The phoenix is lore of Egyptian mythology. It was believed that the bird lived in the desert for five or six hundred years. In order to renewed or reborn the bird sets its own self on fire. The phoenix symbolizes immortality. The author, Bradbury, repeats the symbol of the phoenix through-out the novel. The symbol is worn on the fireman's arm (uniform). On Beatty's hat rests the symbol of the phoenix and he drives a car called a phoenix. He is the antagonist. In reference to Beatty, Montag tries to destroy him but Beatty is reborn after he is burned to death. In the book Granger is cooking and looks into the fire, he sees and thinks of the phoenix and states the word "phoenix."
The lessons in the book are all relevant to the phoenix. The book is about a utopian society that is not utopia at al. His use of the fire may be an indicator to the reader that to escape the society and be reborn elsewhere is better than to live within the society.
Montag is the protagonist in the story. He is unhappy in his position as a fireman. He wears the phoenix symbol on his uniform. He witnesses his first human victim burn to death, the old woman, but he can not come to terms with how helpless he is because he could not save her. Montage experiences a change, metamorphism throughout the story. He is reborn like the phoenix through those changes.
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