Fahrenheit 451: The Hearth and the Salamander

Question

Books have continually reappeared as symbols throughout this first section of the novel and Montag’s view of them has shifted alongside his growing doubts about why exactly books must be burned. How has Bradbury changed and altered the meaning of books as a symbol? What images or comparisons to living beings has Montag made with the books his scene in this section? What kind of thoughts and opinions has Montag held about books?

Answer 1

Hello! This question has a few different parts. When I see a multi-step question, I like to break it down into the different parts.

The first part is a statement about Farenheit 451: "Books have continually reappeared as symbols throughout this first section of the novel and Montag’s view of them has shifted alongside his growing doubts about why exactly books must be burned." The key point to this statement is that books are symbols--symbols means that they represent something else.

The question itself is composed of 3 parts that you can break down:

1. How has Bradbury changed and altered the meaning of books as a symbol? Bradbury is the author. How has the author made changes to what the books represent? Books start as a representative of one thing, but then change to represent something else. What is it?
2. What images or comparisons to living beings has Montag made with the books his scene in this section? Comparisons mean similarities. Montag is a character. What has this character found as similarities between the books and living things? What do they have in common?
3. What kind of thoughts and opinions has Montag held about books? Think about this character. What has his opinion of books been like throughout the book. Has it changed? Has it stayed the same?