Fahrenheit 451 Quotation Analysis
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- Category: English: Novels
- Date Submitted: 03/05/2016 11:40 AM
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Fahrenheit 451 Quotation Analysis
“And when they ask us what we're doing, you can say, we're remembering. That's where we'll win out in the long run. And some day we'll remember so much that we'll build the biggest goddamn steam-shovel in history and dig the biggest grave of all time and shove war in and cover it up. Come on now, we're going to go build a mirror-factory first and put out nothing but mirrors for the next year and take a long look in them” (164).
This quotation is spoken by Granger at the end of the book after the city has been bombed. Granger compares mankind to a phoenix rising again and again from its own ashes, and comments that they will first need to build a mirror factory to take a long look at themselves. That is, humanity must remember its past mistakes so that it doesn’t make the same ones again.
This statement by Granger brings full circle the theme that self-examination is critical to a functional society and happy people. The reason that Montag’s society is so dysfunctional is because nobody examines themselves and the world around them. Instead of looking in a mirror, people in Fahrenheit 451 are vomited upon by the televisions that engulf them. When Granger declares that they are going to “put out nothing but mirrors for the next year and take a long look in them,” he is saying that before they go and rebuild a better humanity, they will have to sit down and critically examine the faults and flaws that led to such a debilitated society. Montag only starts to question the world he lives in when he meets Clarisse, whom he describes as a mirror in “The Hearth and the Salamander.” Clarisse is an outcast from her society because of her odd habits, which include hiking, playing with flowers, and asking questions, however she and her equally odd family seem genuinely happy, unlike Guy, Mildred, and almost every other socially accepted character in the book. When Guy is exposed to Clarisse, he too begins to question the world he...
“And when they ask us what we're doing, you can say, we're remembering. That's where we'll win out in the long run. And some day we'll remember so much that we'll build the biggest goddamn steam-shovel in history and dig the biggest grave of all time and shove war in and cover it up. Come on now, we're going to go build a mirror-factory first and put out nothing but mirrors for the next year and take a long look in them” (164).
This quotation is spoken by Granger at the end of the book after the city has been bombed. Granger compares mankind to a phoenix rising again and again from its own ashes, and comments that they will first need to build a mirror factory to take a long look at themselves. That is, humanity must remember its past mistakes so that it doesn’t make the same ones again.
This statement by Granger brings full circle the theme that self-examination is critical to a functional society and happy people. The reason that Montag’s society is so dysfunctional is because nobody examines themselves and the world around them. Instead of looking in a mirror, people in Fahrenheit 451 are vomited upon by the televisions that engulf them. When Granger declares that they are going to “put out nothing but mirrors for the next year and take a long look in them,” he is saying that before they go and rebuild a better humanity, they will have to sit down and critically examine the faults and flaws that led to such a debilitated society. Montag only starts to question the world he lives in when he meets Clarisse, whom he describes as a mirror in “The Hearth and the Salamander.” Clarisse is an outcast from her society because of her odd habits, which include hiking, playing with flowers, and asking questions, however she and her equally odd family seem genuinely happy, unlike Guy, Mildred, and almost every other socially accepted character in the book. When Guy is exposed to Clarisse, he too begins to question the world he...