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Faber
Montag's teenaged neighbor. She is unlike anyone Montag has met before. She has no interest in the violent, thrill-seeking pastimes of her peers. She prefers to walk, engage in conversation, observe the natural world, and observe people. Her questioning, free spirit starts Montag thinking about his own life and his place in society.
Clarisse McClellan Quotes in Fahrenheit 451
The Fahrenheit 451 quotes below are all either spoken by Clarisse McClellan or refer to Clarisse McClellan. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 1 Quotes
"Are you happy?"
Related Characters:
Clarisse McClellan (speaker), Guy Montag
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
7
Explanation and Analysis:
Guy's mysterious neighbor, Clarisse McClellan, asks Guy a simple yet slightly sinister question: "Are you happy?" Even more oddly, Clarisse runs inside before Guy can answer, leaving him alone to ponder his own happiness.
The very fact that Guy perceives Clarisse's question as bizarre tells us a great deal about their society. In the future, it would seem, conversations about one's emotions and deep thoughts are discouraged--people focus more on distraction and entertainment than on their feelings. Thus, a question as simple as "Are you happy?" is a shock. Up until now, Guy has blindly accepted the rules of his society without questioning any of them. In doing so, Guy has ignored his innate sense of morality, and even his innate sense of happiness. By analyzing his own happiness, Guy can begin to rebel against his society's corruption.
"You're not like the others. 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, last night. The others would never do that."
Related Characters:
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
"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? Social to me means talking to you about things like this."
Related Characters:
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Clarisse McClellan Character Timeline in Fahrenheit 451
The timeline below shows where the character Clarisse McClellan appears in Fahrenheit 451. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1
As he walks home, Montag encounters a teenage girl standing alone. She introduces herself as Clarisse McClellan, a new neighbor, and asks if she can walk home with him. She notes...
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Clarisse says that in her family people actually walk places, in contrast to people in their...
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On his way to work, Montag meets Clarisse again. She is walking in the rain, tasting the raindrops and holding dandelions. She applies...
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Clarisse tells Montag that she thinks it's strange that he's a fireman, since other firemen won't...
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After Clarisse leaves, Montag opens his mouth to taste the raindrops while he walks to work.
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For the next week, Montag sees Clarisse every day. They have conversations about their friendship, about children, about the smell of old...
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...suicide by setting the Mechanical Hound to his own chemical fingerprint. And then, one day, Clarisse is not there to walk him to the subway when he goes to work.
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...Mildred responds that the McClellans moved out four days ago. She adds that the girl (Clarisse) was run over by a car and killed.
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Montag asks about Clarisse, and Beatty reveals that he'd been keeping an eye on the McClellan family for some...
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...together. Montag wants to understand why someone like Beatty would be afraid of someone like Clarisse. Montag and Mildred sit on the floor and start reading.
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Part 3
As the neighbors come out to watch, Montag glances toward Clarisse's empty house. Beatty notices and mocks Montag for being influenced by her nonsense. Mildred runs...
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...turns out to be joyriding teenagers. He wonders if they're the same kids who killed Clarisse. Continuing in darkness, he sneaks into the house of another fireman, hides his books in...
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...stumbles across a railroad track. As he walks along the track, he feels certain that Clarisse once walked the same route.
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...the explosion knocks the men down. As he huddles against the ground, Montag thinks of Clarisse, already dead, Faber, on a bus to another annihilated city, and Mildred, whom he imagines...
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