Examples Of Irony In Fahrenheit 451

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Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 integrates many examples of irony in the novel, for instance, firemen burning down buildings. In Bradbury’s novel, firemen burn buildings down instead of putting out the fires. In the article, Making Fire Mean More Than Fire, author Alan Lenhoff states, “It is a crime to own books. The government uses fire departments to enforce this ban” (1). Furthermore, Ray Bradbury incorporates irony by making firefighters burn down houses with books in them. In addition, another case of irony is that people are not allowed to have books. In the same article by Alan Lenhoff, he says, “An anti-intellectual world where firemen serve the reverse role of setting fires, in this case to books that people have been illegally hoarding …show more content…
In the book, Fahrenheit 451, it states, “It was a pleasure to burn” (1). In the beginning of the book, Guy Montag burned houses and destroyed books, enjoying his job as a fireman. Following this, on page 50 of the novel Fahrenheit 451, it expresses, “Montag made sure the book was well hidden behind the pillow, claimed slowly back into bed, arranged the covers over his knees and across his chest…” (50). In spite of him being a fireman, his curiosity got the better of him and he ended up taking a book and hid it. Lastly, in the article A Study of the Allusions in Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 by Peter Sisario, “One fireman, Guy Montag, who commits the heresy of questioning his role and seeks to learn why books are considered dangerous” (1). As I have noted before, Guy questions the rules of the government and starts to dig deeper into the idea that books are not all bad and may be able to teach people things. Overall, throughout the course of the story, Guy Montag changes and develops as a character and changes his views of books and other things in the world. Therefore, the book included many symbols throughout the