The Hearth and the Salamander: FARENHEIT 451, Part One

Ray Bradbury knows what he wants to say and how he wants to say it, which spares the reader the tedium of deciphering theme, tone, and character complexity. The first section of Fahrenheit 451, "The Sieve and the Salamander" , is a swift introduction to the author's platform: technology robs humans of emotion and everything else that makes life worth living. I appreciate the work as a profound piece of social commentary, but so far its fictional qualities do not burn as brightly as I had hoped.
The characters of  Fahrenheit 451 are symbols with no evident depth (yet, at least). All the reader knows about Montag is that he is a fireman (an unhappy fireman, to be more specific). Mildred, his wife, is no more than an embodiment of the emptiness that pervades society throughout the novel. Captain Beatty only speaks when an ironic social critique needs to be made. Clarisse fades in and out of the story effectively, though. She has significantly more depth than the other characters, which points to the book's theme: thinking, reading, and questioning add purpose to life.
Here is what I do like about the book: the author's prose. When Bradbury does go into detail (whether it be about the eeriness of technology or the airiness of Clarisse), the words are magical and powerful. I find myself stumbling into lines that I think would look good on Books-a-Million tote bags or intellectual coffee mugs. In fact, Fahrenheit 451 could easily be dissected and displayed as a collection of motivational, intelligent quotations.
At this point, I like the book. Bradbury's passion for a society that thinks and reacts and feels emotion is powerful. He should have been a motivational speaker as well as a social commentator via novelization.