Mildred struggles with showing her true thoughts and feelings throughout the book and acts as if she does not care because of society's influence and this only distances her from her husband, Montag. While Montag’s curious about a missing friend, Mildred’s thoughtless personality persevered when she answered his question about the missing girl; “McClellan. Run over by a car. Four days ago. I’m not sure. But I think she’s dead. The family moved out anyway. I don’t know. But I think she’s dead”(47). The use of the phrases “I’m not sure” and “I don’t know” proves how careless Mildred appears when it comes to other people; they are talking about the death of a person and Mildred shows no empathy toward the situation. While holding in emotions …show more content…
While Mildred lays awake in her bed, Montag starts to understand her body language and what it means. He describes what she acts like by stating, “Her seashell was tamped in her ear again, and she was listening to far people in far places, her eyes wide and staring at the fathoms of blackness above her”(42). Stating the word “again” when talking about her earbud highlights how her behavior acts like a continuing pattern and when putting in her earbud she escapes the world around her constantly. All the problems around her she attempts to forget about with the earbuds blocking out the noise. The phrase, “she was listening to far people in far place” demonstrates how her mind seemed so far away from Montag and their issues; which causes unsolved problems among the both of them. Mildred does not want to hear about Montag's issue and turns to her large television as another escape option. “‘I’m tired of listening to this Junk’, said Mildred, turning from him to the announcer again”(65). By referring to Montag's problem as “junk” Mildred makes it seem as though his problems useless just like trash and he talks about nonsense that deems irrelevant to her. Her movement, “turning from him to the announcer” in the direction away from Montag and toward the TV, shows that when she faces an issue her instinct brings her to technology as a coping mechanism. Once Montag talks about his problem she immediately blocks it out with the “[announcer's]” voice. This choice of using technology to escape society does not allows Mildred to give herself any time to think about what Montag says, thus allowing society to get what it wants-thoughtlessness. Although Montag attempts forming a bond with Mildred over books, the idea fails because Mildred turns on him and does as she is told by the others around her. Montag includes mildred in one of his