[Fahrenheit 451] Characterization of Clarisse McClellan

I characterized Clarisse McClellan from Fahrenheit 451. Her role in the story is to put things into perspective for the main character, Guy Montag.  She has a very free spirited personality yet grounded in a way that the other characters are not.  When I tried to visualize what this 17-year old girl looked like, I imagined a thin pale-skinned girl with long wavy hair, huge eyes, a slender face, a short white dainty dress that always flowed when she walked. An important quote coming from her is: “Are you happy?” She asks Montag this question and it begins to make him question many things in his life. When Montag asks Beatty about Clarisse after not seeing her for an extended period of time, he says, “She didn't want to know how a thing was done, but why.” This quotation sums up Clarisse’s thoughts on the world to the reader from a basic stand point.

What makes Clarisse unique from many of the people in her society is that she is very observant and sees things from a different view than them. Rather than just knowing the facts that the citizens are provided in order not to question anything, she seems to have background knowledge on the society in which she lives.  She actually takes time to think about things other citizens don’t appear to do. Her overall attitude towards firemen is that they don’t frighten her. In general, she is not afraid of firemen. She gives off the impression that she isn’t fond of what they do because she looks like she has read books in her lifetime. She knows that firemen were not always used to create fire but Montag, the fireman, does not even consider that to be truth. He thinks he is right when saying that that was never true and that houses were always fireproof and there would be no need for that sort of occupation. 

Link(s): http://beyyondinfinity.tumblr.com/post/61042662814/boho-feeling 

Book Recommendation

The Vanishing Game was a book that really interested me. I really enjoy mystery murder mystery novels, suspense and related genre books. The reason I picked up this book it because of its suspenseful cover. It made me think it was a science fiction story due to the reasoning that the people could not just vanish. But as the plot thickened, I became more apparent that it was actually a story about misperception.

If you enjoy reading this book I recommend that you pick up, Murder on Orient Express by Agatha Christie. This book is honestly one of the best books I have ever read! The plot of this story just thickens with every paragraph. For a general gist of this book link this link: http://www.shmoop.com/murder-on-orient-express/summary.html. It’s basically a story of a detective trying to figure out who killed a man on the train. It was a very surprising twist at the end. It wasn’t an ending you could just predict like other mystery stories, the author made sure to state every single suspicion anyone could have had and created a great ending. 

Changing Character

     Throughout this novel we have seen Jocelyn to be the one with a lot of answers and insight on where and how to find Jack. I feel as if over the course of the plot, she doubts herself more.  The interactions between her and Noah seem to have remained the same overall. She was a very prominent character in composing the theme. As I mentioned in the previous blog post, she contributed in changing the theme from a more mysterious to a broader theme. Something along the lines of; “everything is not what it seems”. That’s because she was in a mental state in which she tried to cope with her brother’s death at the age of 14, and create another personality in which she acted like Jack never died. The reader’s would have thought she was actually looking for Jack but it was all in their heads.

Changing Theme

The theme of this novel has been constantly changing throughout. At the beginning it seem to be a very mysterious theme because Jack, who was dead, had written a letter to Jocelyn. This theme was carried out for a majority of the plot as Noah and Jocelyn searched for Jack. As the story went on, the theme of mystery remained but seemed not as important as the overall theme that everything is not what it seems. This could also be seen as mystery but in this book I think it means to not get caught up in the details, just see the overall picture. This is because during the book I thought Jocelyn would be the one to know all the information and be on top of things. But little did I know that she herself was coping with a major issue that could have stopped her from going through all the searching.

Ending

The ending of this novel, The Vanishing Game was confusing. The hidden clues the author threw in did not really seem of any significance until I reached the ending. When Jocelyn was having flashbacks of their childhood, Kate Myers was hinting at the fact that Jack had died way before. Jocelyn was in some sort of denial state of mind. Or confused as to what had happened. I thought she was in just in shock. Then after a lot of close reading and rereading of the confusing passages did I come to an understanding that Jocelyn had a mental situation in which she “kept her brother alive”.  She takes on Jack’s personality as a part of her own. It is a sort of twisted ending. I was predicting that someone was hiding Jack but I came to know Jocelyn was pretending a part of herself was Jack to help herself cope with his death.

Here is a video to check out explaining a little bit more about the book:

Real Life Issues

The Vanishing Game has its share of dramatic sections or chapters and the more believable or realistic side of it as well. But above all the conflicts and problems that the characters have faced, to me, the most perpetual issue that stays with the characters is the foster family. When I see that the kids in the book, including kids in real life, we can tell that they have been scared by their foster family. The Seale House was a nightmare for the children because of the way they were treated. It can really affect their entire adult lives. Being mistreated every day in a place they had no other choice but to call ‘Home”.  As these kids get older, they all cope in different ways. Some may put up walls, and some may feel depressed. They can choose for the bad experiences in their lives make them stronger or tear them down.

Connection

The bond that the brother and sister share in this novel is very strong. Basically Jocelyn’s only lead to finding her brother was the letter she found on her bed. Usually just a letter cannot help determine if someone is faking death or where they have gone missing (unless the letter stated that). From just the outside postage stamp, she was able to figure out what Jack was trying to say. As if there is some sort of telepathy or mutual understanding between the two characters. Not even vocal communication is needed between the two to figure out where Jack has gone, if he is still alive, or in hiding.