Stage 4: Exploratory Draft

Stage 4: Exploratory Draft

            I am interested in writing about Montag’s development because I want to understand why it is that he suddenly changes how he thinks.  One way to consider this might be through his conversations with Clarisse, and comprehending with the fact that Montag was curious before he met her, but also figuring out the affect she had on his life. It’s troubling to understand the kind of influence and effect that Clarisse brought upon Montag.  Montag begins to really wonder about everything that Clarisse questions him about.  For instance, she asks him if he’s happy.  At first, he begins to convince himself that he obviously is happy in life.  Besides this, she also asks him where and when he met his wife, Mildred, but Montag doesn’t seem to remember.  He ends up going home and asking Mildred the same question, although she doesn’t remember either.  These two questions really get Montag thinking about himself.  Although this isn’t the first time he becomes questioning, it’s the first time he takes a different approach to his curiosity.  This is almost as if it’s only been a couple of weeks talking to Clarisse and he’s already been “manipulated” to think in a unlike way.   First paragraph Montag’s thinking early on in the book and then question; what happened?

            Along with the way Clarisse makes Montag think, she also makes him feel a certain way, a way he normally wouldn’t feel.  For instance, Montag tells Clarisse how she makes him feel like a father, since he seems so passionate and caring towards her.  Because of this, Clarisse questions Montag why he doesn’t have any kids if he feels this way, and again, he doesn’t know how to answer.  “Now you explain,” she said, “why you haven’t any daughters like me, if you love children so much?” (Bradbury, 28)  It’s significant how Montag feels this way because it really shows the kind of relationship he has built with a seventeen-year old girl, who he thinks of as his daughter.  According to the Oxford English Dictionary, to “love” something means to have “an instance of affection or fondness” towards the person or even object.  In addition, Montag begins to believe as though Clarisse is much older than his thirty-year old wife.  Second paragraph mention Clarisse, even though Montag was still curious before he met her.  Troubling how she actually changed him.

            Lastly, Clarisse even opens Montag up to trying something different and “out of the ordinary” by his means of living.  She expresses to him how great it is to be able to walk outside in the rain, as well as taste the rain.  Not only does the OXE express rain as “condensed moisture of the atmosphere falling to the ground visibly in separate drops,” but the same word can be used as a phrase to mean “[having an] adequate common sense or intelligence.”  It may have been that Clarisse was trying to prove to Montag that he’s overthinking his life, and that he’s definitely missing out on some of the best things in the world.  She decides to compare the taste of rain to wine, which is a very odd association.  Clarisse definitely ended up convincing Montag with this analogy to experience the rain falling into his mouth, as “…he tilted his head back in the rain, just for a few moments, and opened his mouth.” (Bradbury, 24)  Claim to look at Clarisse’s impact in a different way.