Metaphors in"The Sieve and the Sand".

A metaphor is a figure of speech that consists on comparing two unlike objects or ideas. The following quotes are examples of this figure of speech found in “The Sieve and the Sand”:

1. “‘Each page becomes a black butterfly. Beautiful, eh? Light the third page from the second and so on, chain smoking, chapter by chapter” …There sat Beatty, perspiring gently, the floor littered with swarms of black moths that had died in a single storm.” (Bradbury, 72-73). 
   

In this quote, Bradbury compares the burnt pages of the book to a swarm of black moths, which lied “dead” from the fire. Moths are usually white but would turn black if burned. In this entry, Bradbury foreshadows an earlier part of the novel where books were described as birds (Which represented freedom). In this way, burning pages was equal to killing the freedom that society should possess.

This quote makes readers feel that books are living organisms, that suffer when they are burnt; and that, when they are “killed”, all the freedom and inspiration, which makes them fly in the imagination of readers, also dies. On the other hand, it makes people aware of all the danger that can happen if censorship starts to be a primordial policy in a government; and how freedom starts to be restricted by it.

When I read it, I perceived this effect because I felt sorry for the books that were burnt with fire, as living things, and how they “died” progressively. I felt that if a book of mine was burnt one day by the firemen, I would feel completely controlled by the government´s policies and unable to have my own thoughts and ideas.

Another metaphor in the novel is:

   

    2.  “There were people in the suction train but he held the book in his hands and the silly thought came to him, if you read fast and read it all, maybe some sand will stay in the sieve. But he read and the words fell through, and he thought, in a few hours, there will be Beatty, so no phrase must escape me, each line must be memorized”. (Bradbury, 74).

This image is used by Bradbury to explain Montag's goal to learn the knowledge he reads in books, in this case, the Bible.  Like sand falling through a sieve, Montag thinks that if he reads fast enough, at least some of the books' wisdom will be retained before it falls through the sieve of his mind. In this way, the sand works like the knowledge condensed in books, and the Sieve as Montag´s mind or brain.

It is a metaphor because it compares two unlike things or ideas (The sieve with the brain and the sand with the knowledge that cannot be retained). 

This quote makes the reader feel anxious about the fact that Montag was in the train with people that could watch him reading and accuse him to the system; but they don´t look at him because they are not interested in Montag´s doings as they´re always immeresed in their own, fictitious, electronic world. 

However, the reader gets also amused about Montag´s wish to learn by heart the Bible, in his continuous wish of reaching happiness.

I perceived this effect on the reader because it is hard to find someone that would like to memorize a book, specially the Bible, phrase by phrase. By using this figure, Bradbury makes the reader assimilate Montag´s hunger and thirst of truth up to the point that he wants to learn by heart a book in its search.

Additionally, a metaphor in page 79 was found:

·          3. “The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together in one garment for us”. (Bradbury, 79).

In terms of literature, this statement is a metaphor that refers to how an author pulls so much information (Patches of the universe) together into one cohesive, impactful garment (book). This is done by a variety of literary techniques the author uses in order to provide a clear picture of a situation, event, etc., he/she is trying to convey to the reader.

With this metaphor, Professor Faber makes reference to the knowledge, or brands of knowledge, that are “stitched” or joined in one single garment, quilt, or product (Books) where the understandings, knowledge and ideas are connected for us.

Professor Faber.

In this quote, the public notices Faber´s ability on using figures of speech, as a result of all the years he spent reading and learning, and he/she also understands how books store knowledge in order to prevent its oblivion.

 I noticed this effect on the reader because I share the opinion that books stitch knowledge for us; and that, the conclusions that we draw about those issues or topics exposed in books and our own ideas about them, are the ones that stitch the universe of knowledge in our minds. I also noticed Faber´s ability on figurative language because it is obvious that someone with such ability has to have lots of practice and knowledge.

Here is another metaphor in the book:

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 4. "We are living in a time when flowers are trying to live on flowers, instead of growing on good rain and black loam”. (Bradbury, 79).

This quote can be interpreted in several ways. In the first one, flowers represent a society in which people want to be mediocre and whose thoughts come from someone else: the TV parlor or the government. In this way, people are not original and are not able to draw their own conclusions. On the other hand, if they grew under good rain and black loam, then all people will be different and have individual thoughts.



The second interpretation could be that if black loam is dirt and flowers are pretty, then if flowers grow on flowers, the society is only exposed to beautiful things and not to negative feelings. 




And a last interpretation we found when reading was that, if the flowers are the society, the black loam are the books and rain is knowledge; then, as books are the truth fed by knowledge, the society does not know the truth because the government has decided to ban books.

This quote has a great impact on the reader because it makes him/her think about if he/she has his/her own thoughts of if they are based in other people´s ideas or if they are only focused in beautifulness and pleasure and do not realize the world´s situation.
 I noticed these effects on the reader because, most of the times, what we learn or what we know is what others have thought, discovered or invented (Plato, Aristotle, Pasteur or Einstein), the government and/or teachers and not what we really believe or think. This is the reason why we should have our own ideas and thoughts grown by rain (knowledge) in the black loams to contribute to the humanity´s development.

Another metaphor found in the book is:

     5.  “I´m the Queen Bee, safe in the hive. You will be the drone, the travelling ear”. (Bradbury, 87).

In this quote, a metaphor can be identified because there is a comparison, based upon similarity or resemblance, between the queen bee and Faber and the drone with Montag. This sentence is said when Faber is talking to Montag referring about an object that is similar to a seashell radio, and his plan of listening to the firemen world through the device. With this metaphor, Faber refers himself as a king (Queen bee) safe in his house, while Montag is a drone in the fire station (A male bee in a colony of social bees, which does not work but can fertilize a Queen) and the “traveling ear”; which means that his responsibility is to be Faber´s ear in the fireplace. In this quote, reader´s reaffirm Faber´s ability in figurative language and understand their plan using the figure of the bees.  

I liked it because it is really inspiring the way that Faber expresses himself when he is referring to a simple thing or event (Their plan). And I really liked the way he used the bee “social classes” to describe the situation.

The last most important metaphor we found in the book was:

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6.  “You could feel the war getting ready in the sky that night. The way the clouds moved aside and came back, and the way the stars looked, a million of them swimming between the clouds, like the enemy disks […] and the moon go up in red fire; that was how the night felt”. (Bradbury, 88).

In this metaphor, the war represents the rebellion of the pro-book movement against the majority: the society and the government; the clouds represent the society;  the "swimming stars like the enemy disks" (Personification (Stars cannot swim) and simile (Uses the word "like" to compare)) represent the firemen who are always inspecting among the civilization all those who still live in the book era; and the moon in red fire represents all the books that were going to be burnt that night.

The effect that this phrase has on the reader is huge. More than “how the night felt”, it is a representation of Montag´s feelings on the landscape of that night. I perceived this effect because, after analyzing the quote, I noticed that more than a landscape it was a representation of his thoughts, ideas and feelings.