In the novel Fahrenheit 451, the characters Clarisse and Beatty both played a huge role of changing the main character's life. Each character served a different purpose. One character made the main character want to change his life and the other just got in the way. Ray Bradbury's tone towards Beatty is ironic, complex, and mysterious. Bradbury's tone towards Clarisse is understanding and unique. He does this to show that he sees himself in the character he created and to show that there is no one like her at all in the book.
Bradbury gave Beatty an ironic personality. Beatty gives Montag a speech about how books are bad and how they make people feel like they aren't intellectual. However, Beatty himself is secretly an intellectual and quotes literature, as seen in part three when Montag is about to burn him. This makes me wonder how Beatty knows so much about literature yet preaches that it has no place in society. Bradbury's tone of Beatty shows us that we don't know who Beatty actually is. Bradbury shows us that Beatty is complex when he writes, "Beatty had wanted to die. He just stood there not really trying to save himself, ... joking, needling,... yelling at people and making fun at them." This sounds to me that Beatty has always wanted to die and only acted the way he did towards anyone he meets his because he is hoping they would end his life for him. The purpose of Bradbury 's tone towards Beatty is to make the reader to wonder what kind of character Beatty actually is and why he did what he did.
Bradbury's tone towards Clarisse is understanding and unique. The author's purpose of creating Clarisse is that she is there to make the main character undergo an epiphany. Clarisse is the only one in the society who has curiosity. Her asking Montag questions made him realize that he is unhappy and the only way to change his life is to be different. Bradbury made Clarisse an outcast. She is wise for her age, talks a lot, loves nature, and is aware of surroundings. The reason why I said Bradbury's tone is understanding is because he sees himself in that character. In Bradbury's short story, The Pedestrian, the main character gets in trouble for being a pedestrian. This is because he is the only one walking around town since everyone is at home getting distracted by technology. This actually happened to Bradbury and since he writes about how Clarisse is getting called a "time bomb" for doing the same things he does, he knows exactly what he's making her go through.
Overall, Bradbury's tone towards both characters is to show that they are two very important characters in the novel. Without either of them, nothing would have changed the main character's life. Bradbury's tone makes us wonder about Beatty and shows how special Clarisse is. His tone towards Clarisse is kind of like a warning. If we don't become more like Clarisse, then our society can end up the same as the one in the book.
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