Examples Of Imagery In Fahrenheit 451

\ In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury’s imagery paradoxically defines culture as hedonistic, implying that utopias will never exist. The reduction of societal values in attempts to cause pleasure exposes that happiness stems from experiences, not restrictions. Guy Montag’s ability to break away from an stagnant authority acknowledges a pathological society. Bradbury’s characterization of Montag foregrounds the intellectual suppression of his fictional society and their overwhelming willingness to adapt to the status quo. In the beginning of Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury’s imagery of Montag’s room establishes a depressing and despairing tone. He conveys Montag’s smile as it “slid away, melt, fold over and down itself like a tallow skin, like the stuff of a fantastic candle burning too long” as it was “now collapsing” and “now blown out”. This simile asserts …show more content…
Montag also realizes possible discontent with his marriage through Bradbury’s paradox of the room being “not empty”, but then “indeed empty” which communicates how Mildred physically exists however, her mind wanders somewhere else. Hence, Montag’s unhappiness turns tragic as he feels ambivalent towards how to change his life in a society where happiness is displayed, not created. “Guy is finding that beneath the exterior is a vast emptiness” (Sisarios 1). Bradbury not only illustrates Montag’s emptiness through wearing “his happiness like a mask”, but he articulates how Montag desired to fit into the parameters of the initial culture similar to the rest of the collective. Subsequently, Captain Beatty later divulges that he too gained knowledge from books ironically , yet how to