What does it even mean to be human, why do we feel emotions, how does it benefit to think for myself and in the end how do we process it all. Imagine living in a world where you might not ever come to know yourself as an individual human being. I imagine not having the choices to set your life apart from the others around you. Set ablaze to your free thought and burn away the idea of individual self-identity, char your imagination and kill off all other means of living as a human being and what that means to you right now. In Ray Bradburys novel: Fahrenheit 451, there are three key characters whom each depict the struggles of dwelling in this deranged and disassociated dystopian society. Those three important characters are Guy Montag, his boss Captain Beatty, as well as an angelic acquaintance Clarrise McClellen. Individually each of these characters show vast differences from one another while simultaneously sharing the overlying struggle of what it means to simply be human. After all that is the question; what does it mean to be a human once you have had your individuality stripped away?
In Ray Bradbury’s Novel Fahrenheit 451, each key character symbolizes a different element of individuality and throughout the book they themselves struggle with said element. For Guy Montag, his element is a bit complex in the means of dissecting a character. The thing that makes Guy Montag’s character slightly more complex than the others is the depth at which his reaches. Montag tends to wind through a mixture of what the other two supporting characters seem to struggle within the idea of what it means to be human. Although when we look at the basics, we have a walking contradiction: a fireman whom doesn’t put fires out but rather he starts them. He also struggles with the idea of free thinking and it is Clarisse who points this out, Clarisse indirectly ignites the internal flame in Guy that drives his character to reevaluate his own human motifs. In addition, we may also relate Guy’s character traits with those of Chief Beatty’s character traits. Beatty illustrates a strong band of knowledge due to his age and life experiences, although he seems to bash the idea of expanding that knowledge and living to think freely due to the socio-political state in which he currently lives in. Guy relates to Beatty because they are both paradoxical characters in the sense that they both dwell with the curiosity of free thought yet live with morals in which strive to deconstruct that very idea. In retrospect to the comparison of Guy Montag’s characteristics to his fellow dystopian inhabitants, you can say that he embodies a little bit of everyone’s individual yet relatable struggle.
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Clarisse Mclellan, a character whom entirely embodies the human component of free thought and individuality. She is the angelic wave of energy that sparks Guy Montag’s own internal contemplations on what it means to be an individual in this dystopian society. Clarisse see’s past the paradoxical façade that Montag portrays, she sees him to be a man with a wonder to wander, she sees a man aside from the flames. She tells him; “you’re not like others, I’ve seen a few; I know. When I talk you look at me. When I said something about the moon you looked at the moon last night the others would never do that.” Her stating that “the others would never do that” insights Montag to be an individual by comparison to the others in this society. When Clarisse interacts with Montag, she never comes in as a preaching entity. Instead Clarisse turns the cogs for Montag, she brings him to question things, she gives him a peak into a world where there isn’t a preestablished mentality for mankind. In some ways Clarisse’s character can symbolize a book all in herself, simply due to the idea that she promotes free thinking and individual expression. Although her purpose as a free thinker and individuality guru seem delightful in the moment, it turns out that this is actually her downfall. Then again with all that said, maybe Clarisse’s more definite purpose in the novel was simply to serve as a light of guidance for Montag. Once Montag became aware of the oppression of free thought, Clarisse dies. An author named Jack Zipes helps elaborate this idea in the article Mass Degradation of Humanity and Massive Contradictions in Bradbury’s Vision of America in Fahrenheit 451 “-Clarisse, who instructs him through her own insight and experience why and how the alleged antisocial and disturbed people may have a higher regard for society and be more sane than those who declare themselves normal…”. Zipes supports the thought that Clarisse symbolizes a light or beacon that guides Guy Montag through his journey. She holds a certain momentum that keeps the novel in motion, and without the spirit of Clarisse Mclellan and all she resembles, the novel would lack a certain sense of conflict. Afterall Clarisse is the entity that breaks away from the social norms that already exist once we begin reading the novel, she is the sub-culture that strives to better the dystopian culture, and she is the contrasting character that rewards the content of the novel with a sense of conflict.
Speaking of conflicting characters, we can look directly at Captain Beatty. A man of vast literary knowledge, obviously he is an intellect, but that intellect doesn’t reach further than the flames that he sprays across books. Captain Beatty seems to sit on an extensive rolodex of information about the past and holds onto it with a sense of nostalgia. Simultaneously contrasts that perception of himself with that of an enforcer, one whom seeks out to actually destroy literature and free thought dead in its tracks. In an essay posted by Arts Columbia they state Captain Beatty to be “more than just an ardent follower, however; his own embarkation upon an academic quest soured and embittered him on literature. He unleashes his own burning anger against books and eventually Guy Montag, an intellectually evolving fireman.” The closer Captain Beatty became more aware of Guy Montag’s mind slipping into “insanity” due to his access to books, Beatty consequently met his own demise. The element that differentiated Beatty from Montag is the simple fact that Beatty feared the pondering and lack of answers that came from expanding your thought through reading. Beatty didn’t like the internal conflict that books aroused inside of his mental, therefore he resulted to burning the very things that insight his mixed emotions. In a sense, Beatty is the poster child for a struggling humanity and whether or not to fit into society during this time of oppressed individuality. Captain Beatty, the man who against the odds still has an enticed human interest for intellect and self-satisfaction, yet that “human interest” is such a foreign concept to Beatty that he fears becoming more of what it means to be human all in itself. He depicts his final thoughts about the flames in this quote, “It’s perpetual motion; the thing man wanted to invent but never did. . . . It’s a mystery. . . . Its real beauty is that it destroys responsibility and consequences . . . clean, quick, sure; nothing to rot later. Antibiotic, aesthetic, practical” (109). Therefore, Beatty accepts the flames, he is infatuated with them and their quick and almost mindless energy in which they seek to smother life out.
“The original condition of man was one of naïve innocence – a state almost resembling that of the brute – in which he knew nothing of good or evil, and merely existed in unity with nature. That state, however natural for animals, was not natural for man and was therefore not ideal. Man was destined to separate himself from it and to become a self-conscious spirit.” (Berkhof 158) There you have it, man was meant to grow beyond that of one definite lifestyle, man is only man because he can do that. When you take the element of self-expression and freedom to think for yourself away, you burn away your chance at individuality, which then takes away your birth given right to be a human. As it is for the characters in Fahrenheit 451, smothered by the flames of their own dystopian upbringing, an upbringing of single sided thought, a life of oppression. Take it from Guy Montag and his life lead blind until having been awoken by sweet sent of free thought. Montag lacked happiness, he never would have found a purpose to be happy if it weren’t for his law-breaking discoveries. Then there is Clarisse, a young woman whom was full of wonder, she thought a lot and was too polite. Clarisse could not fall against her natural drive to be her own being, to set herself apart from the rest of society. For her it was a matter of being herself that became her downfall, Clarisse resembles the sad lack of life that comes from the oppression of free thought. When it came down to Captain Beatty and his struggle for a taste of individuality, it wasn’t the pursuit of it that lead to his downfall but rather the fear of where his individuality might take him. For Captain Beatty things felt safer when you didn’t have to question them and that is the epitome to this dystopian way. Like Berkof said, “Man was Destined..” and that destiny was a battle at best for those struggling in Fahrenheit 451. Stott has a rather profound yet similar belief but in relation to religion. Stott states that “We human beings have both a unique dignity as creatures made in God’s image and a unique depravity as sinners under his judgment . . . .We are able to think, choose, create, love, and worship, but also to refuse to think to choose evil, to destroy, to hate and to worship ourselves . . . This is man a strange, bewildering paradox, dust of the earth and breath of God, shame and glory.” (Stott 1999, 54). In retrospect, that seems to be the overall paradoxical catch: to be human means to be in constant questioning or not knowing of what it means to be an individual but to consistently question the validity of it all.
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