Fire and knowledge are liberating elements. As Greek mythology instructs us, the titan Prometheus sacrificed himself to provide mankind with the gift of fire (Leeming 139). With fire man is able to survive harsh winters, forge tools, cook food, and build civilizations. Fire is a true gift. However, fire has creative and destructive properties. In this way, fire and knowledge are similar. Knowledge can be accessed to cure illness and disease or initiate great destruction in the
manner of atom bombs that level whole cities. It is left to every human to decide how this great power will be employed in his or her own journey through life. Joseph’s Campbell’s monomyth or hero’s journey details the degree of success or failure each of us achieves in our own personal journey towards self-knowledge (Campbell 30). This symbolic connection of fire, knowledge, and the hero’s journey is exemplified in Ray Bradbury’s iconic novel Fahrenheit 451. In this text, the protagonist, Guy Montag, follows the monomyth cycle through the various stages of departure, initiation, and return in his quest for the freedom to think and develop as a conscious and authentic individual.
In his occupation as fireman in a dystopian society, Montag is consumed with the destructive nature of his culture. He is an eager participant as he is introduced torching a heap of contraband material - books: “It was a pleasure to burn” (Bradbury 3). His role in this society is to destroy past culture by burning outlawed ideas and knowledge stored in books. For Montag, this is the ordinary world or the starting point in Campbell’s monomyth. He does what he has been toldCornelius 2 been told without thought. Montag’s call to adventure comes in the form of a question asked by
an unusual seventeen year-old girl: “Are you happy?” she asks (Bradbury 10). This question precipitates the possibility of another way of life, one which he has never considered before. Initi...