Fahrenheit 451 The Sieve and the Sand, by Ray Bradbury

2 Pages 595 Words

Bradbury uses several significant religious references in this section to illuminate Montag's process of self-realization. First, Faber reads from the Book of Job, a part of the Bible in which God and Satan make a wager about whether Job will remain faithful to God when subjected to terrible afflictions. Clearly, Faber encourages Montag to endure despite the difficulty of his undertaking. Montag, however, is becoming so tired of mindlessly doing what other people say that he becomes suspicious of Faber's orders, and Faber in turn praises him for his development of independent thought.
Next, Montag compares Mildred's friends to religious objects, based on the fact that he can't understand such objects any more than he can Mildred's friends. The two women seem artificial, superficial, and empty to Montag. The conversation that Montag forces them to have reveals their lack of concern about the coming war, the pervasiveness and casual treatment of suicide in their society, and the deplorable state of family ethics. They remind him of icons he once saw in a church and did not understand; they seem strange and meaningless to him.
Finally, in a third instance of religious imagery, Faber describes himself as water and Montag as fire, claiming that the merging of the two will produce wine. Jesus Christ's transformation of water into wine was one of the miracles that proved his identity and instilled faith in people. Montag longs to confirm his own identity through a similar self-transformation. He hopes that when he becomes this new self, he will be able to look back and understand the man he used to be.
Montag opens his book of poetry to "Dover Beach," which is quite appropriate to his circumstances, as it deals with the theme of lost faith, and of the capacity for personal relationships to replace faith. The poem also deals with the emptiness of life's promises and the unthinking violence of war. Shortly afterward, Montag has a Shakespearea...