The Ashes of Humanity

 A response to Fahrenheit 451

A phoenix stands in its nest, waiting for the sun to rise a little higher. As it waits, it recalls the things it has learned in it’s life; the discovery's made, the inventions created, the people met. The phoenix has forgotten a few things, some he would not remember knowing if one were to remind him, and some are forgotten for the moment, like the repeated memory of the end and beginning of all of his past lives. The sun has risen farther, and soon, the nest begins to smoke, then burn, and a fire suddenly roars to life. As the flames engulf the scrawny bird, the searing pain summons the memories forgotten of the ends of the lives past, too late. After a while, the flames shrink, then flicker, then become nothing more than smoldering embers and ash. After a while, some disturbed ash tumbles down the heap that once was the phoenix, and a small feathered head rises from the dust. The young new phoenix, already stronger than the old one was in his beginning, tests it’s new wings, then flies away, the memories of his past lives still with him, though some important ones still forgotten for good, and the memory of his recent death already at the back of his mind. Fahrenheit 451 shows us that humanity is much the same way. Humanity has been destroyed and resurrected many times, and each time, the legacy of what came before stays with us, though some important details are always forgotten. Humanity is like a phoenix, destroying itself then building itself back up again in an eternal cycle of reincarnation.

The phoenix was a Egyptian bird which supposedly set itself on fire, then rose again, stronger more power than before; a pattern that is almost exactly the same as humanity’s. Rome is a good example of this. Rome had many ideas and inventions that worked well. Then, after Rome’s fall, the societies that came after used and improved those ideas and inventions, resulting in some of the modern day things known so well, such as Rome’s method of making buildings taller and stronger leading to the invention of skyscrapers. The key word here is improved; the phoenix got stronger and more powerful after it rose from the ash, and to become more powerful, one must adapt and improve the tools they have. In Fahrenheit 451, America had improved its technology so much, it had things like planes that could fly faster than the speed of sound and even faster than that, and America became more powerful, winning two atomic wars because of it. Another instance in the book would be after the city was blown up and the book-keepers go to see of there’s anyone still alive in the ruins. The book-keepers had something from the legacy of the old society that would help the people build a new one; the knowledge they obtained from books. The knowledge would allow them to see their mistakes and adapt so as to not repeat them, and thus become more powerful, just like the phoenix.

Like the phoenix, humanity becomes progressively more powerful, but all the power in the world is useless unless one remembers their mistakes and what was learned from them. An undeniable fact of life is that there must be mistakes and failures before there can be success or experience gained. If one forgets their experiences, their failures and mistakes, anything gained from them would be useless, and that person would be forced to repeat the very mistakes they forgot. Taking a look at Mildred, a person who tries hard to forget her mistakes and never learns from them, can prove this point. Mildred almost died from an overdose of sleeping pills, maybe because she kept forgetting that she’d already taken some before and kept taking more and more and more. However, what makes this even worse than it already is, is the fact that she’s done this who knows how many times before, and forgotten what happened each time. Mildred had no chance to become a better person or to become more powerful because she chose not to learn from her mistakes or even remember them, and in the end, there was no phoenix to rise from Mildred’s quite literal ashes. Granger also makes a good point about humanities mistakes and defeats. Granger says, quite truthfully, how humanity must have been related to the bird, as we build up fires then jump into them because we forget to not repeat our mistakes until it’s already too late.

Humanity’s mistakes and it’s uncanny ability to forget them has resulted in a repeated cycle of destruction and reincarnation. Time and time again, a great civilization has risen, only to fall under its own weight of mistakes, failure and misleading ideas. Rome, once again, can show this process. Rome was a powerful nation full of great people and their ideas. However, Rome had many flaws; it was too big to be easily controlled, its churches became too powerful and began to conflict with the working of the empire. Its army had even become lazy and too weak to wear their heavy armor in battle. All these things and more lead to the eventual fall of the Roman Empire, and from the legacy of the fallen nation, other societies were able to rise. Fahrenheit 451 continues this into the future, where America, one of the nations who were able to use Roman ideas to become powerful, is destroyed by it’s flaws and mistakes. It was a combination of mistakes, both new, like ignorance and detachment of society, and lack of respect for life, and some near repeats of Rome, such as wars, and a sense of being invincible and letting their guard down a bit, lead to the ultimate destruction of Montag's city. Though tragic, the destruction of society opened the door for the book-keepers to come and show the people society’s mistakes and help them rebuild it into something new. The destruction and rebirth of society and its uncanny resemblance to the phoenix goes on until the day the humanity finally remembers not to repeat its mistakes.

The cycle that humanity goes through is always the same. Humanity rises and becomes powerful, only to be destroyed by its repeated mistakes and then rise again, stronger than before. The mistakes humanity makes are all the same; war, detachment, lies, and other such things. They are always present in humanity and human nature, but so are the abilities to learn and to remember. The phoenix will always be setting itself on fire and rising from the ash, and humanity has been doing the same thing. The difference between humanity and the phoenix is that humanity doesn’t have to. Granger points out this difference, that we remember what we’ve done, and humanity's knowledge of history can prove this. Humanity keeps destroying itself and building itself back up, but that doesn’t mean it has to.