Oftentimes in literature, authors use philosophical concepts as the basis for their storyline, and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is a perfect example of this common device. Bradbury uses Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, a widely renowned philosophical principle, to demonstrate the central themes of knowledge and truth. The Allegory of the Cave works as a blueprint for the fundamental scenes depicted in Fahrenheit 451, using direct parallels to illustrate the idea that society has a history of being naive towards the truth. Fahrenheit 451 explicitly correlates to the Allegory of the Cave by using fire as an unequivocal symbol of knowledge, and by having a revelation in the life of the main character. “That small motion, the white and red color, a strange fire because it meant a different thing
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He had never thought in his life that it could give as well as take.” (Bradbury 145-146) This quote from Fahrenheit 451 shows the exact moment when Montag realizes that fire is not always a cruel, dreadful tool used for destruction. Previously, Montag and those around him used fire as a weapon, but now he sees the great warmth and hope that it can provide. With a newfound freedom never before seen in that generation, fire now acts as a symbol for knowledge, much as it does in the Allegory of the Cave. In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, three prisoners have spent their entire lives shackled in a dark cave with nothing to entertain them but shadows cast on the wall from the light of a fire. They are left to believe that the shadows and fire are reality, and it isn’t until one prisoner is set free that he realizes that his prior conception of life is completely fake. The fire in the cave equates to the society in Fahrenheit 451; both have a deceptive portrayal of what is authentic. When the prisoner and Montag are set free and enlightened, they both begin to search for the truth and disseminate their findings to others who are still in the
He had never thought in his life that it could give as well as take.” (Bradbury 145-146) This quote from Fahrenheit 451 shows the exact moment when Montag realizes that fire is not always a cruel, dreadful tool used for destruction. Previously, Montag and those around him used fire as a weapon, but now he sees the great warmth and hope that it can provide. With a newfound freedom never before seen in that generation, fire now acts as a symbol for knowledge, much as it does in the Allegory of the Cave. In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, three prisoners have spent their entire lives shackled in a dark cave with nothing to entertain them but shadows cast on the wall from the light of a fire. They are left to believe that the shadows and fire are reality, and it isn’t until one prisoner is set free that he realizes that his prior conception of life is completely fake. The fire in the cave equates to the society in Fahrenheit 451; both have a deceptive portrayal of what is authentic. When the prisoner and Montag are set free and enlightened, they both begin to search for the truth and disseminate their findings to others who are still in the