Hi!
I am 13 and I live in Argentina.
I have just read this book in spanish.
At school, my literature teacher told us that Clarisse does not die and she and Montague meet again by the end of the story.
But this situation is not completely clear, there some clues in order to arrive to this conclusion. My teacher ask us to find these clues and to justify why Clarisse is alive.
I can´t find these clues and I can´t understand why my teacher has this strong opinion.
Could anybody help me, please?
The only thing I found is that at the very beginning Montag meets Clarisse during 7 days. Then, at the end when Montague arrives to the place where those "thinking" people live in the woods, there is a phrase that says : "somebody looked at Montag for the first time or perhaps for the seventh time" May be this a reference to Clarisse?
Next week I have an exam and I am desperate, please help me.
Thanks a lot.

The best advice is simple: read the book, and make notes on the clues you find. It's a short book, and can easily be read in a couple of days.

If that's too much, you could look in some study guides such as those at Pink Monkey and SparkNotes. These are study guide websites which you can find using Google.

I think you'll find Montag is the protagonist of F451. Montague is the father of Romeo in Shakespeare's ROMEO AND JULIET.

Good luck with finding those clues!

Thanks very much for the advise.
Sorry for the spelling, but English is not my mother tongue.
I know quite well the difference between this novel and Shakespeare´s Romeo and Juliet.
It was just a spelling mistake and not comprehension mistake.
We live in South America but we are not as you think we are.

Your teacher is probably thinking of the movie.

That being said, the movie, where Clarisse turns up alive, does not contradict the book, in which Montag is told she has died, but never sees a body. In the sequel it's probably revealed she went into hiding due to danger--her death was a cover story--but this is never stated in the original book.

Rosalia,

Phil, in no way, was suggesting that there was a lack of comprheension on your part. People throughout South American and particularly in Argentina and surroundings areas are very sharp intellectually.

quote:

Originally posted by biplane1:
...Phil, in no way, was suggesting that there was a lack of comprheension on your part...

Indeed, I was just cheekily drawing attention to a recurring typo. Rosalia, your original post is similar to some of the other messages we see on here, of the type that say "I have an essay to write, please give me the answer I need to save me from having to do any research". The appropriate answer, I thought, was to give some information that might help the genuine, diligent student (such as yourself!), but might deter the lazy student.

I am a teacher by profession, as you might have guessed!

(Funnily enough, I find I frequently accidentally write "Montage" instead of "Montag", probably because I teach film and am always talking about montage. BUT... I usually notice the typo and correct it immediately.)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: philnic,

quote:

Originally posted by philnic:

Funnily enough, I find I frequently accidentally write "Montage" instead of "Montag"

Also "her" for "here."

The e missing from here was being saved up to add to Montag, making Montage.

Phil,
The point is that I am not a lazy student and I read the novel three times. I tried to find clues in order to understand that Clarisse was still alive at the end of the story but I could not find those clues. After that, I asked for your help.
If my teacher confused the novel with the film, it would be very disaponting for me. Because my teacher wouldn´t be a good teacher and I am learning from her.
But do you think that there is any other good clue or information that allows us to think about the fact that Clarisse is alive in the novel?
None of my mates could find it.
I wish to tell her, "teacher you are wrong, Clarisse is alive in the film, not in the novel"
May I?
Thanks very much,
Rosalia

I have taught F451 for many years. There is no contextual reference to Clarisse being alive after it is stated she was hit by a speeding car (about half way through the book).

Admittedly, and behind RB's ironic plot twists, that may have been a ploy by the "powers to be" to eliminate a troublesome 17 (almost) year old girl. If she escaped to the forest and returned to the tracks, eluding the authorities would have been a major check against their efficiency. That could never be allowed. Recall the portion of F451 with "Montag" being shot down by the officials sent after him, helicopters overhead. It was on tv, prime time, and all got to see it. (Applause! Cut to a commercial! Problem eliminated!)

At the end of the movie by Truffaut, obviously there has been an adjustment to the interpretation of the novel's conclusion. As the city in the distance went up in flames and smoke, Montag suddenly remembered Clarisse was dead. No other reference leads the reader to think otherwise in the final pages.


(There is a statement pointed at the condition of Clarisse in the author's "Afterword" in many editions. Maybe, that is where a re-read may help specifically!)

Merry Christmas to All the Tiny Tim's of the world and their wonderful families.

PEACE! http://m.orkutnow.com/en/scrap...erry_christmas_3.gif

This message has been edited. Last edited by: fjp451,

Maybe you should disagree with your teacher and use your paper to prove the opposite of her belief. I've done this a few times, and while the teacher and I continued to disagree, I did display my analytical skills.

Rosalia, well done for persisting with the search for the clues your teacher pointed you towards, although it is a fruitless quest since - as fjp451 has stated - it is almost certain that Clarisse is dead.

I will add one other note, and that is that Bradbury also wrote a stage play based on his novel, and it was published in the early 1980s. In the play, he decided to follow Truffaut's film and have Clarisse re-appear at the end of the story. Bradbury mentions this in an essay which appears in some editions of the novel.

In my opinion, your teacher is wrong. She may be thinking of the film, or she may be thinking of the play. Maybe she was trying to challenge you by giving you a really difficult task. Sometimes it is helpful to our understanding of a story to deliberately consider an interpretation that we hadn't originally thought of... but it helps if the interpretation is permitted by the text itself. I can't see any way that the novel permits this interpretation. The best we could say is that Clarisse MAY be alive. I don't believe we can say she is alive AND meets Montag again.

If your teacher proves us all wrong, please find out what her "clues" are, and post them here!

Again, thanks very much for you all and have a Merry Christmas!

Phil,
My teacher told me that the clues are in the part of the novel, when Montag escaped and met intellectuals in the woods.
What I found in that part of the novel is a phrase that says:"then, one of the men looked at Montag for the first time or perhaps for the seventh."
Why "perhaps for the seventh"? Montag had just arrived at that place. It was the first time he was there. Perhaps that person had seen him before, in another place? But this person was a man not a woman.
On the other hand, at the beginning of the story, Montag met Clarisse seven times and then she disappeared.
That´s all I have.

Rosalia

Hi Rosalia,

this is the passage you are referring to:

And then one of the men looked up and saw him, for the first or perhaps the
seventh time, and a voice called to Montag:
"All right, you can come out now!"
Montag stepped back into the shadows.
"It's all right," the voice said. "You're welcome here."

It seems to me that Montag has been hiding in the trees, looking at the book-people. He thinks he is hidden, but they have sensed his presence. The "first or perhaps the seventh" line means that Montag THINKS it is the first time the man has seen him, but in fact he has probably been watching Montag in the trees for quite a while.

Incidentally, preceding this passsage is a line which says

"And he was surprised to learn how certain he suddenly was of a single fact
he could not prove.
Once, long ago, Clarisse had walked here, where he was walking now."

This doesn't prove that Clarisse is dead or alive, but it shows that Montag sees himself as following in Clarisse's footsteps.

I can't help thinking that if Clarisse were alive, Montag would somehow sense her presence NOW rather than thinking of her in the past.