A Study of the Allusions in Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451"

Author(s): Peter Sisario

Source: The English Journal , Feb., 1970, Vol. 59, No. 2 (Feb., 1970), pp. 201-205+212
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/811827

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A Study of the Allusions in
Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451

Peter Sisario

Department of English
Scotia-Glenville High School
Scotia, New York

AY Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is more nation of controversy. "Intellectual" en-

than just a readable and teachable tertainment is provided by tapioca-bland
short novel that generates much class- television that broadcasts sentimental
room discussion about the dangers of a mush on all four walls. The novel, first
mass culture, as Charles Hamblen points written in a shorter version for a sci-
out in his article "Bradbury's Fahrenheit ence-fiction magazine in 1950 and pub-
451 in the Classroom" (English Journal, lished as a novel three years later, con-
September 1968). It is an excellent source cerns itself with one fireman, Guy Mon-
for showing students the value of study- tag, who commits the heresy of ques-
ing an author's use of specific allusions in tioning his role and seeks to learn why
a work of fiction. While writing excellent books are considered dangerous.
social criticism, Bradbury uses several di- If we take this imaginary world of the
rect quotations from works of literature, twenty-fourth century as a commentary
including the Bible; a careful analysis of of our contemporary society, we can in-
the patterning of these allusions shows terpret the novel on one level as the of-
their function of adding subtle depth to ten-heard argument that mass media, as
the ideas of the novel. evidenced by television and popular mag-
Fahrenheit 451 is set five centuries from azines, are reducing our society to very
now in an anti-intellectual world where mediocre tastes. The mass media must
firemen serve the reverse role of setting
keep watering down the intellectual level
fires, in this case to books that people
of its material as it attempts to reach an
have been illegally hoarding and read-increasingly larger and intellectually di-
versified audience. Bradbury takes this
ing. Literature is banned because it might
potentially incite people to think or problem
to to an extreme to show the po-
question the status quo of happiness tential
and effects of such a course on our
freedom from worry through the elimi- culture. Television spans four walls, soap

201

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 202 ENGLISH JOURNAL

operas and sentimentality

edge of what civilization abound,
was like beforeand
books, the carriersthe of ideas, society
contemporary are of burned.
the novel.
In an attempt to satisfy Guy's curiosity
and hopefully to quell any further ques-
B UT if we look more closely at the
tioning, Beatty relates
novel, noting specifically thetoliterary
Guy how the
and Biblical allusions, we see
twentieth century began toa decline
deeper in-
message in the novel than
tellectually, simply
slowly reaching the pointthein
future centuries
warning that our society is of banning books;
headed for
schools stopped
intellectual stagnation. The teachingliterary students to
allu-
sions are used to underscore
think or to question and the empti-
crammed them
with factual data in lieu
ness of the twenty-fourth of an education.
century, and
the Biblical allusions point
Psychological subtly
hedonism became thetoward
most
a solution to help us virtue;
positive outall of our
questioners and intel-
think-
ers were
lectual "Dark Age." eliminated. It is crucial
Bradbury that
seems to
Beatty wears
be saying that the nature of thelife
sign of
isthe Phoenix on
cyclical
and we are currently his hat and
at rides
thein a "Phoenix
bottom car." He of
an intellectual cycle. We
has great must
knowledge have
of the past yet faith
iron-
and blindly hope ically for andan upward
tragically does not know swing how
of the cycle. This concept to use his knowledge,of the treatingnatural
it only as
cycle is most explicitly historical curiosity.
stated He is byinterested
Brad- only
bury through the in keeping that status
character of quo of uninter-
Granger:
rupted happiness and freedom from wor-
And when the war's over,hissome
ry. He imparts knowledge day,
only to
some year, the books can be written
firemen who are going through the in-
again, the people will be called in, one
evitable questioning he feels all firemen
by one, to recite what they know, and
experience. He tells Guy that fiction only
we'll set it up in type until another
Dark Age, when we depicts an imaginary
might world, and
have to all do
great
the whole thing over ideas are controversial
again (p. and debatable;
137).1
books then are too indefinite. Appropri-
The major metaphor ately, Beatty in the
is burned novel,
to death, and his
which supports the deathidea
by fire symbolically
of the illustrates
natural the
cycle, is the allusion rebirthto
that isthe
associated with his Phoenix
Phoenix, the
mythical bird of ancient sign. When GuyEgypt kills Beatty, he is forcedpe-
that
riodically burned itself to run off and tojoins Granger; this
death and actionres-
urrected from its own ashes to a restored is for Guy a rebirth to a new intel-
lectual life.
youth. Through the persona of Granger,
Bradbury expresses the hope that man-
kind might use his intellect and his B RADBURY employs several specific
knowledge of his own intellectual and literary quotations to illustrate the
shallowness of Guy's world. By using
physical destruction to keep from going
through endless cycles of disintegration references to literature, Bradbury carries
and rebirth. through a basic irony in the book: he is
This image of the Phoenix is used inusing books to underscore his ideas about
the novel in association with the minor a world in which great books themselves
character Captain Beatty, Montag's have su- been banned.
perior. As an officer, Beatty has knowl- After Beatty has given Guy a capsule
history of how the world reached the
1 (New York City: Ballantine Books, 1967.)
All page references are to this paperback edi-anti-intellectual depths of the twenty-
tion. fourth century, Guy goes to a book he

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 A STUDY OF FAHRENHEIT 451 203

has concealed butmade

has an emotional
not attachment
yet tohad
Claris- the
se, an
courage to read. He attachmentseveral
reads that was sincerepages;
and
then Bradbury has true
him in a world
quotehostile tothe
honesty.follow-
It was
ing passage: his relationship with Clarisse that was for
Guy the first "drop"; she started his
It is computed, that eleven thousand
questioning of the status quo, and sub-
persons have at several times suffered
death rather than submit to break their sequent events after her death made Guy
eggs at the smaller end (p. 62). think and question more and more se-
riously, until he completely breaks away
The quotation is from the first bookfrom
of his diseased society at the end of
the novel.
Swift's Gulliver's Travels, "A Voyage
to Lilliput." At the point of the quota-Guy continues to read, and quotes
again from Boswell, this time from a
tion Gulliver has learned of a long-stand-
ing feud in Lilliput, between those wholetter to Temple in 1763: "That favourite
have traditionally broken their eggs subject,
at Myself" (p. 64). Curiously
enough, Guy's wife Mildred, who has
the larger end, and the edict of the King,
not received any inspiration from this
ordering all subjects to break their eggs
at the smaller end because a member of secret reading session, says that she
understands this particular quote. Her
the royal family had once cut his finger
statement is juxtaposed against Guy's
breaking the larger end. The struggle
saying that Clarisse's favorite subject
between being reasonable and being sad-
dled to tradition even to the point wasn't
of herself, but others. He realizes
the truth of the statements he has been
ridiculous suicide is perhaps what Brad-
reading from authors who wrote hun-
bury is after here. The twenty-fourth
dreds of years ago; his wife can only
century is just as saddled to the status
quo, and Bradbury has been careful understand
to the literal level of one state-
point out the dangers of intellectualment, the one reflecting the self-interest
deadness. The example from Lilliput is society.
of her
an excellent one for him to choose, since
The only other direct quote Brad-
bury
it represents an absurd situation taken to employs from literature comes in
a gross exaggeration, a basic device ofsecond part of the book, and serves
the
satire. to underscore the emptiness of the world
that the three preceeding quotes have
As Guy and his wife read on, a quo-
tation is taken directly from Boswell's
shown. After Guy returns from having
Life of Johnson: visited Faber, he talks with his wife and
two of her friends. The conversation of
We cannot tell the precise moment
the women reflects the shallowness of
when friendship is formed. As in filling
the women's thinking, since they are the
a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a
drop which makes it run over; so in products
a of this empty culture.Their
series of kindnesses there is at last one discussion of politics, for example, has
to do with voting for a candidate for
which makes the heart run over (p. 63).
president because he was better looking
Guy makes the point that this quote than his opponent. Guy has a book of
brings to his mind the girl next door, poetry with him, and Mildred's visitors
Clarisse McClellan, who was labelled a are shocked that he has a book. In a
"time bomb" by Beatty because she was scene reminiscent of the banquet in Mac
a sensitive, observant person who ques- beth, Guy's wife attempts to cover for
tioned society, and was consequently him by telling the women that firemen
eliminated by the government. Montag are allowed to bring books home oc-

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 204 ENGLISH JOURNAL

heretic because
casionally to show their he allowed dissenters to
families ho
silly books are. Guy speak freely.
reads He was burned at the
from stake
Matthe
Arnold's "Dover Beach"; the last two with fellow heretic Hugh Latimer, who
stanzas are quoted, and the last one isspoke the words to Ridley that the
particularly apt, since it shows two lovers woman in the novel alludes to as her
looking at what appears to be a happylast words: "We shall this day light such
world, but recognizing the essential a candle, by God's grace, in England, as
emptiness that exists: I trust shall never be put out" (p. 37
These words recall the Phoenix idea of
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which rebirth by fire, since the woman's death
seems proves to be an important factor in
Guy's
To lie before us like a land of decision to investigate books. The
dreams,
words are ironic in the sense that the in-
So various, so beautiful, so new,
tellectual
Hath really neither joy, nor candle in Montag's world is
love, nor
light, burning rather dimly at the time, but the
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for words are at the same time a fine state-
pain; ment of the indestructibility of ques-
And we are here, as on a darkling plain tioners and thinkers in any society.
Swept with confused alarms of struggle There are four specific Biblical allu-
and flight, sions in the novel, and an examination
Where ignorant armies clash by night
of them shows that they both support
(p. 90).
the idea of the natural cycle and con-
Guy's world, too, rests on happiness, a tribute to Bradbury's solution to helping
happiness of psychological comfort and us out of, or rather avoiding, the type of
freedom from controversy, but Guy is world pictured by the literary allusions.
finding that beneath the exterior is a vast This solution would be the natural phil-
emptiness, a "darkling plain." osophical outlook that would be held by
Thus far, we have seen how Brad- those who believe in a natural cycle to
bury has used several allusions to litera-life and are in the midst of the bottom
ture to describe the situation of the con- of a cycle: one must wait and have
temporary world of the novel. It might faith, since things will eventually im-
be wise at this point to note an historical
prove.
reference made, one that serves to under-Two of the Biblical allusions that sup-
score some basic ideas in the book. port the idea of a philosophical faith in
the renewal of cycles are the references
to the Lilies of the Field (Matthew
EARLY in the book, when Guy is first
beginning to undergo doubts, he and 6:28) and to the Book of Job. Saint
his squad are called to the home of a
Matthew's parable of the Lilies illustrates
woman discovered owning books. The that God takes care of all things and we
woman refuses to leave her home, choos- need not worry; the Lilies don't work
ing to die in the flames with her books. or worry, yet God provides for them.
On the way back to the firehouse, Guy, This submission to faith, this feeling that
shaken by the experience, mentionsGod to will provide all in due course is also
Beatty the last words of the woman,
affirmed by the reference to the Book of
"Master Ridley." Beatty-and note again
Job, one of the strongest statements of
that he has the knowledge-tells Guy faith in the face of adversity in Western
culture. Both of these references come
that the woman was referring to Nicho-
las Ridley, Bishop of London in the at
six-significant points in the novel. The
teenth century, who was arrested allusion
as a to the Lilies of the Field comes

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 A STUDY OF FAHRENHEIT 451 205

as Guy is on his way to see Professor And on either side of the river was

Faber. The Lilies are juxtaposed in there a tree of life, which bore twelve
zeugma-like style with Denham's Denti-manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit
every month; And the leaves of the tree
frice, an advertisement Guy sees on the
were for the healing of nations (22:2) (p.
subway train. Both flash through his 147).
head and form an excellent contrast:
the faith and submission of the Lilies This last book of the New Testament,
also
and the artificiality and concern known as the Book of the Apoc-
with
facades of the contemporary advertise-
alypse, tells us that a victory of God is
ment jingle. After his clandestine certain,
meet- but that much struggle must
come first; we must have faith and en-
ing with Faber, at which the professor
agrees to help Guy learn aboutdure books
before we can enjoy the fruits of
and plan for the future, Guy getsvictory.
a mes- The lines Bradbury has Guy
sage from Faber through the small recall
ear-not only reinforce the idea of a
plug he wears to keep in contact withworld, but also give us a key to
cyclical
Bradbury's
the teacher. The message simply says, hope that "the healing of
nations" can best come about through a
"The Book of Job," in a sense reminding
Guy that he must have faith, for rebirth
theof man's intellect. We must use
our minds to halt the endless cycles of
going will be rough on his new venture.
destruction by warfare and rebirth to a
world of uneasy peace and intellectual
T come
HE two other
at the Biblical
end of allusions
the novel, death. The twelve tribes of Israel wan-
when
Guy has joined Granger and his col- in the desert seeking a new nation
dering
leagues. This group of men memorizes
can be recalled here as Montag, Granger,
great works of our culture as a andmeansthe others wander away from the
of preserving ideas until literature is
city with hope that their new world will
soon beto
once again permitted. Guy is assigned established.
read and memorize the Book of Ecclesi-
astes, the Old Testament book that as-
serts the need to submit to the natural THE literary and Biblical references
cited form a pattern at first describing
order of things. The only direct quota- the intellectual "darkling plain" of the
tion from Ecclesiastes comes from Chap- twenty-fourth century and then of fu-
ter Three, the well-known chapter that ture hope and guarded optimism through
passively waiting. There are countless
echoes the natural cycle idea in its open-
references to the names of great books
ing line, "To everything there is a season
." The line comes to Guy as the men and writers, all of whom were noted for
trudge along in Canterbury-like pro- major ideas. The many specific lines
cession away from the destroyed city,quoted on pages 94-97 constitute a spe-
cial case worth noting, since Bradbury
each man being required to recite aloud
does not employ these passages in the
from his assigned work in order to bol-
same way in which the other literary
ster their spirit and comradeship. Guy
thinks first of some phrases from Ec-quotes are used. On these pages, Beatty
tells Guy of a dream he had in which he
clesiastes, appropriately enough, "A time
to break down, and a time to build up,"and Guy were engaged in a verbal duel
and "A time to keep silence and a time about
to the value of books, and for each
speak." Another quote then comes point
to Guy makes by citing a quote,
Guy, this one from the Book of Revela-
Beatty refutes him with another quote.
tions, which Guy had told Granger heAgain, Beatty's phenomenal knowledge
partially remembered: (Continued on page 212)

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 212 ENGLISH JOURNAL

pearance,
enabling him to guide histo create a new world
destiny, based
goes,
and he gives himself up to
on imagination the logic
and intuition. The test
(whatever it may ofbePoe's world
for laterthe
rests in moment)
the consis-
of the exterior. For
tency ofPym,
the artisticand
order he perhaps
establish-
this is truer of the modern conditiones.3 For us, in a world of militarism
than we care to admit, the world repre-
abroad and increasing violence at home,
sents "the spirit of destruction"; ititismay
a also be imperative to attempt to
"world of functions and reactions only,
impose order on chaos from a more imag-
a world without substance and human inative and creative mental process
beings without individuality, an absurd
than we now appear to be exercising.
world and essentially a nonhumanist one"
(Laura Hofrichter, "From Poe to Kaf-
3Suggestion conveyed orally to the writer
ka," p. 419). For Poe, it became imper-
by Prof. Arthur Robinson, University of Rhode
ative, having destroyed the world of ap- Kingston, 1968.
Island,

A Study of the Allusions in

Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451

(Continued from page 205) dents find the sources of specific quota-
is shown, as well as his tragic attitudetions. Some of the major quotes could
toward the use of ideas and the value of form excellent writing assignments,
dissent and controversy. Practically all wherein students might be asked to show
of the lines cited on these four pages arethe relation of a particular quote to some
from authors who were writing severalof the major ideas in the book.
centuries ago, men like Shakespeare, By studying the patterning of specific
John Donne, and Robert Burton, per- quotations in this novel, students can be
haps showing Bradbury's affirmation ofmade more aware of the need to read
the timelessness of great ideas. more closely and more intelligently. The
Fahrenheit 451 can serve the teacher novel provides a "good story" to be sure,
in several ways in the classroom other yet the teacher can also use Fahrenheit
than a study of the allusions. The use 451of as a way of illustrating the differ-
reference works such as Bartlett's Famil-
ence between a good plot that makes a
iar Quotations and the Concordance to book readable and a carefully structured
the Bible could be taught by having stu-work of literature.

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