Clarisse and Mildred

AN: This is a piece I am not particularly proud of. I start in sort of an emotional voice, and attempted to smoothly transition into a more academic voice. I was trying to sort of incorporate a synecdoche by referring to Mildred as society and vice-versa, but rather than being in just one phrase, it is sort of throughout the piece. I think that this can be used as a synecdoche, but am not 100% sure, because I am sort of just learning how to use one. Let me know how these things worked out. This response to Fahrenheit 451 is to the prompt: "Compare and contrast Clarisse and Mildred. In your response, include references that discuss them in relation to the theme."

The purity and love that Clarisse bears, the happiness flows through her like a river, while Mildred, a lost sole, empty inside, has nothing left to share, nothing to offer. Clarisse is a sign of perfection, innocence, an individual not afraid of messing up, not afraid of living.  Mildred is the truth, the cold hard reality, the bearer of such insanity that she wanted to kill herself.  The pair, whom both are very involved in Montag’s life, are severely different from each other.  They both also have their effects on Montag, and the way Montag reacts and behaves.  

Though both Clarisse and Mildred have had their effects on him, Montag is more responsive, and reactive to Clarisse. When walking home, dreading returning to his empty home, Clarisse is always there to greet him and
walk the last block or two. She is always there, refreshing his life, allowing him to see the way she sees, helping him to see what the government is doing to the people. When he returns home, he returns to reality, he returns to his empty wife. “… if she died, he was certain he wouldn’t cry. For it would be the dying of an unknown, a street
face, a newspaper image…” (p.44) Mildred is in such a distant place, it is as though Montag doesn’t even know her. She is so lost in the television, that she has not a thought about anything.

Mildred shows us the ignorance of present day society, as well as the conformity of society. If the government says that firemen have always started fires, then that is the truth, not a doubt in her mind. It is the lucky ones like Clarisse, who have a family that raises her to ask not how, but why. Why do the firemen start fires? Clarisse has the uncanny ability to question the government, and to question what she is told. While Mildred is in the parlor, being brainwashed while watching what the government wants her to see, Clarisse is developing her own thoughts, not directly influenced by what society thinks is right.

Constantly it is wanted of us to be like everyone else, to just follow the flow, not developing our own ideas of any sort. We are supposed to stand in a straight line, to raise our hand before we speak, to write in ITS CLEAR format. These things are not up for debate, we can’t question why things happen the way they do. Even though this is well known, Clarisse still does question everything. While everyone else is following society, buying that fourth television, soaking up everything that the government fictionalizes, Clarisse is off questioning the truth of what they tell us. She recognizes that the government isn’t really telling everything to the citizens. “It’s a lot of funnels and a lot of water poured down the spout and out the bottom, and them telling us it’s wine when it’s not.”(p. 27)  Yet while she has recognized this, and developed her own thoughts, Mildred – in the same way that the rest of the population has – is absorbing all of lies the government is feeding her. Clarisse has developed the desirable ability to develop her own thoughts, even when being force-fed ideas, and told what to believe.

While Mildred is soaking up the television, Clarisse is out, discovering the world, and learning. Clarisse has
a huge attention to detail, and a huge developed knowledge of lots of things, unlike Montag, and presumably the general population. In their conversations, she often stops, so that Montag can experience the things that she experiences. She stops so that he can smell the old leaves that are scented like cinnamon. Clarisse has the most acute attention to detail, which is questioned in this society. She is forced to see a psychiatrist, who asks why she goes out and hikes around in the forests, and watches the birds, and collects butterflies.  The psychiatrist, just like the population, just like Mildred, has no attention to detail, no thought. It is proven that out of everything, the least amount of the brain is used when watching television. This is what the majority, or the “normal” people do with their time. Mildred watches so much television that she refers to the fictional characters as family. While Mildred’s uncle is a fictionalized character on the television, Clarisse’s uncle is filling her up with knowledge, guiding her to make her own decisions, and build her own thoughts. Clarisse and Mildred are so incredibly different, it is implausible.

Mildred is society, and what it has become; she follows what she is told, she believes what she is told, she never questions what is told, and she never adds ideas to what she is told. An obvious real life example is the ITS CLEAR format of writing. Most don’t question the reasoning for such a silly thing, and just complete it, except for those few who have experienced real writing. Rather than asking the teacher how to complete the task, they question why. Those who ask why instead of how are virtually the definition of Clarisse, they are the ones who have not yet been brainwashed. More of society is like Mildred, though. Mildred is dried up, with nothing fresh, because she has only been fed ideas, and never developed her own ideas or thoughts. The higher hope is a life like Clarisse’s, where thoughts are provoked, and everything has a purpose, whether it be determined or undetermined. However, Clarisse’s life was put to a quick end, because of her desire to learn, and her thought process. The government had to have power,  either by brainwashing the citizens, or killing them, so that others cannot learn.