips, he could win, without being the strongest.

Motifs

Motifs are recurrent thematic elements in a literary work. Some motifs are:

Paradoxes;

Bradbury constantly uses paradoxes to show the behavior of people in this society. One paradox that it is not clear if some characters are or not alive.  For example the mechanical hound is a creature that acts as living thing, but he isn’t, he is a robot that could be programed. Another paradox is that Faber knows that the rules of the government about books are wrong, nevertheless obey these rules. The third paradox is the presence of Mildred. She constantly was in her bedroom, but she was not there, because their thoughts are out of there. Capitan Beatty in some fragments mentions that books should be burnt. But he constantly used books to explain or argued his ideas.

Other paradox is that even though Montag was a fireman he wanted to preserved and protect books. Finally the society itself is also a paradox because everyone is happy without books, but are many suicides and murders.

Animals and nature;


http://headsup.boyslife.org/geek-out-about-rain/

In the designed society, animals and nature are not relevant, in some way, this is an effect of the ignorance of people, at the point that Montag only understand its importance when Clarisse show it, and make him feel it. Clarisse asks Montag to taste the rain, and Montag changes his life when he understands the relevance of the nature.

Ironically, nature and animals are shown in some way with the technological advances, such as the Electric-Eyed Snake machine and the Mechanical Hound. There are machines but they are inspired in the real animals.

"The rain was thinning away and the girl was walking in the centre of the sidewalk with her head up and the few drops falling on her face. She smiled when she saw Montag. "Hello! " He said hello and then said, "What are you up to now?" "I'm still crazy. The rain feels good. I love to walk in it. "I don't think I'd like that," he said. "You might if you tried." "I never have."

Religion;


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Religion

Religion references are present in “Fahrenheit 451”.  An example is when Montag compared church icons that he did not understand with the firemen’s permanent simile. Even though Montag and Faber did not believed in God, they recognize the Bible and religion are very important for human’s life. Finally Montag uses Bible passages when the city was bombarded and he was looking for survivals.

 “Do you know why books such as this are so important? Because they have quality. And what does the word quality mean? To me it means texture. This book has pores. It has features. This book can go under the microscope. You'd find life under the glass, streaming past in infinite profusion” (page 79)

http://www.litcharts.com/lit/fahrenheit-451/symbols  

http://451fahrenheit.weebly.com/motifs-of-the-novel.html 

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/451/themes.html  

Symbols

The symbols in the book helped to have a better understanding of the story. Some of the symbols are shown below.

Books;

http://nobacks.com/photos/objects/books/

Books are symbols because their importance is much more than few pages with a cover, they represent knowledge, and because they are prohibited, reading books mean opposition, and resistence. The novel reports that books were burned because they were dangerous to the society, they had contain different contradictory ideas, so they cause different thinkings.
For example, Faber said Montag that he was looking books not because of their content, he was looking something that only books can gave him.

"There must be something in books, things we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don't stay for nothing." (Page 48)

“The Sieve and the Sand”; 

http://theflameoftruth451.blogspot.com.co/

Is the title of the second part of “Fahrenheit 451”, it is taken for Montag’s childhood, when he was a child he tried to fill a sieve with sand of the beach, in exchange of dime, obviously this task was impossible. Montag compared this memory when we was in the subway trying to read the Bible as fast as he could, hoping that some of this information will remain. While an announcement for toothpaste keeps distracting him.

Sand is shown as a symbol that represents knowledge the that we wanted, while the sieve is the mind trying to retain knowledge, the sieve and the sand showed that in the society knowledge is ephemeral. Because books as this work already mention are more than just text or information.

“Once as a child he had sat upon a yellow dune by the sea in the middle of the blue and hot summer day, trying to fill a sieve with sand, because some cruel cousin had said, "Fill this sieve and you'll get a dime!" `And the faster he poured, the faster it sifted through with a hot whispering. His hands were tired, the sand was boiling, and the sieve was empty. Seated there in the midst of July, without a sound, he felt the tears move down his cheeks.” (Page 74)

The mechanical hound;

http://www.deviantart.com/browse/all/?offset=54&view_mode=2&order=24&q=the+mechanical+hound#skins

It is a mechanical animal that was design to analyzed human behavior in order to control and know when someone is thinking or acting in a revolutionary way that can affect society stability. In many parts of the book the mechanical hound shows that Montag’s behaviors were not “normal”, even before Montag showed his widen books to Mildred. This symbol represents repression and control over people, because people cannot act as they want, they act as government or society wanted to act.

". . . Mechanical Hound never fails. Never since its first use in tracking quarry has this incredible invention made a mistake.” (Page 126)

Themes

Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel and the book shows how society is affected by it, using the following themes:

Knowledge;


http://stylewhack.com/lifestyle/what-makes-me-happy-books/ 

The society in the novel cannot used books because they are restricted by the government, this caused restriction of knowledge. Books are the ones that teach people. In many passages of the novel it is explain how books were eliminated of the society, government convince people that books are not useful because they had not connection between them, they said nothing, they had not a connection with life and what really matters. Books made people think different and this caused confusion between people.

"Coloured people don't like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don't feel good about Uncle Tom's Cabin. Burn it. Someone's written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Bum the book. Serenity, Montag. Peace, Montag. Take your fight outside. Better yet, into the incinerator. Funerals are unhappy and pagan? Eliminate them, too” (page 59)

Ignorance;

https://steveamiller.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/knowledge-and-ignorance/

People in the novel are not able to read and understand the meaning of books, they are ignorant caused by the oppression of the society. That is why Montag was not able to understand books neither the meaning of books, this shows how the society was design to believe that books are not useful, and even if you consider them useful you cannot understand it. Media, propaganda, loud music and billboards helped Bradbury to create a society in which those things affect knowledge because they are a distraction, that helps with ignorance.

“"You're a hopeless romantic," said Faber.” It would be funny if it were not serious. It's not books you need, it's some of the things that once were in books. The same things could be in the `parlour families' today”. (Page 79)

Censorship;

https://drejb.wordpress.com/

In the book characters are not allowed to have different ideas, thought is slaved. This is caused because in a planned society there is only one truth. In consequence the government censored books because they allowed people to interpret life as they want, besides people had freedom and they decided can decide what do they want to believed and what do they want to think. Even though the book never mentioned why they censored books, in the novel there are shown some possible reasons of censorship.   

"Where's your common sense? None of those books agree with each other. You've been locked up here for years with a regular damned Tower of Babel. Snap out of it! The people in those books never lived. Come on now! "(Page 35).