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Fire isn’t the only thing that’s both red and symbolic in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. In this Recap: 60 seconds on blood.

Video Transcription:

If you want to know what Bradbury really thinks about a society where entertainment is king and no one thinks for themselves, well, just check out his second symbol. Up next, I’ve got sixty seconds on … blood.

Blood, that life-giving fluid, is symbolic of something bigger than, well, life, in Farenheit 451. It’s more like a representation of the inner self or the characters’ repressed souls—and the way the inner self is poisoned and lost in a society like the one Bradbury has created.

Take it from Montag’s wife, Mildred, who has to have her blood replaced within the first fifteen pages of the story. She overdoses on pills, and to save her, Montag has to call in some guys with a weird machine that pumps all the blood out of her body and replaces it with fresh blood.

You’d think having your blood replaced would change you, but Mildred’s apparently soul-less. Having new blood, blood that’s not even her own, doesn’t seem to phase her; the next day, it’s as though nothing has happened.

And the fact that Mildred’s blood is so easily replaced shows its significance: Mildred’s inner self is too far gone, too far corrupted by society to be rejuvenated. She’s essentially a machine—lifeless and soulless, like virtually everyone else in Bradbury’s twisted, thought-free world.