Hey, Everybody, I’m Cale Prindle, this is
Words from the Muck, and today we’re starting
a three part series on Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit
451 to explore his use of imagery, metaphor,
connotation, and world building.k
We're not going to get into any spoilers or anything right
away, in fact today we’re only looking
at the first page, but here's some stuff you're going to need to know:
Guy Montag is a fireman, but in the world
of Fahrenheit 451, firemen don’t put out
fires. Instead,  they start them.
So at the beginning of this novel, we find our main character
burning up somebody's house and everything they own.
And he's loving it.
So let’s take a look at how Bradbury is setting
up his character in this first scene.
“IT WAS A PLEASURE TO BURN.
IT was a special pleasure to see things eaten,
to see things blackened and changed.
With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this
great python spitting its venomous kerosene
upon the world, the blood pounded in his head,
and his hands were the hands of some amazing
conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing
and burning to bring down the tatters and
charcoal ruins of history.
With his symbolic helmet numbered 451 on his
stolid head, and his eyes all orange flame
with the thought of what came next, he flicked
the igniter and the house jumped up in a gorging
fire that burned the evening sky red and yellow
and black.
He strode in a swarm of fireflies.
He wanted above all, like the old joke, to
shove a marshmallow on a stick in the furnace,
while the flapping pigeon-winged books died
on the porch and lawn of the house.
While the books went up in sparkling whirls
and blew away on a wind turned dark with burning."
Let’s start with connotation.
Connotation is all of the connections and
associations we have with a word.
These associations are built up over time
within a given culture until people hear one
word and immediately think of the association
instead of the official definition.
Connotation can bring up new ideas and emotions
that add to a scene or even to an argument.
For example: we are told, “With the brass
nozzle in his fists,” which seems like a
very simple line, but when we remember to
ask ourselves why a writer would choose his
or her words, we have to ask ourselves what
would be different if the line said
“in his hands.”
“In his hands" sound too gentle because when
I think of hands, I think of them open, passive,
maybe even gentle, but this is a guy who is
burning up somebody’s house!
So Bradbury uses the word “fists” because
it is more forceful, intense, possibly violent.
There’s a hostility showing up
here because of the word "fists" that you just
wouldn’t get the same way if you used "hands."
This is in contrast to the next reference
to Montag’s hands, those of a conductor
in front of a symphony.
This is the gentleness I’m talking about.
Now, his hands are coupled with the power of metaphor to
give us a sense of beauty and art.
Connotation is a constant in Fahrenheit, and
I would argue pretty much everywhere that,
you know, words show up.
Because a lot of things have thousands of years’
worth of meaning and significance behind them
why the snake metaphor here tells us almost
everything we need to know about Montag and
the world in which he lives.
In case you missed the memo: snakes are always
bad.
Always. Very few exceptions.
If a snake shows up in a book, just assume
something bad or evil is about to go down
because from the Garden of Eden to Slytherin,
they pretty much always represent something
that's at least kind of evil.
Bradbury plants a snake image in the first
page, and it creates a pretty clear sign that
Montag’s job, the system of government, all of it, it's just no good.
Bradbury is metaphor crazy, and it’s important
knowing that going into this book that
you will always have to rethink whatever you just read,
because this metaphor, and others like it,
is doing double duty.
Montag is holding a hose, so calling is a
python gives us a sense of its literal shape,
weight, maybe even texture.
In short, this metaphor is used to build the
imagery of the scene as well as everything else.
But the connotation of a python is one
that crushes and robs you of breath.
Python’s aren’t venomous, so I’ll mark
that against Bradbury, but it might get
a pass because the fact that this is a snake image is probably more important
than getting his snake trivia correct.
But there is something weird about this opening
of this novel: a lot of the imagery kind of
clashes together.
One one side you have pleasure, and marshmallows, and the symphony, and fireflies, and on the other
side you have fists, snakes, dead pigeons,
and the literal burning of somebody’s house.
If that all seems to conflict with each other,
then you have an understanding of what Montag
is about to go through.
Because this juxtaposition here shows the inner
workings of Montag’s mind and soul as he
questions the rest of his reality.
This page presents a paradox that Montag will
need to struggle with and wrestle with
and eventually resolve by the end of this novel
and it's that paradox that makes this a great opening.
Thanks for watching Words from the Muck.
Pick up a copy of Fahrenheit 451 and join
us next week as we continue talking about
the ways Bradbury builds his dystopian world.
Please like and share this video.
Subscribe to our channel, we really appreciate it
And until next time, farewell, good people.
