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   mrs-campbell Teacher
   High School - 11th Grade

   eNotes Editor

   Clarisse is the outcast, the "weird kid" at school, and belongs to a family that is completely different and strange for their society.  She herself is aware of how she is considered different by many people in her society; she states, "I'm seventeen and I'm crazy."  She also speaks of how she behaves and thinks differently from others: "I rarely watch the parlor walls or go to races or Fun Parks."  Also, "I'm antisocial, they say.  I don't mix."  She is also "afraid of children my own age...they don't like me."  Her family also holds the same aloof and strange relationship with society; they sit around "talking" and her uncle was arrested once for taking long walks.  Later, Beatty refers to people like Clarisse and her family, and how they were "odd ducks" and a "time bomb" of trouble for their society, and how "queer ones like her don't happen often."  So, she is definitely one-of-a-kind, and viewed as a rather strange, odd phenomenon in her society.

   Because of how she is a thinker, and how her family stands out, they are considered threats to their society.  Their mysterious disappearance holds an air of suspiciousness to it; Beatty himself indicates that they keep tabs on people like her and have raided her home several times.  So, thinkers like her are dangerous, and had to be kept in check, as was alluded to in the novel.

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   http://www.enotes.com/fahrenheit-451/characters

   http://www.enotes.com/fahrenheit-451/themes

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   Posted by mrs-campbell on Thursday March 12, 2009 at 9:12 AM