Fahrenheit 451 Character Development Essay

In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Montag, the protagonist is heavily impacted by a girl named Clarisse. Clarisse, only seventeen years old, is known for being antisocial, which the government requires her to see a psychiatrist about. Her thoughts on society lead her to question things, sharing them with Montag. This causes him to realize he lives in a world with complacent people. Clarisse also enjoys taking time to look at the simpler things in life such as taking time to admire the moon. As she shares the things she discovers, Montag also learns to take time to appreciate them. Even if they only knew each other briefly, her impact on Montag is shown through his changes and self-realization. Montag on the other hand is known for being the

As time passes, he starts feeling a sense of dissatisfaction and emptiness. Montag’s character development is shown through Clarisse’s questions, her death and discovering the true meaning of caring.

Clarisse’s questions' impact on Montag is evident through his responses and reactions. As Montag’s and Clarisse’s relationship grows, Clarisse starts to question Montag’s whole life, starting with his relationship with his wife to his occupation. This affects Montag as despite the questions generally being simple-minded, he begins to dig deeper into his responses and how he truly feels. Montag responds, “Happy! Of all the nonsense. He stopped laughing,” when Clarisse asks him if he is happy, a simple question which he never truly thought about (Pg.8). The society he lives in impacts his response the most as individualism is heavily discouraged there. Montag never had a chance to think of his feelings and what his true response would be because this is his world. It is a world where the government strives to be the only one in control. They

Just as Montag and Clarisse were getting closer, she suddenly passes away which comes as a complete shock to him. “He had chills and fever in the morning,” Montag felt physically ill after hearing about the news of Clarisse’s death. He hears about her death from Mildred who supposedly forgot to tell him. He is taken aback by this and continues to question her as he can not seem to process this. This motivates him as he does not want to live a meaningless life where he will just die. He also wanted justice for her as she did not deserve to die at seventeen but that is the standard for the world he lived in. Montag ponders, “I wonder if they were the ones who killed Clarisse! He wanted to run after them yelling. His eyes watered.” (Pg. 122). If Clarisse was just a person in his life who had no meaning, he would not have thought of her that fondly even after her death. These sentences show Montag still thinks of Clarisse as someone he cares about. His eyes were even watering from the thought someone had killed Clarisse on purpose. This indicates that he would have done anything for Clarisse and her influence caused him this pain. The tone of the text gives us a chance to understand Montag seems broken compared to his “perfect” life before. It shows he has evolved compared to his past self and is his own person now who is capable of feeling certain emotions. Montag demonstrates