Themes, Motifs, and Symbols

1
Themes, Motifs, and Symbols

• in Bradburys Fahrenheit 451

2
Theme Censorship

• Why books banned?
• People just arent interested
• TV
• Radio
• Fast cars
• people arent used to slowing down,
  concentrating, thinking

3

• Books/ideas are bad
• Why make people who arent well-read feel bad
  just because others have? (wide-spread ignorance
  levels the playing field)
• Objections of special-interest groups that what
  is being said in books is offensive (political
  correctness)

4
Motif

• Motif as a literary element, an idea or image
  that is repeated or carried through an individual
  work
• A motif differs from a theme in that it can be
  expressed as a single word or fragmentary phrase,
  while a theme usually must be expressed as a
  complete sentence.
• Blood is an important motif in A Tale of Two
  Cities, appearing numerous times throughout the
  novel.

5
Motif Paradox

• Paradox -- Where a situation is created which
  cannot possibly exist, because different elements
  of it cancel each other out.
• In 1984, doublethink refers to the paradox
  where history is changed, and then claimed to
  have never been changed.
• A Tale of Two Cities opens with the famous
  paradox, It was the best of times, it was the
  worst of times.

6
Motif Paradox

• Examples in F 451
• Things, or people are . . .
• Dead and alive
• There and not there
• Seeing but not seeing
• Shells of people, not thinking, not mentally
  present although they are physically present
  empty grotesque
• What other examples from the text?

7
Motif Paradox

• In the sense of the book itself
• Is this an example of art imitating life or life
  imitating art? Both?
• In American society today
• Freedom is what makes America strong, yet it
  makes us susceptible to people who would take
  that away from us.

8
Motif Nature

• Elements of the natural world are real, pure, and
  represent truth and innocence
• Clarisse
• Dandelions
• rain
• Presented as authentic, simple yet profound,
  beautiful
• Mechanical devices modeled after nature
• Snake
• Hound
• Presented as skewed, warped, grotesque

9
Symbolism

• Symbolism -- The use of specific objects or
  images to represent abstract ideas.
• A symbol must be something tangible or visible,
  while the idea it symbolizes must be something
  abstract or universal.

10
Symbol The Hearth and the Salamander

• Hearth symbolizes home
• Salamander symbolizes the firehouse, the firemen,
  and their trucks
• Both deal with fire
• Hearth heats the home
• Ancient beliefs that the salamander lives in fire
  and is not burnt by flames

11
Symbol The Sieve and the Sand

• Sand symbolizes tangible truth
• Sieve symbolizes the human mind
• Together the human mind trying to obtain
  elusive truths

12
Symbol Phoenix

• In ancient Egyptian mythology and in myths
  derived from it, a mythical sacred firebird
• The phoenix is a male bird with beautiful gold
  and red plumage.
• At the end of its life-cycle the phoenix builds
  itself a nest of cinnamon twigs that it then
  ignites both nest and bird burn fiercely and are
  reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix
  arises.
• The bird was also said to regenerate when hurt or
  wounded by a foe, thus being almost immortal and
  invincible a symbol of fire and divinity.

13
Symbol Phoenix

• After bombing, mankind is a Phoenix that burns
  itself up and rises out of the ashes
• Refers to the cyclical nature of history
• Collective rebirth of mankind
• Resurrection of Montag

14
Symbol Mirror

• Symbolizes self understanding or awareness
  through deep reflection
• Clarisse
• Granger says they should build a mirror factory