Fahrenheit 451: Religion

Religion is a very important aspect in Fahrenheit 451. One of the books that is often by the firemen are copies of the Holy Bible. This demonstrates to the reader that religion is not an important thing in that society, and that due to the increasing ignorance and dumbing down of society religion has all but been forgotten. Due to the burning of all texts religion in America is non-existent. It would also seem that a larger reference in the novel to Christianity it the nuclear apocalypse that occurs. It seems to have a great similarity to the end of days mentioned in Revelations. Montag himself thinks of a quote from Revelations as they walk upriver to the decimated city to rebuild it. Bradbury probably had Revelations in mind when he was writing the end to this novel as the similarities between this nuclear holocaust and the apocalypse in the bible are clear. Fire is also a very prevalent symbol in the bible and Bradbury uses fire quite a bit as a very important symbol in Fahrenheit 451. Faber also talks about the creation of wine from himself, who he describes as water, and the mixing of Montag, who he describes as fire. This is a reference to the miracle of Canaa when Jesus makes water out of wine and makes enough food to feed a massive crowd. It also strikes me as odd that in this novel religion is completely discarded. The way I see it there are two types of dsytopias. One version with no focus on religion at all with the society either being atheist or worshiping some sort of government figure or head of state as a holy being. Fahrenheit 451 falls into the first category. The second category is that of which the dystopia is religious in nature. The idea of a state-run theocracy in which the people are brainwashed into obeying them seems to be the second version of a dystopia. I found the use of religion or in this case lack of it in the novel to be an interesting aspect, albeit one that does make sense in the context of the novel.