Foster uses a fantastic example in this chapter making the connection of flight signifying escape or freedom in the Song of Soloman. The Song of Soloman has fantastic symbolism with escape and freedom, but for this entry I chose Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.
Bradbury starts out the novel very cleverly by using a catchy title Fahrenheit 451, this degree just so happens to be the degree temperature that paper is burned at. This lays the back drop to what the premise of this classic Bradbury dystopian novel. Fahrenheit 451 deals with a society that burns books because free thought, the purpose of why books are made, is looked down upon. In Fahrenheit 451, there is a part in the book where they reference the books flying into the fire as "pigeon-winged books". Although it is not characters taking flight like in Peter Pan, this symbolizes a major escape. Books have been known throughout as a tool to engage the mind and contribute to the "flight" of imagination. Books are often viewed as an escape for many people, to take a "vacation" from real life and to put people into a different world except their own. Bradbury uses the bird description for that reason, books allow our minds to run free and free thinking. Taking that away lets free thinking disappear, and ultimately brain washing as in Fahrenheit 451.
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