Fahrenheit 451 (Happiness) Montag isn’t happy. He wants to find happiness. But where to find it? “We love life, not because we are used to living but because we are used to loving.” Only thats in our reality. In this reality there is only lies,fear, and continuation. At first he was happy about how his life was going; Mildred sleeping in a different bed, burning books and houses, having the same routine everyday. Montag felt as if he was doing good for the city and himself. “It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed.” This all changed when he met Clarisse. Clarisse was unique and different, she walked around paying attention to all of her surroundings, thinking about everything and anything. “You’re not like the other. I’ve seen a few; I know. When I talk, you look at me. When I said something about the moon, you looked at the moon.” Clarisse said to Montag while they were walking down the sidewalk in the rain. After that moment I feel that Montag felt as if he really were different, thats when he started to …show more content…
Unlike everyone else she is herself, not who people want her to be. “I'm seventeen and i'm crazy. My uncle says the two always go together. When people ask your age, he said always say seventeen and insane.” she says this to Montag when he asks her, her age. For Montag this is new but he seems to be amused by Clarisse and how upfront she is. She is careless about the negativity and overpowers it with positive energy. As they got to know each other, Montag grew fond of seeing Clarisse every morning and evening. While getting more and more tired of how his wife Mildred is, how she just sits in front of the “family” all day. Mildred is the very opposite of Clarisse, she is stuck living her life like everyone else, like a painted picture. When you put the two together you can easily see their many differences and who live their life to the
Throughout this book we can see people who live their lives without asking themselves if they are doing the right thing, or why am I doing this, or what is my life goal. Some characters may conclude that they want to spend their entire lives with their TV. Others to have fun. Montag had been one of these people for many years. When he met Clarisse he slowly began surface from his shell, and transform into a true
After brutally killing Beatty, Montag escaped from the distressed civilization. Realization maybe a cause of unhappiness but that misery will always give one strength. “ You are stronger than you think” (Teen Health and Wellness) Sometimes civilization do not realize strength until one comes face to face with weakness. Fahrenheit 451 and today’s civilization believes that whatever brings one down will eventually make stronger even when it come to minor ideals such as marriages and
When Montag was talking to his wife while they were reading illegal books he has hidden, he said, “But Clarisse’s favorite subject wasn’t herself. It was everyone else, and me. She was the first person in a good many years I’ve really liked. She was the first person I can remember who looked straight at me as if I counted”(68). Clarisse saw the world differently.
Of course I’m happy. What does she think? I’m not?” (Bradbury 14). This goes to show that Montag has always thought he was happy and believed that he is, but when someone asks him if he is he questions his true happiness.
Happiness can be displayed in many ways but, according to dictionary.com, happiness is defined when you have joy and pleasure. In a dystopian novel called Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury, a 30-year-old man, named Montag, meets characters who show him the ways people define happiness which makes him have a different perspective on the world. During the novel Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury provide different of happiness to show how the government forces a way of happiness on citizens.
Another significance of these characters contrasting personalities is the way Bradbury makes them physically. Clarisse is physically healthy and young, in the prime season of her life, showing the ideal way of life Bradbury is trying to portray. She is a character representation of the old society Bradbury wanted which consisted of books, and the investment of individual relationship. Whereas Mildred represents a futuristic character addicted to a world without literature or thinking for yourself, which also has an abundance of mindless tv and technology.
The brain works in mysterious ways, and because of this everyones brains will have different reactions to happiness. Whether in Fahrenheit 451 or in the real world, happiness can not be easily defined; the things that make one person happy might not make another person happy in the same way, if at all. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a very good example of how people feel emotions differently, especially happiness. The relationship between Clarisse and Montag is the first emotional conflict that the readers see.
Montag eventually reaches a point where he can’t stand his normal life anymore. Clarisse, intentionally or not, has shocked Montag back into his childlike curiosity. All he wants to do is learn, something he’s never felt so attached to before. This is how Montag becomes comfortable enough with his wonder to start reading books. Within just a few moments of interaction with her, Clarisse was able to bring back the curiosity in Montag’s
Montag was never really happy with Mildred, his happiness was a mask he didn't know about. The mask had been taken off when Montag's true colors were shown. Mildred wasn't much of a wife, or friend, to Montag. Mildred was only an acquaintance to Montag, as Montag didn't feel devastated for long. ¨Mildred, leaning anxiously nervously, as if to plunge, drop, fall into that swarming immensity of color to drown in its bright happiness.¨ (Bradbury 152)
Although this idea brings him great pain at first, it later becomes his own motivation for searching for happiness in the forbidden texts he once burned with ease. Clarisse herself is happy for these same reasons. Rather than spending her whole life avoiding the unknown , she stops to pay attention to the real issues in her life. Her broken down school system, how people move too fast, and how when the people finally talk, they say nothing of importance are all things that catch her eye. She always makes sure to approach Montag and get his input.
From one of his first experiences with Clarisse, Montag feels something that he realizes he never felt before in his daily life. He ponders to himself, "How rarely did other people's faces take of you and throw back to your own expression, your own innermost trembling thought?" (Bradbury 8). What Montag is pondering about is how she behaved so attentive and natural towards
In today’s society, people achieve happiness through interaction with others, but in Ray Bradbury’s dystopian Novel, Fahrenheit 451, his characters believe that they need technology to enjoy their lives. People’s main priority is to be happy and have a successful life. They don’t want to have to worry about anything and just enjoy themselves. “‘You must understand that our civilization is so vast that we can’t have our minorities upset and stirred. Ask yourself, what do we want in this country, above all?
Quoting (Bradbury 9), “He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back.” Through this conflict he begins pondering about what he has known and analyzing his life. Not only does Clarisse McClennan stir commotion in Montag’s mind, but she pushes him over the edge with the million dollar question, “Are you happy?” As I mentioned that change was part of the theme and he begins the “Hero’s Journey,” a long hard path of endurance.”
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.
A society can greatly affect a person from expressing themself. Everyone, in different ways can contrast with one another. From their actions, their ideas and to how they speak, people can foil one another. Therefore in stories, these people are referred to foil characters. In the same way, the two secondary characters, Mildred and Clarisse, in the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, way of living in their society contributes to their character traits.