I wrote the following for an English Assignment. I spent over 20 hours on it, and I got a B. I used to work as a journalist, and I am an experienced writer. I have loved Ray Bradbury's books since I first read "The Halloween Tree" when I was about 8 years old. I'm 35 now. Anyways. I offer it to you, my fellow Bradbury fans for your critical review.

"The Good News" of Fahrenheit 451

One major theme in Ray Bradbury's novel, Fahrenheit 451, is the path of one man's soul, through death, multiple rebirths, repentance, atonement and, finally, redemption and grace. The symbols Bradbury uses to convey this particular theme proceed from the most prominent symbol: fire. The supporting cluster of symbols used are: baptism, the hearth, the salamander, the phoenix and ashes, and assorted biblical references. Bradbury was raised in the Baptist faith so it is likely that his biblical metaphors were not just subconscious, although he admits to this being a possibility in the `Afterward' (p. 190). Why does Bradbury choose fire as the foremost symbol for the novel? To understand, one must grasp the full picture of the "Hell on Earth" that Bradbury draws for us in this story. One cannot imagine a greater horror for a passionate author, reader and lover of books, than a society where the mere possession of books is a serious crime and ritual book burnings are common occurences. Does conventional religion and spirituality enter into this novel? When one considers the number of times that the Bible itself is mentioned in Fahrenheit 451, (at least 28 times) and the fact that specific books of the Bible are referred to multiple times, the answer must be a resounding "yes!". Bradbury has not only imbued this novel with a political message of great import about the dangers of censorship, but has also suffused the work with metaphysical and religious meaning.
Looking more closely at the symbol of fire, we note that it has many meanings in the novel. In similar fashion, fire has had different meanings as a symbol in different cultures and different times. At the start of the book, fire is merely destruction for destruction's' sake -- exactly mirroring Montag and his job as a "fireman". One shouldn't forget myths about "fire bringer" heroes through history, ranging from Prometheus in Ancient Greek legends, to Raven (Spa'al) in Ancient Coast Salish lore. It's of import to note in most of these legends, (like in the case of both Prometheus and Raven), that such heroes did not just bring fire. They brought knowledge. Fire can thus be said to be a nearly universal symbol for knowledge, learning and enlightenment. In this novel fire is intimately connected to fireman Guy Montag, (an everyman and no man, i.e. his name literally means "Guy Monday"). Montag takes a journey, both physical and spiritual, through the story, which transforms him from a destructive, malign force into a positive force, working for good. At the beginning of Fahrenheit 451, however, Montag is a walking corpse who lives with another walking corpse (his wife). He reeks of death and destruction. This smell will not wash away no matter how much he tries to cleanse himself.
"What -- the smell of kerosene? My wife always complains," he laughed. "You never wash it off completely" [...] "Kerosene...is nothing but perfume to me." (p. 6)

Indeed, Guy Montag, permeated with the smell of destruction, is, at the end of the novel baptized/sacrificially cleansed no less than three times, in three different ways, before achieving a state of "salvation" or "grace", first by fire, then by water, then by the state's mock execution of him. (Baptism, in the metaphysical sense, meaning the concept of the death and rebirth of one's soul, or being.) As one reads Fahrenheit 451, it becomes obvious that Montag has a more intimate relationship with fire than he does with his wife Mildred. There seems to be no love, passion (“fire”), intimacy, or even pleasure in their marriage. Notice that the first part of the book is entitled `The Hearth and the Salamander'. "The hearth" is traditionally thought of as where homes keep a cozy fire lit, or where the heart of the home is. In this part of the book we learn a good deal about Montags' "hearth and home". Household Montag is most noticeably comprised by the main living room with its' three huge TV screen walls, usually filled with bad actors yelling lines from inane soap operas. The rest of the household is similarly cold, filled with insect-like contraptions that carry out simple tasks for the inhabitants. Montag secretly wishes that he were married to somebody else. After Mildred's attempted suicide, he thinks:
"Someone else's blood there. If only someone else's flesh and brain and memory. If only they could have taken her mind along to the dry cleaners and emptied the pockets and steamed and cleansed and reblocked and brought it back in the morning. If only..." (p 16)

What of "the Salamander"? What relationship does it have to the fire and hearth symbols?
2.a. A mythical creature, generally resembling a lizard, believed capable of living in or withstanding fire. b. In the occult philosophy of Paracelsus, a being having fire as its element. 3. An object, such as a poker, used in fire or capable of withstanding heat (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/salamander)


The salamander serves as the insignia on the firemen’s helmets, We note their trucks are not called "fire engines", but instead called salamanders. (p. 109) Bradbury drives this symbolism home. Montag is "the salamander" in "the hearth and home", and at work. The Montag marriage has guttered out, even if neither of them is willing to admit it, but Montag remains in this loveless and painful situation, just simmering with silent hot rage.
"It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. " (p. 1)

Here we are introduced to fire in Fahrenheit 451 as a malignant element. The larger and real purpose of firemen/salamanders is expressed much later in the novel by Montag as he realizes in horror that his job has nothing to do with "protecting society," despite what he has been assured repeatedly. He comes to understand that his real job is to terrorize the populace. Montag's young neighbour friend, Clarisse, even mentions at the beginning of the novel that most people are afraid of firemen (p. 7), but this comment fails to affect him very much. However, when the firemen burn a woman who refuses to leave her books, Montag learns the truth of Clarisse's observation. This crime creates serious doubts within him about the morality of his occupation. Until then, he had rationalized his job and his actions with excuses such as:
"You weren't hurting anyone, you were hurting only things! And since things really couldn't be hurt, since things felt nothing, and things don't scream or whimper, as this woman might begin to scream and cry out, there was nothing to tease your conscience later. You were simply cleaning up." (p. 37)

Montag has understood something profound:

"Captain Beatty, keeping his dignity backed down slowly through the front door, his pink face burnt and shiny from a thousand fires and night excitements. God, thought Montag, how true! Always at night the alarm comes. Never by day! Is it because fire is prettier by night? More spectacle, a better show?" (p. 39)

Montag begins to realize what he is really doing. He becomes aware, or at least somewhat more enlightened. This awareness pains him, as most spiritual journeys are painful. An important aspect of Montag’s character is that he never makes up his mind on things until forced to do so by external circumstances. In this, he plays out the phoenix legend, (as well as wearing the phoenix symbol on his fireman suit) in that he repeats the same mistakes, since he is not in control of his life. It is only after he decides to act rather than react that he becomes aware of the human burden of responsibility. This awareness is not possible, however, until he has lost everything, been betrayed by his wife and abandoned by her, narrowly escaped death and become a public enemy. While he is with the "book people" outside of the city, living in the countryside, he meets Granger who blurts out the following about the phoenix, which applies to both Montag and the society they both have endured:

"There was a silly damn bird called a Phoenix back before Christ, every few hundred years he built a pyre and burnt himself up. He must have been first cousin to Man. But every time he burnt himself, up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again. And it looks like we're doing the same thing, over and over, but we've got one damn thing the Phoenix never had. We know the damn silly thing we just did. We know all the damn silly things we've done for a thousand years and as long as we know that and always have it around where we can see it, some day we'll stop making goddamn funeral pyres and jumping in the middle of them. We pick up a few more people that remember every generation." (p. 163)

Ashes, in the Christian faith, are associated with Ash Wednesday, and the first day of Lent. Christians observing this ritual have their foreheads marked with a cross of black ashes, as their ministers remind them "Remember, man, that you are dust. And unto dust you shall return." or "Repent, and hear the good news." The ashes are a symbol of regeneration, as they are the result of the burning of the Palm Sunday leaves. Palm Sunday being the day on which Christ rode into Jerusalem in triumph, a triumph hollowed out by his crucifixion a week later. Similarly, each time Montag is "baptised" or reborn, it's following a hollowing out of some part of his life. Montag has committed some very evil acts and a hero’s redemption always requires some sort of repentance. Ashes in this novel seem to represent either repentance, or the wisdom of seeing the folly of one's ways. This occurs when Montag witnesses his own house being burned to the ground. This is a metaphorical "baptism by fire". It is only when this occurs that he can begin the process of shedding his old life, just as a salamander can lose its tail, but grow one back, or the phoenix can burn, and then rise from its ashes. The ashes theme also comes into play in Granger’s description of the city after the nuclear bombs drop. Ashes here indicate both atonement and a day of reckoning.
" ' It's flat' he said, after a long time, 'City looks like a heap of baking powder. It's gone.'" (p. 162)

Indeed, this is a society that has had much to atone for and has now paid a heavy price. Further biblical symbols and themes are then introduced as Montag begins to realize his own moral and intellectual failures. He speaks of this to Faber, an intellectual friend in the city, over the ear piece communication device that Faber has constructed to advise him. It's interesting to note that Faber is "maker" in Latin. Montag looks to Faber to learn and to be re-made. Montag says:
"I'm not thinking. I'm just doing like I'm told, like always."[...] "..When do I start working things out on my own?" (p. 92)

This is the fatal flaw of character that Montag needs to expunge. At the very end of the novel, after an apocalypse of sorts has occurred, Montag speaks aloud from the book of `Revelation'. It is interesting to note that despite what many Christians believe, “apocalypse” in ancient Greek means simply "unveiling." The book of `Revelation' is about the unveiling of God. The portions of the book of `Revelation' immediately preceding Montag's quote below, are the descriptions of "the New Jerusalem" and "the River of Life". It is only when Montag becomes a reasoning, active man and not merely a reactive man, that the natural world becomes unveiled to him. He suffers greatly until that realization comes to him.
Here we see a parallel to Job. They both lose everything and become outcasts of society. Coincidentally, the book of `Job' is one of the books that Faber had read to him over the ear piece earlier in the novel and one must consider that perhaps this was Bradbury's use of foreshadowing. When Montag is chased into the river, this is his "baptism by water". While in the river, he loses the last of his material possessions. In the river, he has time to reflect upon many things that he had previously thought useless. Upon leaving the river, (which we now understand is the River of Life), the reader notes that the world looks pristine to Montag. His senses are sharpened and heightened. He is, for the first time, very much alive. Finally, Montag experiences a third, and final, metaphysical death and rebirth. He witnesses the state killing an innocent man in his stead after he escapes arrest. After this event, Montag is asked by the book people what books he knew. He tells them "Ecclesiastes... and a bit of Revelation" (p. 150). He is then given a new name in accordance with the "book people" culture. "Ecclesiastes" becomes Montag’s new identity and name. Note that it is quite common for people who have been spiritually cleansed or baptized to take a new name. Interestingly enough, scholars argue over the meaning of "Ecclesiastes" in ancient Greek, whether it means either "one who gathers" or "one among the gathering" or "church". The name is appropriate for the new Montag. The "book people" are a kind of "church", and Guy Monday is "Everyman and No Man" no more. He has a new occult name, known only to a few, and here is where the `Revelation' quote gets interesting. Montag says:
"And on either side of the river was there a tree of life..." (p. 165)

In the book of `Revelation' there are seven churches which are admonished by God to repent. One of these churches is promised that upon repentance, its members will receive new names as a blessing. (Rev. 2:17) The church in question is Pergamos, which is named after the word for parchment and is where parchment was first created. Considering the crucial importance of the printed word in Fahrenheit 451, this can hardly be a coincidence.
At the conclusion of Fahrenheit 451, Montag/Ecclesiastes no longer wears the symbols of the phoenix or the salamander. He is now no longer representative of either of these creatures. He is neither doomed to live in the fires as a salamander, nor to forever repeat the same mistakes like the phoenix. Bradbury is saying something quite interesting about knowledge and enlightenment with his use of the fire symbol and the cluster of other symbols associated with it.
The particular society that Montag/Ecclesiastes has survived is in the final stage of an "endarkenment". It grows less lucid with each student or child deprived of the intellectual tools required to reason and with each book burned. The "book people" wait patiently for when they can return to society and bring forth another Enlightenment, or Renaissance (which literally means rebirth, yet another baptism reference). Montag/Ecclesiastes joins their ranks and becomes a "fireman" yet again. But this time he doesn't brandish the fire of destruction and death. Now, he brandishes the fire of learning, knowledge, and enlightenment. He has found a new home and hearth among the "book people". Having atoned for his sins, he attains a state of grace. It is only because he fled from an evil society that he did not die in the its nuclear holocaust (“holocaust” meaning a “burnt offering”). This is a parallel to the biblical story of Lot and his wives, also from the Bible particularly when you consider Mildred's fate. Because Montag sought redemption, he achieved "grace". He has truly come full circle.
"It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. " (p. 1)

From now until the end of his days, Montag/Ecclesiastes will burn ignorance. He will find great pleasure in watching illiteracy and ignorance be eaten, blackened and changed into enlightenment, knowledge and wisdom.

/end essay.
So what do you think?
Is it a B or is it worse or better?

Finally, someone actually does their homework! Somena, its much better than a B. Not sure what the criteria that your instructor based his assignment on, but seems more in the A+-A category. I thought it brilliantly worked out and a pleasure to read. I'm getting ready to peruse 451 now!

(I grilled steaks tonight for V-Day dinner and it was so cold that I started a fire in the patio fire cage thingy. Its ironic, because after dinner, I went back out and was gazing at the fire and the warmth and beauty of the flames and the colors in the coals while thinking to myself, "It was a pleasure to burn." It looked so amazing that I ran inside and got my camera and took some pictures. When I downloaded them to my computer later, the best one was the very first shot and I made it my background on the puter. I swear its true. I'm adding the shot now, check it out.)

p.s. Welcome to the board!

fire_001.jpg (60 Kb, 13 downloads) It was a pleasure to burn...

Very nice shot, Rocky!
Reminds me of Lizzy Hexam in "Our Mutual Friend" who loved looking at the "pictures in the fire"...

Thanks Braling. I could and do sometimes stare for hours into a fire, especially deep for me is the campfire. Every fire has its own personality, each different than the last. I see faces of people and animals, things, shapes, also extinct creatures with batwings. You can see different rooms and chambers and a fire to me is symbolic of life in that it is constantly changing and morphing into different shapes and images, like different facets of a complex diamond. The dark shadowy areas of ash and purgings are just as fascinating as the lights of flame. Don't even get me started on the colors, a mix and myriad more complex than a kaleidoscope...

Fantastic shot Greg. It smacks of the Bradbury Sunset my wife Barabra took. In both photos the colors are so distinct and brillant. Thank you for exposing us to this unqiue shot of the "fire."

And Somena, fire your instructor. Are they nuts. Your work leans more toward a Master's Thesis and would definately rank an "A." in my book.

I mean, after all, who has given such depth to the thought and introspection that you have given to your piece. Bravo!!

Brava!