After reading the first part of the book
"Fahrenheit 451", I learned that Clarisse played a big role and
affected many characters because of her personality. At the very start of the
book, Clarisse was very social to Montag and asked him questions about
being a fireman. Just from the little conversations they had, I found that
Clarisse was a very curious and adventurous girl. To the left is a picture
of a girl that I think Clarisse would look like, but I think she might look a
little older than the girl in the picture. She did not fit in with
everyone else, and she was called "antisocial" and "crazy".
If I were a citizen in their society, I would
probably agree with everyone else that she was a little
crazy and thinks about things too much. Though, from my personal view, I
don't feel that Clarisse was very strange at all. She was curious,
adventurous, very social, and just wanted to learn about anything and everything.
Does that sound crazy to you? I'm curious about things and I'm
also adventurous, yet people don't call me crazy or anything of that nature. I
feel that Clarisse fits in more with my society than the one in the book.
After analyzing
the first part, I came to the conclusion that her most important
quote was a question she asked Montag at the very beginning of the book. As she
was entering her house, she asked him, “Are you happy?" Before Montag
could think of an answer, she already had vanished from his sight. I
feel that this is her most important quote because it affects
Montag's life and even changes the way he thinks about things as the story progresses.
Because of that question, Montag begins to question if he is happy or not. He
comes to the conclusion that he is not happy. He even thinks about quitting his
job. I believe this one simple question ultimately changed his life.
Adding on to Montag and being a fireman, Clarisse knew right away that is what
he was. She tells him that she is not afraid of him or anyone of the firemen,
and looks at them as regular men. Their conversation has made me feel that
Clarisse seems to not favor the firemen and question why they burn books. She
even brings up the "myth" about firemen putting out fires. When she
brought that up, it really made me think about her and her family. I feel that
her family is hiding a secret, or they know something no one else knows. I
think this because a lot of things she knows about, including the myth, is
what our society is like today. Though, I don't get to learn much more about
Clarisse because she dies in a car crash by the end of the first part. I hope
her family is still involved during the second part so I can see if my theory
about her family is correct or not.
