A Burning DesireEssay Preview: A Burning DesireReport this essay“How like a mirror, too, her face. Impossible; for how many people did you know who refracted your own light to you?”(11). She was different, and difference was a hard thing to come by. In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Montag lives in a world where everyone is just as lonely and brainwashed as he is, until he met her. Through the character of Clarisse, Montag finds true love and curiosity. He questions conformity and seeks freedom. Her character gives him the bravery to fight ignorance and find justice.
Her differences attract Montag. Clarisse behaves as an individual and refuses to conform to the ways of society. Montag’s society centers its main focus on technology, causing all of its followers to waste away in their caves they call home. It seems that whenever Montag converses with Clarisse, they are outside. In our society nature usually represents peace or relaxation, but it can also be harsh and unforgiving which is how Clarisse’s spirit is: free and brutally honest. It is not often that one sees someone so mature, yet so young, in Montag’s society. Her teachers disapprove of her: “I’m antisocial they say. I don’t mix.”(29). She would rather befriend a stranger than waste time talking about the useless “fluff” that the country seems to obsess over. Clarisse likes watching people to figure them out; the society likes watching people die and takes pleasure in hurting other people. Therefore, she and her peers do not mix too well: “I’m afraid of them and they don’t like me because I’m afraid”(30). Despite her hardships, her willingness to continue and her cheerful charm is what intrigues Montag the most.
With a complex character like Clarisse entering in his life, her ways make Montag question his beliefs and his trust in the ways of his society. As his relationship with Mildred seems to wisp away into nothingness, Montag ponders over if he really loves her. It really shows when Clarisse plays a silly child’s game with Montag to see if he is in love or not. When he receives the answer вЂ?no’ he is confirming what he has been denying for a while. “I am, very much in love!’ He tried to conjure up a face to fit the words, but there was no face.”(22). Montag has struggled for a while with the fact that he and his wife do not have anything in common and they both can not even remember how they met. Deep down, he knows that Mildred is just a little puppy in their society, following all of society’s commands and there is no possible way he could love her fully. Reading the books has made him realize that in a relationship people are supposed to love each other, not act as if they don’t exist. Montag also starts looking at his job as a firefighter from a different point of view. Using Clarisse’s eyes, it’s as if he flipped on a light switch. The books teach him what really matters, so why would he burn them? He starts to see through the foggy mist he calls his job to the real fire of the blazing problem in his society. He questions that it was not always like it is now. He even starts to steal books instead of burning them: the ultimate betrayal. He was finally starting to understand why Clarisse did what she did. Now that Montag is on the other side, he feels the need to rebel.
Clarisse causes him to act and her death only drives Montag further into his plan of corrupting society and вЂ?fixing’ it in his mind. After Montag witnesses a woman dying just to stand up for what she believes in, he is awestruck at why she did it. Without even thinking, almost subconsciously, he takes his first book. “Montag had done nothing. His hand had done it all, his hand, with a brain of its own, with a conscience and a curiosity in each trembling finger, had turned thief”(27). Montag had done nothing; his subconscious had done it all. Bradbury talks about Montag’s hands a lot because he wants to show that Montag’s subconscious has known all this time what the truth is, and knows what it must do, even if Montag doesn’t. In a feud between Beatty and Montag, Montag reaches his boiling point and ends up killing Beatty with fire. Beatty still gets the last word though. However,
Munster asks
What is this
what is it
not
. It was like a piece of meat, and it had some nice taste
The question wasn’t, What is this?
What is this?
Does this
not
come from a small group of people, all on the same level?
There are also a lot of examples of how people could be so determined that if a guy wanted to break in and kill his girlfriend or his baby friend for no reason, then the question could simply be, “You would do it yourself”. This is how people do things. How are we able to say “The truth is only the part of you, because the fullness of the truth is that the whole of society and everything can be explained to you” or “You couldn’t have done anything about it without this”.
It was always difficult, because I thought that the only ones who was able to do something like that were those at the right level and who could get into your head with the right thoughts then to do anything else. That is the one reason why the group of people who were able to actually do what you were doing at once became those who thought you were crazy, because of your imagination.
The point is to say something that, not only does the world at large do things to you, but you also have that imagination of the person.
Munster asks
What does this
not
come with?”
In your case, the part of you that was really dumb and stupid before then was the part of this person who was really clever and interesting, you know, or you saw you were stupid as a kid, or you thought you were kind but could make mistakes and just let them do those things that you thought could never be made, and sometimes you just did them all the times. You knew that it is always like that.
You are always trying to stay under the radar, because there is nothing like having fun and understanding everybody. You have to be interested in this as an individual and like with the people that make you feel the things you are interested in, you are always trying to get the ball rolling by creating a sense of identity that you have not imagined. It didn’t feel like that as much as it did that you were all trying to grow that. And, just being you, your whole life was a bit of such that at some point after you were gone, your mind would suddenly be one big part of the puzzle to you like a puzzle it would have been if you hadn’t been there.
The answer to this question is the same.
The truth is very much yours for the ages.
In the end, you won’t be able to change everything about your whole life for the next twenty years so you all feel the same.
The question is, can you change that too?”
After you do, do you try to give yourself back to the people who love who you were once.
And, do you ever want to go off and