Introduction There are many predictions of 2049, but some may be further from reality than others. Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian Sci-Fi novel written by Ray Bradbury taking place in 2049. One of the characters from the beginning of the story is Clarisse, who opens Montag’s eyes to the world around him. While Clarisse is young, Faber is quite the contrary and helped Montag make smarter decisions. Away from society, Granger is part of a group that rebels against their government, and he helped Montag become committed to helping society. Montag is influenced by Clarisse, Faber, and Granger who help him become open-minded, smarter about his actions, and committed to changing his society. Clarisse BP #1 Clarisse causes Montag to release his …show more content…
As she is talking with Montag, she asks him a simple question., However,but However, in this world, that question is not that simple to answer. “‘Are you happy?’ she said. ‘Am I what?’ he cried … He felt his smile slide away, melt, fold over and down on itself … Darkness. He was not happy” (Bradbury 7, 9). It is common for everyone to believe they are happy, hence the bewilderment from Montag when Clarisse questioned him. At this point Montag has been introduced to a fairly new concept, which was almost unheard of within his dystopian society. Unhappiness. This emotion is one of the biggest pieces of the puzzle to Montag’s awakening. Another way Clarisse was able to impact Montag was that she was able to get him to break one of their society’s laws. “‘Do you ever read any of the books you burn?’ He laughed. ‘That’s against the law!’ … He spoke the words haltingly and with a terrible self-consciousness. He read a dozen pages here or there” (Bradbury 5, 65). While initially, Montag was strongly against breaking the law by reading books, Montag quickly overcame that rule. In …show more content…
Granger is a rebel against society and works in a national group that serves as vessels for books. Granger helped Montag understand how he felt about Mildred. “‘When I was a boy my grandfather died, and he was a sculptor … And when he died, I suddenly realized I wasn’t crying for him at all, but for all the things he did” (Bradbury 148, 149). A quick fact about Mildred, everything she did in life was on a couch looking at the TV. So when Montag felt nothing when he watched Mildred die, Granger’s wise words explained Montag’s feelings perfectly. Since he now understands how he feels, he realizes he has to help everyone else his own way. Lucky for him, Granger’s group is the perfect way to do so. “‘I[Granger] am Plato's Republic. Like to read Marcus Aurelius? Mr. Simmons is Marcus.’ … We are also Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John” (Bradbury 144, 145). Preserving the knowledge of these books through their memory is a great way to make sure the ideas are not lost. When Montag is offered to join the group by Granger he accepts. This is a large responsibility and it requires a lot of commitment, but Montag does accept. Granger also told Montag some wise words to help him along. These words are a large contributor to Montag’s longing to fix his society. "'Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said … It doesn’t matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was
At the beginning of the book, Montag is a proud fireman with a "happy" life in their society. "It was a pleasure to burn. … his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history" (1). However, after meeting Clarisse, a young and beautiful teenager with unconventional thoughts and questions challenging Montag's worldview, he starts questioning his role as a fireman and the way of their society with her question, "Are you happy?" (7).
This quote shows her attempts at trying to get him to understand what is going on in the world. She continues to keep talking to him and saying stuff that seems weird to Montag but is the truth about their world. She says “You’re not like the others” (Bradbury 21)
I’m not?”(Bradbury8) Montag started questioning himself after being asked if he was happy. He automatically answered with Of course, then started to question her instead of his answer, as if Clarisse was in the wrong as for asking him. A lot of kids could have related to Montag and parents to Clarisse during COVID. Kids were constantly asked how we were doing and if we were happy, and the only correct answer was to say I’m good or yep.
This is evident when she asks Montag, “Are you happy?” (7). This makes Montag think about whether or not he is truly happy and what the source of his unhappiness would be, and think of other things to do in replace of those sources. Through these conversations, Clarisse helps Montag to challenge the law and free himself from the oppressive society he is part of by making him question what he really wants to do and be in
If Clarisse was just a person in his life who had no meaning, he would not have thought of her that fondly even after her death. These sentences show Montag still thinks of Clarisse as someone he cares about. His eyes were even watering from the thought someone had killed Clarisse on purpose. This indicates that he would have done anything for Clarisse and her influence caused him this pain. The tone of the text gives us a chance to understand Montag seems broken compared to his “perfect” life before.
She is intrieguing to Montag, as she is very different from anyone he had ever met. Pretty and energetic, she does things others never think to, or are scared to do. That is, she asks questions. She wants to know, from little details of the world skimmed by those who cannot appreciate the little things in life, and brings them to Montag's attention. She contemplates happiness and individuality.
The novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury combined with the OP-ED article Uncle Ray’s Dystopia by Tim Kreider proves that Fahrenheit 451 was an accurate prediction of life in 2023. In the novel society, at first, glance appears to be enjoyable. The people live only to feel pleasure and nothing else. But in reality, they became ignorant, stupid, and unable to feel true emotion. The OP-ED article compares current life to different pieces that Ray Bradbury wrote on the prediction of the future.
All of these different people affect Montag in different ways throughout the novel and make him who he is in the end of the book. They were all very important characters, even though we don’t always agree with everything that they did. There is a quote that describes how we should live our lives so that we don’t end up like the people in this novel. “Stuff your eyes with wonder, he said, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world.
Clarisse, a seventeen year old girl, who was also Montag’s new neighbor, helped him open his eyes and confront reality. Clarisse was an “odd one”, she had something not many people had, knowledge. In Montag’s world, knowledge was something that many people lacked, this was the whole purpose of burning books,
At first Montag is confused why she would even ask him such a question. He feels as if everything is fine and that he is happy. He then “felt his smile slide away, melt, fold over, and down on itself like a tallow skin, like the stuff of a fantastic candle burning too long and now collapsing and now blown out. Darkness. He was not happy” (9).
During the book, Clarisse plays an important part in Montag’s life by questioning his relationships with his job, wife, and happiness. First, Clarisse helps Montag realize that he is unhappy. On the first night, Montag and Clarisse met. Clarisse asks Montag if he is happy.
She is the first person who challenges Montag and gets him to truly think. She triggers Montag’s questioning of life, what he is doing, and his relationship with his wife Mildred. Upon their first encounter Clarisse begins asking Montag questions, questions about a time when firefighters put out flames not started them, a time when life was a bit slower. She asks, “Are you happy?” once Clarisse is home Montag responds, “Of course I’m happy.
Montag is willing to die in order to accomplish what he wants because he has nothing to lose. Montag comes to the conclusion that he has nothing to lose, so he is willing to fight for his cause. “‘That’s the good part of dying; when you’ve nothing to lose, you run any risk you want.’”(85). Montag “doesn’t care” about anything else other than books. He doesn’t care about Mildred, his job as a fireman, about Beatty’s threats, etc.
In the beginning of the novel, when the character Clarisse asks Montag if he is happy or not he responds saying yes, but then he begins to question himself and he realizes he isn't really happy at all. Also after Beatty makes Montag burn a book he had since it was against the law to own a book, and this contributes to the internal issues that Montag has because now not only is he not happy, but he is not happy and confused. He is having a war within himself because he has that curiosity about books, but his job is to follow the law and burn all books, but also the character Clarisse put a lot of different thoughts and doubts in his
Montag noticed that there is more in books than he thought because the lady was willing to die for them, so Montag went to his house to read the books he had hidden. Furthermore he convinced his wife to help him read the books, Mildred is very antisocial and really doesn’t care about anyone. I say this because there is a character in this