6. a small strip of coloured cloth signifying membership of an order or award of military decoration, prize, or other distinction. 7. a small, usually looped, strip of coloured cloth worn to signify support for a charity or cause: a red AIDS ribbon.
The books burned were Jewish, Marxist, Bolshevik, or other disreputable or non-German books. These included the works of Heinrich Heine, Sigmund Freud, Thomas Mann, Erich Maria Remarque, Albert Einstein, Walter Benjamin, Karl Marx, Jack London and Margaret Sanger.
Through the firemen, who burn books and wear the number 451 on their helmets, fire symbolizes destruction. (451Â°F is the temperature at which paper and books burn.) Yet at the same time, Clarisse reminds Montag of candle-light, and so fire, when controlled, symbolizes the flickering of self-awareness and knowledge.