Differences Between Mildred And Clarisse In Fahrenheit 451(Essay Sample)

📌Category: Books, Fahrenheit 451
📌Words: 937
📌Pages: 4
📌Published: 18 June 2022

In Bradbury’s Novel “Fahrenheit 451”, MIldred and Clarisse are seen as two sides of Montag; neither one plays a direct role in the world he lives in but how he views it. Mildred referencing Plato’s cave can be seen as his life in the cave dull everlasting but safe while Clarries is the lure the wonder of what lay out of that pit, and to see what lured Montag out is to look throughout how each of their stories ended.

Mildred lives her life not in her own desire and fascination but in the world's pretenses and her addictions to them. Millie’s physical appearance is for the first time conveyed by Montag as sort of grotesque by today’s standard but he realizes she was never any different,”her hair burnt by chemicals to a brittle straw….the body as thin as a praying mantis from dieting… he could remember her no other way”.(Bradbury 45) Much like anorexic tendencies of women today Millie lives up to the norm of their society skinny and blond bleached to that extent. Thus proves her need for acceptance of the standards that she has been consumed by established by society. Mildred not only affects herself with these prerequisites but Montag as well, “ How long you figure before we save up and get the fourth wall torn out and a fourth wall-TV put in? It’s only two thousand dollars. ‘That’s one third my yearly pay’”.(18) Millie’s behavior of indulging in all of society’s technological shortcuts has come into effect Montag. Her greed and relentless pursuit of tv from Montag as we already seen has paid for three walls. This all comes to a close when Montag imagines her death as the nuke hits the city, “ He saw her leaning toward the great shimmering walls of color and motion.”(152) Even as Mildred’s end is so close it’s so close it doesn’t matter after all the time in the book she hasn’t changed. This part of Montag wishing for her to get out is mostly out of respect; he will not cry as we learn earlier she didn't change him to any extent ending her story there.

Clarries sees the world as a place to explore; she is seen as antisocial for being the opposite; she isn’t afraid of speaking out or thinking. Montag meets Clarisse on his way from work and describes her with a sort of tenderness, “Her head was half bent to watch her shoes stir the circling leaves. Her face was slender and milk-white.”(3) Montag describes her in such a way as though she is of holy descent. It’s far more different then how he describes Millie with a sort of bitterness. Montag next couple of conversations lead to a more noticeable topic after some time, “People don’t talk about anything… No not anything. They name a lot of cars or clothes or swimming pools mostly and say how swell! But they all say the same things and nobody says anything different from anyone else”.(28)  This was the last thing clarisse ever said to Montag which makes it the most important. She speaks of society saying because unlike her they don’t think about anything but what makes their life more to society's norm they say everyone says the same thing because they're scared of what might happen if they say anything else. Montag learns of Clarries death through the careless monotone voice of his wife. “No.The same girl.McClellan`    .McClellan. Run over by a car.Four days ago.I’m not sure. But I think she’s dead.” Clarries it would seem was destroyed by the very thing she was against when it turs to Montag on the run later in the story when he is escaping capture he is running along the highway. He almost gets hit by a car which seems like was on purpose he thinks back to her death how this was probably the way Clarries died by a norm in society with a mad bloodlust on the road. The coming back to her as a thought exemplifies her impact on Montag.

TS3: After Montag goes throughout the story with interactions between the two characters he comes to a new understanding of how this world is what he must do. Montag’s life doesn't seem changed in all the time he has known Mildred since he wouldn’t “cry”(9) if MIldred was to “die”(9). This concretes the fact how in all their years of marriage he still doesn’t feel any charge for being with  her all that time. Even at the end of the book  as the bombs hit the city he realizes she is going to die and in truth does not cry.  Clarries unlike Mildred changed Montag starting when she showed her the dandelion, “‘What a shame.’she said, ‘You’re not in love with anyone’.(19) Montag exclaims at this thought it starts a chain of events that leads him to realize he has lived nothing but the life society puts out as normal. This ends when Montag  is walking along the railroad realizing Clarisse had walked those same tracks, “And he was surprised to learn how certain he suddenly was of a single fact he could not prove. Once long ago, Clarrise had walked here,where he was walking now ``.(138) The things MOntag has done all to this point lead here. This is where he realizes who he is becoming on this journey just like Clarrise did when she was there metaphorically.

Millie starts the story off as Montag with a blank slate that is the “regulation” family and person but that is subject to change. Clarrise is the first person to start Montag on a different path he didn’t know was possible. The change that goes through Montag comes through the interactions of each character he meets in the story. The two sides of Clarisse and Mildred are the most significant as they each represent a side of Montag. Yet the story ends even as Clarrise is long gone and has become the host to make the most change in Montag.

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