Question

In Fahrenheit 451
The Hearth and th Salamander, The Sieve and the Sand, and Burning Bright. Explain why the titles of these sections are significant, both in the action and themes of the novel. Why do you think Bradbury chose to entitle the
sections this way?

Answer 1

I think the section 1 i.e. 'The hearth and salamander' is named so because both the hearth and the salamander have to do with fire, something that is ever-present in the life of novel's protagonist, Guy Montag. In the book, it is a symbol for the firemen: they wear it on their uniforms and they call their fire trucks "salamanders."

Moving on to the 2nd section which is 'The Sieve and the sand ' here the title refers to Montag's childhood memory of trying to fill a sieve with sand. He's reminded of this episode as he's trying to read the Bible on the subway. While he's trying to memorize what he's reading, an announcement for toothpaste keeps derailing him. To Montag, the sand represents the knowledge that he seeks—something of material importance—and the sieve represents his mind trying to grasp and retain this knowledge.

And in 'Burning Bright' Granger describes how the Phoenix "burnt himself up" only to be born again, new. Overall, the burning bright is a symbol, a tie to specific instances, where everything that Montag ever knew is completely destroyed, through fire, burning bright as his life is wiped clean.

Well I never thought why he named those sections like that but it was a wise decision. You can see many novels with the same ideology, they extract the whole section to one line and honestly it's magical.