Is a book ever complete without a side character? Side characters influence people and can change the book completely. In the book, Fahrenheit 451 the first side character that we see is a character by the name of Clarisse McClellan. She is a weird person and likes to think about stuff more than others. Clarisse says things that make Montag, the main character, think about his situation and life. Montag is asked questions and told answers too when he talks to Clarisse and Clarise asks him if he is happy, causing a reaction from him. More information on the statements above are located in the paragraphs below. Clarisse is more thoughtful about things than you see other characters being in the story. She in turn makes Montag wonder more about these things which change him and start to create the character we see at the end of the book. They walked on again in silence and finally she said, thoughtfully, "You know, I'm not afraid of you at all." He was surprised. "Why should you be?" "So many people are. Afraid of firemen, I mean. But you're just a man, after all...". A quote from the book showing how Clarisse thinks more in depth about stuff and is free to state her mind. We see from this that Montag asks why she should be scared, showing that he had never thought …show more content…
“He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back.” This shows that after thinking about it Montag is not happy with his life and thinks that he was just wearing a mask of happiness that was taken by Clarisse. Clarisse influenced this because of her question asking Montag if he was happy. This quote shows that Montag is dissatisfied with his life and is not happy which was just uncovered by