Fahrenheit 451 Quote Analysis

Improved Essays
In the beginning of the novel, Montag is unaware of the flaws in his society, but because of Clarisse and the lady sacrificing herself for books, Montag begins to question his society. When Montag interacts with Clarisse, he looks at his life in a different way. In one of these interactions, Montag realizes, “One drop of rain”. Clarisse. Another drop in the air. Mildred. A third of the time. The uncle. A fourth, a fire. One of the Clarisses. Two Mildred. Three, my uncle and my brother. Four, a fire of fire. [.] ‘I don’t know anything anymore’” (15). After Montag meets Clarisse, he contemplates his life and realizes it’s a sad cycle. Clarisse influences his everyday life and makes Montag think in ways he has never thought before. As he continues to interact with Clarisse, he sees things in his everyday life in different ways. …show more content…
Clarisse is changing the way Montag thinks about his life. The symbolism represents his life dividing into two halves and that they overlap, creating a blur in his life. Montag is now questioning his way of thinking due to Clarisse’s influence. He doesn’t know what to believe anymore. Next, he goes to a lady’s house with the other firemen to burn some books. They raid the house and take all of the books and pour kerosene to burn them. The lady, however, did not move at all and was ready to sacrifice herself for her books instead of leaving. Montag was taken aback by this action. He was discussing this incident with Mildred and he explained, “‘You weren’t there, you didn’t see,’ he said. ‘There must be something in books, things we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Fahrenheit 451 Changes

    • 631 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Clarisse broke boundaries by thinking deeply and asking questions that no one would ever ask. She had conversations and stayed up late socializing. This affected Montag and created a domino effect after she asked him if he was happy. His whole life he was rarely asked this and if he was he would say of course, until he actually thought about it. He took off his mask and thought about his awful wife and how his occupation as a fireman burning books and people’s houses was not bettering the world.…

    • 631 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout Montag’s interactions with Clarisse, Montag realizes that there is so much more to what he sees…

    • 1071 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Montag’s dilemma as he sees it is that he doesn’t quite get Clarisse, but as the reader sees it, it is that he’s sort of brainwashed by the ideas of society. 3. What is the significance of Montag seeing…

    • 944 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Fahrenheit 451 Quotes

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Montag picked a single small volume from the floor. ‘Where do we begin?’ He opened the book halfway and peered at it. ‘We begin by beginning, I guess’ ‘He’ll come in,’ said Mildred, ‘and burn us and the books!’ The front door faded at last” (67-68).…

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    MOTIF: MIRRORs There are references throughout the novel made on mirrors to emphasise the need for people to discover one’s true feelings and to become self-aware. Montag states that he believed Clarisse was just like a mirror as it was after meeting her and seeing himself in her eyes, that he was able to realize he was not happy, that he was actually alone, empty and lost in a meaningless society. Reflections of himself through his wife and the other firemen makes him realise just how shallow everyone is and how oblivious they are to their own unhappiness. Emphasise the need for society to re-evaluate at itself and change MOTIFS: PARADOXES Bradbury repeatedly uses many paradoxical statements—which are used to tell us that without real thinking, we are alive but are we really living.…

    • 421 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Clarisse is introduced as a beautiful girl in the eyes of Montag, the grow closer at every meeting. Her questions always seem to make Montag think and question everything he thought of. Clarisse asks Montag if he is happy,but his response is just to laugh because he thought it was silly. After thinking…

    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Changes In Fahrenheit 451

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Clarisse was the start of Montag's process of changing, she was inquisitive and wasn't scared of sharing her observations with him which made Montag think. “Are you happy’ she said. ‘Am I what?’ he said. He felt his smile slid…

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    She is different from everyone else because she actually watches the world around her: “‘I like to smell things and look at things, and sometimes, stay up all night, walking, and watch the sunrise’” (5). Clarisse’s behaviors begin to rub off on Montag. He starts asking more questions about the world, and himself. She is like a mirror that Montag sees his true self in: “Impossible: for how many people did you know that refracted your own light to you?”…

    • 968 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    She tells him about how firemen used to put out fires, not start them, and that people had thought for themselves. One night after Montag left work, he meets Clarisse on the walk home. She talks to him and before she leave she asks him "Are you happy?" and that changed him. After he meets Clarisse, he takes a book from a home while they were burning it.…

    • 955 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    His thoughts on society and his life changes because of Clarisse where he thinks it is lifeless. She deeply affects the mindset of Montag through her actions. When montag is coming back home from work, he meets Clarisse. During this conversation she essentially interrogates Montag. As she is talking to Montag, she is curious and asks him questions.…

    • 680 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Clarisse is very pretty according to Montag but he notices something different about her. Her eyes were dark and shining which are completely opposite, almost like there is good and bad about her. Montag is considered antisocial and craven for only talking to Clarisse because in this dystopia…

    • 1017 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Unlike most people, Clarisse actually thought about things and questioned why life was the way it was. Consequently, Clarisse makes Montag think and reflect on his own life. In the book,…

    • 1043 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nature In Fahrenheit 451

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages

    He was haunted by her skepticism towards his happiness, her face and whispered inquiry seemingly followed him like a ghost for the rest of the night. Bradbury likens Montag’s happiness to a mask, one Clarisse stole and “[ran] across the lawn with” (12). It was after this encounter and all others they shared that his eyes began to open up to a new world: a mirror into his life which enabled him to see all the injustices in society. She made him see the horror of how “people hurt each other nowadays,” and the beauty in the “dew on the grass in the morning” (30, 9). She even made him question his occupation as a fireman, asking if it was “true that long ago firemen put out fires instead of going to start them?”…

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Millie, does—" He licked his lips. " Does your ‘family’ love you, love you very much, love you with all their heart and soul, Millie?"(Bradbury 73 ). Mildred has an obsession with her virtual family that she watched on things called Polaroids. She thinks they are real because you can physically see them. Mildred follows society's rules so, she does not have any knowledge.…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    She clarifies to him that he takes the time to listen, look, and acknowledge what she speaks to him. Clarisse’s creative thoughts help Montag to in fact change his perception of the society in Fahrenheit…

    • 706 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays