Clarisse-Be Unique (Fahrenheit 451)

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Sherry Wu Mrs.Fittro Eng. 9H/7th period 10 September 2013 Clarisse McClellan: Be Unique “I’m seventeen and I’m crazy” (5). Clarisse McClellan, a character in Ray Bradbury’s science fiction novel Fahrenheit 451, is anything but ordinary when compared to the rest of the people in the dystopian society in which she lives. She is a lover of life and nature and is a forerunner of Guy Montag’s new eye opening perspective of his own life. Clarisse represents innocence in a society blind to the truth of real life, filled by people who seek only constant, thoughtless stimulation. Clarisse, a down-to-earth, happy character, acts as a foil to Montag’s cold, mindless wife, Mildred, and remains an underdeveloped, flat character, with a huge impact. Clarisse represents true happiness and maturity, something realized only because she has not succumbed to the dystopian society, differentiating her from the rest of her peers. She is nothing like her peers and does not enjoy the same things as shown when Clarisse says: ‘I’m antisocial, they say. I don’t mix. It’s so strange. I’m very social indeed. It all depends on what you mean by social, doesn’t it? ...But everyone I know is either shouting or dancing around like wild or beating up one another. Do you notice how people hurt each other nowadays?’ ‘You sound so very old.’ ‘Sometimes I’m ancient. I’m afraid of children my own age.’ (26-27) Because she is deemed “antisocial,” she has completely given up on making friends at school. She accepts the fact that she does not like what the rest of society does and sees it as a good thing. Her level of maturity is far greater than any kid, and even adult. She feels “ancient” as she takes the time to think, observe, and learn about her surroundings, quite unlike what the government feeds to the rest of society. In other words, Clarisse acknowledges that she is different, but

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