“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that” (“Martin”). Regularly in society, when lives are filled with hate and fear, people begin to pull away from society all together. Conformity is easily bred as people look to each other for comfort. The dystopian society in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 experiences these issues of conformity. However, Clarisse McClellan, a lover a life and nature, is the foil to the mindless, conforming citizens of her city. Clarisse’s abundance of curiosity and love of knowledge is shunned by a society that has turned its back on learning and books themselves. Unable to contain her personality, the unstoppable curiosity she holds is marked as a “time bomb.” Later, a fortuitous meeting between the seventeen year old, and her neighbor, Guy Montag, a fireman, creates an unexpected friendship. Clarisse slowly unravels the many layers of conformity Montag hides under with her constant questions. These questions make him more self-aware than he ever knew was possible. Montag gradually goes through a painful self-examination and comes to the realization that his life is missing love, knowledge and leisure. Then, by a random act of violence, Clarisse is killed. Yet, her presence is seen through Montag as he completes his transformation. In Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, Clarisse McClellan is introduced for a brief period of time to highlight the dynamic transformation of Guy Montag from a mindless, cold conformist to a curious, knowledgeable nonconformist.
Prior to meeting Clarisse, Montag is a quiet, unnoticed citizen of society. Montag is a fireman, but not in the traditional sense. In their society, the purpose of the firemen is to burn ...
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...ng small details, something he was taught to do by Clarisse. The first thing Montag notices when he exits the river is the way it smells. At the beginning of the novel, Clarisse has asked Montag if he had even tasted the rain before, because she thought it tasted like red wine. Then, once Montag left the city for good, he noticed ever small detail around him like Clarisse had, but without any help. Basking in the pure joy of being free, he takes a moments and observes his new surroundings, “He put down his hand and felt a weed rise up like a child brushing him. His fingers smelled of licorice. He stood breathing, and the more he breathed the more he was filled up with all the details of the land” (138).
Works Cited
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967. Print.
"Martin Luther King, Jr. Quote." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.
“It was a pleasure to burn” (1). Montag never thought much of his job, to him, it was merely his duty. Meeting Clarisse starts Montag's revision of life. Her interest and questioning is so unique that Montag is intrigued by her. He had never met someone who asks "why" instead of "how." Soon, Clarisse disappears, and is then presumably dead for the rest of the book. Shortly after his disappearance, Montag to begin smuggling books during work, hoping to learn more by himself. From the old woman’s house, Montag steals a book and hides it. At first thought, Montag believes this act of defiance to the law is wrong, and that he should end such rebellious thoughts. Soon after, however, he thinks that it is possible that taking the book isn’t such a bad thing. The ability for Montag to find the courage to break the law, after 10 years of obedience shows significant development in Montag as a whole. This is because he knows he is doing something wrong, but he does it anyway. By doing this and not burning the book, he inadvertently is changing his opinion on fire. Although he doesn’t know it, he is starting to change his opinion towards fire being destructive rather than cleansing.
Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 opens with Guy Montag, a fireman, reminiscing of the pleasures of burning. As the story unfolds, we learn that Montag is a fireman who rids the world of books by burning all that are found. Walking home one night Montag meets Clarisse, his strong minded neighbor. She begins peppering him with questions. Clarisse doesn’t go along with societal norms and Montag realizes that immediately. “I rarely watch the 'parlor walls ' or go to races or Fun Parks. So I 've lots of time for crazy thoughts, I guess.” (Bradbury 3) Clarisse uses her imagination brought by stories from books and family instead of watching television. Clarisse helps Montag realize that the government induced censorship and conformation is stifling society’s education and imagination. Montag’s wife, Mildred ,is incapable of having a personal conversation with Montag. She conforms to societal standards and is greatly
Clarisse is Montag’s first mentor in his journey; she is the one who first opens his eyes to the world around him, as well as asking the ultimate question “Are you happy?” (7) To which Montag cried “Am I what?” He never gave whether he was actually, truly happy a real, legitimate thought in his entire life. He just woke up, ate breakfast, went to work, ate lunch, went home, ate dinner, and went to sleep; and all with a big grin fixed on his face. But now, after a bit of consideration he came to the realization that “He was not happy…. He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask a...
At what point can a society be described as dystopian? Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, tells the story of a man named Guy Montag who lives in a dystopian society where life isn’t as great as the government makes it out to be. Our society is slowly becoming more and more similar to the dystopian society found in Fahrenheit 451 in the fact that many families aren’t as stable as most might desire them to be, the government mostly ignores the country’s ideals and only focuses on its own for the sake of its own benefit, and many of society’s ideas are being disrespected or noted as activities that people shouldn’t be allowed to indulge in while in this country through censorship.
The first of all, Montag loses his control over his own mind. At the beginning of the story, he meets a beautiful girl called Clarisse. She is a peculiar girl who wonders about the society and how people live in there. She tells Montag the beauty of the nature, and also questions him about his job and life. Though he has been proud of being a fireman, Clarisse says, “I think it’s so strange you’re a fireman, it just doesn’t seem right for you, somehow” (21). Montag feels “his body divide itself into a hotness and a coldness, a softness and a hardness, a trembling and a not trembling, the two halves grinding one upon the other” (21) by her words. Everything Clarisse says is something new to him and he gradually gets influenced a lot by this mysterious girl. Actually, the impact of the girl is too significant that his mind is taken over by her when he talks with Beatty, the captain of the firemen. “Suddenly it seemed a much younger voice was speaking for him. He opened his mouth and it was Clarisse McClellan saying, ‘Didn’t firemen prevent fires rather than stoke them up and get them going?’” (31). His mind is not controlled by himself in this part. He takes of Clarisse’s mind and it causes confusion within his mind. It can be said that this happening is an introduction of him losing his entire identity.
When Montag meets Clarisse, his neighbor, he starts to notice that there is more to life than burning books. Montag states, “Last night I thought about all the kerosene I have used in the past ten years. And I thought about books. And for the first time I realized that a man was behind each one of those books” (Bradbury 49). It begins to bother Montag that all he has done for the past years is burn books. He starts to rethink his whole life, and how he has been living it. Montag goes on to say, “It took some men a lifetime maybe to put some of his thoughts down, looking around at the world and life and then I come along in two minutes and boom! It is all over” (Bradbury 49) Before, Montag never cares about what he has been doing to the books, but when he begins to ignore the distractions and really think about life he starts to notice that he has been destroying some other mans work. Montag begins to think more of the world
In Montag’s society, everyone is the same, and no one questions anything that is happening around them. Clarisse, a girl who questions the way their society works, tells Montag, ‘“They
Have you ever thought that our society may be connected to a fictional utopian one? In Ray Bradbury’s book Fahrenheit 451, he writes about a utopian society that easily turned into a dystopia. The society in this book decided that books are dangerous because they contain history and information. Also, instead of firemen who put out fires, the firemen in this book start the fires to burn books. Even though our society isn’t a utopia necessarily, the book society and our society do have some similarities.
The two observation Clarisse makes about Montag’s conversational mannerisms are that Montag laughs when Clarisse haven’t been funny and unlike other firefighters, Montag listens to Clarisse’s story without considering them as jokes.
Of all literary works regarding dystopian societies, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is perhaps one of the most bluntly shocking, insightful, and relatable of them. Set in a United States of the future, this novel contains a government that has banned books and a society that constantly watches television. However, Guy Montag, a fireman (one who burns books as opposed to actually putting out fires) discovers books and a spark of desire for knowledge is ignited within him. Unfortunately his boss, the belligerent Captain Beatty, catches on to his newfound thirst for literature. A man of great duplicity, Beatty sets up Montag to ultimately have his home destroyed and to be expulsed from the city. On the other hand, Beatty is a much rounder character than initially apparent. Beatty himself was once an ardent reader, and he even uses literature to his advantage against Montag. Moreover, Beatty is a critical character in Fahrenheit 451 because of his morbid cruelty, obscene hypocrisy, and overall regret for his life.
The dream of a utopian society is a common one, but unfortunately, all utopias are destined to contain dystopian elements. Although, some dystopias are more sustainable than others, as within the society citizens may believe it to be a utopia. Ray Bradbury 's Fahrenheit 451, focuses on a dystopia in which all literature and outside communication is completely banned from apocalyptic America. The society’s focus to keep all their citizens “happy” through fulfilling careers and a lot of time for leisure. In an attempt to prevent pain and doubt, no time is left for thought or reflection. Without pain, the citizens can never truly be happy. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, revolves around the apocalyptic world in which humans are genetically
Dystopian societies are deceiving and manipulative. From the outside looking in, they create the illusion of a flawless government and society. In truth, dystopias are founded upon unrealistic ideas, and often result in mass poverty or public mistrust. Propaganda and the banishment of the natural world figuratively create the illusion of a utopian society to mask the flawed government and societal ideas within. Biased and misleading information persuades the citizens; the citizens must be brainwashed and dehumanized for the dystopia to function. From the dehumanization, the natural world is eradicated.
In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, alienation is a prominent theme throughout the novel. The alienation and isolation of the protagonist Guy Montag reveals the dystopian society’s false assumptions of knowledge and blasphemous moral values. The ever present sense of separation associated with Montag occurs both within himself, with his wife, and with society altogether.
Ironically, Montag eventually realizes that the grains of sandy words he had felt slipping through the holes of his mind had actually stayed with him becoming kindling that ignited memories and imagination. He simply needed to escape the heat of his fiery, destructive environment. In this new place, without kerosene perfume, fire even smelled differently. Fire could enable Montag to discover a world in which men could befriend other men and even other creatures, a world in which fires could indeed burn blazing, bright flames of hope to lead men out of the primitive caves of their ignorance.
Guy Montag is a fireman who is greatly influenced in Ray Bradbury's novel, Fahrenheit 451. The job of a fireman in this futuristic society is to burn down houses with books in them. Montag has always enjoyed his job, that is until Clarisse McClellan comes along. Clarisse is seventeen and crazy. At least, this is what her uncle, whom she gets many of her ideas about the world from, describes her as. Clarisse and Montag befriend each other quickly, and Clarisse's impact on Montag is enormous. Clarisse comes into Montag's life, and immediately begins to question his relationship with his wife, his career, and his happiness. Also, Clarisse shows Montag how to appreciate the simple things in life. She teaches him to care about other people and their feelings. By the end of the novel, we can see that Montag is forever changed by Clarisse.