Fahrenheit 451: Figurative Language

            A good author adds plenty of figurative language in his or her stories to make it seem more interesting and easier to imagine.  One type of figurative language used is similes.  Clarisse tells Montag that sitting and talking is “like being a pedestrian, only rarer” (Bradbury 4).  Montag describes Clarisse as, “She had a very thin face like the dial of a small clock seen faintly in a dark room in the middle of a night…How like a mirror, too, her face” (Bradbury 4), comparing her face to a clock and a mirror.   He also says about her, “What incredible power of identification the girl had; she was like the eager watcher of a marionette show, anticipating each flicker of an eyelid, each gesture of his hand, each flick of a finger, the moment before it began.” (Bradbury 4) Another example is “He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back.” (Bradbury 5)  When Montag says that he wears happiness like a mask, the reader could imagine Montag wearing a happy mask but when he takes it off, the reader can see that it was only a disguise and his true self is almost an exact opposite. 

            The next figurative language is personification.  An example of this is, “Every night the waves came in and bore her off on their great tides of sound, floating her, wide-eyed, toward morning.  There had been no night in the last two years that Mildred had not swum that sea…” (Bradbury 5)  This was clever.  The waves, literally sound waves and figuratively water waves, carried her away until the morning.  Another example is, “As he stood there the sky over the house screamed.” (Bradbury 6)  This is personification because houses cannot scream.  Montag was referring to the loud sound that the jet-bombs made which were in the sky and would have sounded similar to a scream.

            Another type of writing that Bradbury uses is paradox.  Montag says, “The room was not empty” (Bradbury 5), referring to Mildred physically being there, but then he says, “The room was indeed empty” (Bradbury 5), indicating that Mildred’s mind was somewhere else.

            Bradbury uses repetition as well.  At one point, Montag thinks, “One drop of rain. Clarisse. Another drop. Mildred. A third. The uncle. A fourth. The fire tonight. One, Clarisse. Two, Mildred. Three, uncle. Four, fire, One, Mildred, two, Clarisse. One, two, three, four, five, Clarisse, Mildred, uncle, fire, sleeping-tablets, men, disposable tissue, coat-tails, blow, wad, flush, Clarisse, Mildred, uncle, fire, tablets, tissues, blow, wad, flush. One, two, three, one, two, three! Rain. The storm. The uncle laughing. Thunder falling downstairs. The whole world pouring down. The fire gushing up in a volcano. All rushing on down around in a spouting roar and rivering stream toward morning.” (Bradbury 7)  The way he keeps repeating numbers, names, and phrases almost drives the reader insane, but it does help the reader understand how Montag is feeling.”

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967. Print.