The Symbolism of the Firemen

1
Fahrenheit 451

• The Symbolism of the Firemen

2
Main Characters in Fahrenheit 451

• Guy Montag
• Clarisse McClelland
• Mildred (Millie) Montag
• Captain Beatty

3
The Legend of the Phoenix

• A supernatural, beautiful bird
• Yellow, orange, gold, red feathers (fire)
• Associated with the pagan sun god, Heilos
• Only one phoenix lives at a time, stands alone
  lives for 1000 years
• Builds funeral pyre, throws self into flames
• Reborn into ashes, rises to live again
• Symbol of immortality, life after death,
  resurrection

4
The Salamander

• Greek, meaning fire animal
• Small lizard, cold-hearted
• Popular in fall (symbol of death, end of life)
• Born of fire flame
• Fire-proof skin, can endure flame without damage
• colors of red, orange gold fire, flames
• Symbol of faith courage

5
The Beetle

• A small, black bug
• Associated with devil
• Act as mediators between gods normal men
• Symbol of the immortality the divine
  industrialness

6
The Python

• Powerful snake
• Biblical reference to Adam Eve
• Symbolic of sin

7
The Hearth

• Fireplace
• Contained fire, controlled
• Symbolic of the home

8
Symbolic Colors In Fahrenheit 451

• Red fire, blood, war, danger, power passion
• Orange determination enthusiasm, aggression,
  thirst for action
• Gold- wisdom, wealth
• Yellow energy
• Black- devil, evil, power, death

9
Guy Montag

• It was a pleasure to burn
• Futuristic fireman
• - caretakers of society
• - keepers of peace of mind
• 30 years old
• Married to Millie
• - thinks they have good marriage
• - cant remember how they met
• Appears to love job, forced smile

10
Clarisse McClelland

• Montag meets her on his way home
• Im seventeen crazy
• She doesnt fear Montag
• Questions talks with him
• Do you ever read any of the books you burn?
• She is odd, enjoys walks, talking
• Are you happy?

11
Mildred (Millie) Montag

• Montags wife
• Representative of Society
• - Escapes
• - drugs, ear seashells, TV parlor walls
• - Overdosing
• - Selfish
• - Violent (Clarisse points this out)

12
Millies Overdose

• Overdoes on sleeping pills
• Crew comes, pumps her stomach blood
• Crew is very informal, routine
• - smoking cigarettes, joking around
• Millie is in denial
• Montag is scared
• She doesnt believe Montag

13
Montag his Meetings with Clarisse

• These encounters set up Montags future and his
  battle against censorship banned books
• They start his quest for knowledge

14
Meeting One

• She meets Montag on her way home from work
• She likes to walk, talk, look at things, smell
  things
• - lives with her parents, uncle
• - Doesnt watch parlor walls
• Not afraid of Montag others fear firemen
• Do you ever read any of the books you burn?
• Jet cars race down the street foreshadowing
• - people dont drive slowly, uncle did once- got
  arrested
• - miss things like colors of the grass
• Are you happy?

15
Meeting Two

• Rain tastes good
• Dandelion test
• She sees a psychiatrist
• He thinks she is more mature than Millie
• She starting to forget he is a firemen
• Montag doesnt know how firemen started
• As she leaves, Montag TASTES rain

16
Third Final Meeting

• Montag feels he has known her for years
• Why dont you have children?
• It has been a long time since anyone cared.
• His smile, laugh nicer, more relaxed, not forced
  like before
• Anti-social behavior
• Ends conversation by saying goodbye

17
Impact of Clarisse

• Opposite of society and its norms
• The catalyst gets Montag thinking
• - asking questions, softening Montag
• Discovery of Violence of Teens
• - teens smash windows, beat each other
• - drive recklessly
• - Afraid of others her own
• - They kill each other
• - foreshadows her death goodbye

18
The Mechanical Hound

• A programmable, robotic dog, has 8 legs
• Made of rubber metal
• Armed with needles to inject victims with
  Morphine or procaine
• Programmed by DNA, to find victims
• Montag fears the dog, It doesnt like me

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The Mechanical Hound (cont.)

• Devil dogs are guardians of Satan
• Mechanical it functions
• Can only be programmed
• Beatty suspects Montag is having doubts
• Montag is told about a man who programs the dog
  to kill him

20
The Firehouse The Old Woman

• Alarm sounds, heads to the womans house
• After several warnings, she refuses to leave
• Her statement about Master Ridley
• - burned for heresy for a crime he did not
  commit
• - she begins the quote, BEATTY FINISHES IT
• She lights a match burns with her books
• Montags hand steals the Bible
• For the 1st time, Montag is sick after a burning

21
Back Home After the Burning

• Montag pretends to be ill, calls off work
• Millie notices Montag crying about the women
• He hides the book under his pillow
• Realizes he is no longer in love with Millie
• Millie tells Montag Clarisse is gone

22
The History of the Firemen

• Beatty informs Montag of the Firemen
• Things have MASS
• People long for a simpler life
• Classics cut, short, people lost interest in
  reading
• English, grammar, spelling neglected
• Languages dropped
• Money pleasure only important
• Minority groups did not like books

23
History of the Firemen (cont.)

• People became too politically correct
• Too worried about offending
• People want to be happy
• Only way to ensure happiness is equality
• People MUST be made EQUAL
• Fire is pure clean

24
At Montags House

• Only books allowed are comics, manuals trade
  magazines
• Every firemen gets an itch.. Beatty knows
  Montag is curious
• Millie finds the book while Beatty is there
• Millie Montag argue after Beatty leaves

25
FAHRENHEIT 451

• Section 2
• The Sieve The Sand

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The Sieve the Sand

• Montag remembers a story about a SIEVE as a child
• Sieve Sifter, sand falls through the cracks
• Trying to fill a sieve with sand is impossible
• How is this like Montag?

27
Millie Montag

• Millie is unhappy with her husband
• He is trying to discuss books with her
• She thinks books are useless
• She wants Montag to get rid of the books
• Montag realizes he needs a teacher

28
Meeting Faber

• Faber is a retired college professor
• Montag met him in the park, one year ago
• Calls Faber on the phone
• Asks him about books
• Faber is too cowardly to talk to Montag

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Montags Trip To Fabers House

• Montags moment of self-discovery
• Realizes the old, burnt-in smile is gone
• Sieve the Sand helplessness
• Tried to read the Bible without comprehension
• Tries to memorize a passage on the subway
• Denthams Dentifrice
• - toothpaste commercial distracts him

30
At Fabers House

• Faber is afraid of Montag
• Faber is cowardly
• Montag needs someone to talk to/explain things
• Faber tells Montag about 3 missing things -

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Three Missing Things

• Quality of information
• -Books have quality, texture, pores
• - Provide details of life
• Leisure time to think, digest
• Time to develop own conclusions
• Right to carry out actions based on the first 2

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The White Clown

• Television show
• Millie thinks these television characters care
  about her fantasy world/real vs. fake
• Very violent, people cutting limbs off of people
  and laughing about it
• The women enjoy this violent television

33
View of Families Marriage

• Relationships Husbands
• - husband off at war, not worried
• - replaceable
• - no love
• Children Childbirth
• - have no kids at all, no desire
• - births by cesarean
• - dont want to raise kids, drop them off at
  schools
• - turn the TV on leave them alone
• - laundry, ruinous

34
Fahrenheit 451Section 3

• Burning Bright

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Who turned Montag in?

• Mrs. Bowles Mrs. Phelps turned them in Beatty
  ignores those complaints
• Millie turned him in worried about TV more than
  Montag
• Beatty is torn between duty as fireman/his
  conscience
• Beatty wanted Montag to be a good fireman
• Could have finished him off
• Beatty appears HUMAN
• The last time Millie is seen in book

36
Beatty Montag

• Beatty wants Montag to torch his own house
• Beatty confesses to sending the Mechanical hound
• Beatty seems to feel regret but also enjoys
  tormenting him
• Beatty doesnt realize Montag ENJOYS buring his
  house SYMBOLIC of a life he hated

37
The Legend of Icarus

• Beatty compares Montag to Icarus (more proof that
  he is well-read
• A young man who wanted to fly
• - made wax wings that worked
• - flew too close to the sun/melted his died
• Beatty taunts Montag with this idea
• - going down wrong path will get him BURNED

38
Montag the TV Screens

• Montag enjoys burning the TV screens
• Revenge on something he hated
• Symbolic of his life and what is gone
• After the burning, he is NOT smiling

39
Montag talks with Faber

• Faber tells Montag to leave through the ear radio
• Beatty discovers the ear radio threaten to go
  after Faber
• Montag We never burned right
• - firemen burn out of habit, shown have been
  aware of what they were burning
• Beatty rants, Montag stalls him
• -Go ahead spit Shakespeare at me
• - Beatty was wrong to encourage burning he
  knew the value in books

40
Montag Kills Beatty

• Montag sets fire to Beatty, killing him
• Beatty teases/taunts him
• Did Beatty WANT to be killed? HE WAS EDUCATED
• - he didnt fight back, stood there
  defenseless
• - Too cowardly to carry out any plan against
  firemen
• - Knew he was responsible for society
• - Charred wax doll (Millie Beatty) symbolic of
  people
• Dont fix a problem burn it
• -people avoid problems rather than try to solve
  them

41
Montag gets away

• Montag is injured by the Hound
• - injures his leg
• - Difficult to run
• Hears war is going on while on the way to Fabers
  house
• Cross a busy street to get to Fabers house
• - Violence/speeding cars

42
Visit with Faber

• Gets to Fabers house safely
• Faber tells him of a place down the river
• Montag covers self in whiskey to kill the scent
  (protect from hound)
• Faber cleans house to rid of Montags scent

43
Journey Down the River

• Montag gets to river, splashes with whiskey and
  gets rid of his old clothes to lose the hound
• Follows railroad tracks to find a group of men
  around a fire
• Fire has changed to warm, soothing and pure from
  destructive dangerous

44
Meeting Granger

• Granger is the leader of the group
• They group memorized books
• Gave Montag a drink to change his body chemistry
• They watched on a small tv, an innocent man get
  killed by the hound protect society

45
Human Books

• Montag couldnt remember what he read
• people memorize
• Montag would become the backup, if anything
  happens to that person MOntag takes over
• They were all in hiding, hoping to come back one
  day and get people reading thinking again

46
War

• A bomb strikes the city. Everything is destroyed
• Millie is dead, Faber got away
• They started walking down the river to return to
  the city
• Hope, of the future
• Represent the phoenix/city reborn from the ashes