Farrenheit 451; Clarisse

Clarisse

In Fahrenheit 451 Clarisse McClellan seemed to play an enormous but diminutive role that has an impact on the main character, Guy Montag, as well as the entire book.

I was intrigued by Clarisse from the very start. I loved how she appeared so dark and mysterious, as if she came out of thin air. The chemistry between she and Montag was almost immediate and it felt precise, as if that’s the way we should connect with every stranger we come in contact with. I read through Clarisse’s words the way I might read through an interesting flow of poetry, they immediately hooked me in. Although Clarisse seemed strange and unusually talkative, you can’t help but feel a connection with her, and yet feel sorry for her at the same time; You can almost sense she has all of these intriguing, strange ideas, yet no one seems to give her the time of day, like many of us might feel through out our lifetime, so we get why she is immediately drawn to Montag, because he listens.

I think Clarisse’s significance in this book compares to the open minded people of this world, that open the ignorance of the closed minded people. Montag never questioned his job before meeting Clarisse, he even loved his job. Clarisse questions him about how firemen used to put out fires once upon a time, instead of starting them, and Montag laughs this off, but it starts to subconsciously sink in, as well as all of Clarisse’s other insights to life do. Cut to Montag’s life and we realize that no one really talks to him about life in general, or anything anymore and Clarisse opens our eyes to this.

Clarisse symbolizes everything that is wrong and right with the world. She speaks her mind, and is blatentley open about her views on things that no one else seems to realize. Clarisse enjoys life’s simple necessities such as dew on the grass and how happy people seem or