Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary
devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
Paradoxes
In the beginning of “The Hearth and the Salamander,”
Montag’s bedroom is described first as “not empty” and then as “indeed
empty,” because Mildred is physically there, but her thoughts and
feelings are elsewhere. Bradbury’s repeated use of such paradoxical
statements—especially that a character or thing is dead and alive
or there and not there—is frequently applied to
Mildred, suggesting her empty, half-alive condition. Bradbury also
uses these paradoxical statements to describe the “Electric-Eyed
Snake” stomach pump and, later, the Mechanical Hound. These paradoxes
question the reality of beings that are apparently living but spiritually
dead. Ultimately, Mildred and the rest of her society seem to be
not much more than machines, thinking only what they are told to
think. The culture of Fahrenheit 451 is a culture
of insubstantiality and unreality, and Montag desperately seeks more
substantial truths in the books he hoards.
Animal and Nature Imagery
Animal and nature imagery pervades the novel. Nature is
presented as a force of innocence and truth, beginning with Clarisse’s
adolescent, reverent love for nature. She convinces Montag to taste
the rain, and the experience changes him irrevocably. His escape
from the city into the country is a revelation to him, showing him
the enlightening power of unspoiled nature.
Much of the novel’s animal imagery is ironic.
Although this society is obsessed with technology and ignores nature,
many frightening mechanical devices are modeled after or named for
animals, such as the Electric-Eyed Snake machine and the Mechanical
Hound.
Religion
Fahrenheit 451 contains a number of religious
references. Mildred’s friends remind Montag of icons he once saw
in a church and did not understand. The language Bradbury uses to
describe the enameled, painted features of the artifacts Montag
saw is similar to the language he uses to describe the firemen’s
permanent smiles. Faber invokes the Christian value of forgiveness:
after Montag turns against society, Faber reminds him that since
he was once one of the faithful, he should demonstrate pity rather
than fury.
The narrative also contains references to the miracle
at Canaa, where Christ transformed water into wine. Faber describes
himself as water and Montag as fire, asserting that the merging
of the two will produce wine. In the biblical story, Jesus Christ’s
transformation of water into wine was one of the miracles that proved
his identity and instilled faith in his role as the savior. Montag
longs to confirm his own identity through a similar self-transformation.
The references to fire are more complex. In the Christian
tradition, fire has several meanings: from the pagan blaze in which
the golden calf was made to Moses’ burning bush, it symbolizes both blatant
heresy and divine presence. Fire in Fahrenheit 451 also
possesses contradictory meanings. At the beginning it is the vehicle
of a restrictive society, but Montag turns it upon his oppressor,
using it to burn Beatty and win his freedom.
