While Clarisse has been gone from the story for an extremely
long time, after reading the ending I am still confused on why she was taken
out so abruptly. She was a major character because she helped developed the
story at the beginning. She is the person that made Guy question aspects of
society and be more curious about what is in books. After her few short
meetings with him she was suddenly killed off and barely mentioned again. Without
her he would have never thought about stealing another book or freaking out at
his wife and boss, causing him to end up running away with other scholars. There
is no doubt in my mind that she was needed, but I think the author used her
poorly. By taking her out so quickly he made Clarisse almost feel unimportant
and the characters relationship fake. To me she seemed to defeat her purpose. Her
exit from the story seemed like the author just gave up on developing her as a
character. I wish that she could have stayed around and interacted with Guy
more, which would definitely develop the theme and story line of the book
further.
It is interesting to read this because in the novel I am reading Brave New World, I also question the author’s usage of characters. At the beginning, it felt like there was no main character. The setting in some ways resembled one of the World State’s mottos that everyone belongs to each other. So, instead of focusing on one individual, we focused on the whole centre as one unit. As the novel progresses, the author focuses in on Bernard a little bit more than the other characters, but once he returns from the reservation, he begins to fade away while John becomes more in focus. As a reader, I am constantly trying to figure out the point of view of this novel and who really is the narrator. I believe that the author does this on purpose, and controls whom the audience focuses on during the different scenes; however, I think that he focuses on the character who is the most rebellious against the World State at the moment.
ReplyDeleteYour point is a good one, Amanda. She does seem undeveloped, more like a vehicle to get Montag from one place to another. Bradbury seems most focused on Montag himself, and how he deals with the realization that his society is so dysfunctional. I think perhaps Clarisse would have overshadowed Montag as the stronger, more assertive character which, perhaps, was contrary to Bradbury's objective.
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