Fahrenheit 451 features several types of figurative language. One type is personification, in which an inanimate object is likened to a living thing. For example, in the first chapter, the hose spraying fire is compared to a snake: "this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world" (page 1 in the Del Rey edition, 1991). Later in the same paragraph, the sparks the fire creates are compared to "a swarm of fireflies" (page 1)--another example of personification.
There are also several examples of similes and metaphors. For example, Clarisse's face is "bright as snow in the moonlight" (page 7). A comparison using like or as is a simile. An example of a metaphor is the following description of Clarisse's face: "her face...was fragile milk crystal" (page 7). A metaphor is a comparison that does not use like or as. These types of figurative language make Bradbury's writing vivid and effective.
The entire book hinges on a metaphor, as the society's destruction of books is a symbol for their destruction of learning and history. In other words, the burning of books represents something larger and broader.
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