Clarisse's 'Gone': A Short Story

Throughout part one Bradburry symbolizes Clarisse as the hearth. The Hearth is supposed to make you feel warm and at home, but it originally means a fire is burning bright inside a fireplace. When Montag describes Clarisse, he states “It was a look, almost, of pale surprise; the dark eyes were so fixed to the world that no move escaped them. Her dress was white and it whispered….. The white

Clarisse is a curious girl about her environment, how the earth has evolved, and the past. She rubs off on Montag, which could lead to a dramatic change in his life.

She sits home all day and watches her three walls in the living room, that they had equipped with giant TV’s. Mildred bugs Montag for a fourth TV wall. She thinks it would be necessary to achieve the full effect of her TV programs, but Montag refuses knowing that it is a useless and expensive investment. Montag finds Clarisse waiting at the bus stop the next day. She then informs him that she doesn’t go to school because she’s been labeled anti-social by her teachers. Montag and Clarisse continue to carry on a conversation for a while before he eventually had to go and head off to work. Once he arrives at the fire station an alarm sounds to notify the firemen that someone is in the procession of books and that it is time to perform their duty of burning the house of books. Before the firemen begin to incinerate the house, Montag snatches two of the criminal’s books, and when the old lady who owns the houses refuses to leave her personal possessions to be burned the fireman are ordered to burn the house and its books along with her. This act dwells on Montag to the point where is makes him feel sick and very depressed about the inhumane actions he had performed.

“The psychiatrist wants to know why I go out and hike around in the forests and watch the birds and collect butterflies” (Bradbury, 23). This quotation shows that Clarisse is considered different in this society, and she must see a psychiatrist because she admires nature. Clarisse influences Montag by admiring nature, because Montag is now starting to realize the beauty of nature, and beginning to develop his own opinion. Clarisse strongly influenced Montag after her death.

Clarisse helps Montag look around him and see everything, from the smallest snowflake to the biggest tree. Montag never really thinks about what is happening in his life, or why it seems he never shows much emotion towards anything. Clarisse teaches Montag to look around and to pay attention to what is really important in life, just not what his society tells him. Even though I believe Clarisse was the reason for Montag’s major metamorphosis, I believe that there were two additional individuals that had a role to play in Montag’s expedition to find answers to fill the void in his life.

Clarisse affected Montag by showing him how to be curious and adventurous and teaching Montag to try new things. Montag being a fireman doesn't know what he is doing for his society, by him burning books everyone's knowledge goes down. Clarisse is not for society, she is more free minded then Montag "'I rarely watch the 'parlor walls' or go to races or Fun Parks. So I've lots of time for crazy thoughts, I guess.'"(9). She is against watching the parlor and doing stuff society wants you to do. Montag will be affected by this and learn from this, he will later be against watching the parlor. Clarisse's attitude to life is good too, it seems like she is the light in a dark room. She also always has something interesting to say this makes Montag want to be around her "'Let me come in. I won't say anything. I just want to listen. What is it you're saying?'" (17)Montag wants hear what she has to say for there is always something interesting to be heard when she is talking.

She struggles with accepting reality, even when there are clear signs of the truth. An example of this is when her father warns her about playing with fire after she burns their shed down and endangers her brother, saying “you all got a little to close to it today” (Walls 61). As her story continues she starts to see the consequences fire creates. After burning down a hotel, putting her whole family in danger she excepts the truth about what it does and slowly starts to further herself with it.During this time her parents actions start to affect her siblings in a worse way and she starts to have doubts about her father stating, “I listened to dad’s plans and tried to encourage him, hoping that what he was saying was true but I was also pretty sure it wasn’t” (Walls 171). As fire becomes more absent in her life so does the hope that her parents will succeed at improving their

The irony of the novel is that “happiness of those who love the book is subjugated to the happiness of the masses’’ (Filler). Since having books are against the law, if you were lucky enough to read a few like the English professor and Mrs. Brown the lady that committed suicide by burning with her books, then not having books would make one unhappy. If one never read a book then they are not missing anything. Beatty stated, that Clarisse McClellan was a walking time bomb. He said her family had been feeding her subconsciously, and she was better off dead. (Bradbury, p. 60). The tragic irony takes place when Montag is looking for Clarisse and find out what he had been hoping was not true, Clarisse was dead. The more Clarisse spoke to Montag the more dangerous he would become for the society that they lived in. As Clarisse’s family, mostly her uncle, would educate her on the history of the world, in return, she would tell Montag some of the things her uncle shared with her. As Clarisse started asking Montag questions about his personal life and feelings, he started thinking about how unhappy he was with his life, and became more curious about reading books, then Clarisse ironically came up missing. It seems like someone did something to her since she was corrupting Montag with her curiosity about the world. Most people ignored Clarisse, but not Montag. He could be the reason she came up missing and tragically dead.

Clarisse is one of the characters who influenced Montag by showing her own world. Clarisse remind Montag the fireman’s real job. Clarisse said ‘”strange. I heard once that a long time ago houses used to burn by accident and they needed firemen to stop the flames”’ (pg 8). Clarisse is the one of character who read a book in conflict read society. She confused Montag on

Clarisse deeply questions Montag's behavior, and exposes his potential independence. She asks about why he chose the work that he did, followed by her interpretation of Montag. She notices that Montag listens to her, and that he does things that other firemen don't do. He respects Clarisse, and lets her speak her mind. Clarisse mentions that he is different from the others, and this is very important. He was independent, and didn't know it yet. He struck out from all of the firefighters, and was different from the rest of his fellow book burners.

The third reason was that Clarisse loved to ask questions. Usually, when something happens, we usually ask “how did it happen?” This is switched around for Clarisse. Clarisse wanted to know “why something had happened.” Montag tells Clarisse, “No, no, ” he said. “It was a good question. It’s been a long time since anyone cared enough to ask. A good question (26.)” I think that she asked many questions because she wasn’t allowed to ask them in school. At her school, students sat down in class and stayed silent. She stopped going to school because they weren’t supposed to talk to each other and ask questions. Basically they watched videos that taught them information. Clarisse hated school and people considered her as antisocial. Another example is that she asked Montag if he has read any of the books that he has burned. I think that Clarisse planted an idea in Montag mind that made him wonder about what was really inside of books. Because of this, he steals a book from the old woman’s house and

Isabel Allende’s short story “Clarisa” records the story of a woman, reverenced by the people of her community and who is kind without exception, even to those who wished her harm. “Clarisa gave everything she owned to the needy, ”(Allende 36). Her generous nature and adherence to helping others depicts Clarisa as the model of affection and compassion, who gives absolutely everything she owns and even spends “ the last cent of her dowry and inheritance” (Allende 434). For this very reason others hold her in high esteem and perceive her as saintlike.

“The poor girl's better off dead.” (p. 58) It surprised me when Beatty confirmed Mildred’s thought that Clarisse had died. Given her influence on Guy’s thinking, I thought she would be one of the main characters.

Clarisse’s talking is significant to the outcome of the story. Her talking caused Montag to start reading books. This triggered the climax of the whole book. Her challenging Montag and his society’s thinking lead him to change his view upon literature. Even though Clarisse remained a static character, she influenced Montag to open his eyes and see what really is going on in his society. This insight is significant because it makes a connection to our society. Clarisse had certain characteristics that we have today. Since she was regarded as crazy, these characteristics of hers show how our society is different from their dystopian one.

She is considered antisocial and odd by people including her teacher and classmates and the way she thinks and talks is different, “‘Well,’ she said, ‘isn’t this a nice time of night to walk? I like to smell things and look at things, and sometimes stay up all night, walking, and watch the sun rise.’” (5) The way her mind works is complex and unique to the society. Clarisse shows the side of people in her society who like books because she herself is a book reader and her unusual display of her knowledge represents the human side of this