When a body of water such as a lake is dealt with in literature, the concept of baptism floats on the surface. Thomas Foster tackles the concept in chapter eighteen of How to Read Literature Like a Professor. In the chapter, Foster explains that when a character is doused in something two things can happen: they can drown or they can be saved. When the character drowns they die, plain and simple, but when a character is saved they have changed. The character becomes a different person mentally and amends or severs their relationships. This concept can be applied to Guy Montag form Fahrenheit 451 through kerosene and rivers.
Guy Montag is a fireman, and firemen burn things instead of saving them. To do this his team goes out when there is