Clarisse's final question to Montag at their first meeting startles him. He is not used to encountering people who think as deeply as she does and who seem intently interested in what he has to say. "Are you happy?" she asks. The question startles him because it is not one that has crossed his mind in a long time. He has assumed, as a successful fireman, that he is happy.

The question is important because it is a first "drip" in a series of events that will call into question Montag's life and its meaning. For example, Montag has barely left Clarisse and entered his home when he discovers that Mildred has attempted suicide. The question then expands beyond whether he is happy to whether his wife is, and finally, to whether their society allows people to be happy.

Clarisse's counter-cultural lifestyle—she and her family take walks, talk rather than watch television, and are curious and engaged in a society that discourages thought—inspires Montag to think. Has he been living in a dulled-down state? Has Mildred? Montag can only answer yes to both questions. This alerts him to start observing and questioning his society more closely, which leads him to conclude that books are not a problem that needs to be eradicated for his world but a solution to his society's woes.

During Montag's first interaction with Clarisse, the final question she asks him before she leaves is "Are you happy?" Clarisse's question influences Montag to examine his life and analyze his happiness. As a fireman, Montag has become increasingly disenchanted with his destructive occupation and mundane lifestyle. Montag does not find his job, marriage, or social life fulfilling, and Clarisse's question influences him to search for answers.

The plot of the story follows Montag's transformation and search for enlightenment. Clarisse's question is the catalyst for Montag to change the trajectory of his life. After Clarisse leaves, Montag contemplates his happiness and acknowledges that he is not content or fulfilled. Montag then observes his wife overdose on the same night and later witnesses a woman commit suicide alongside her books.

These traumatic experiences coupled with Clarisse's influential question encourage Montag to quit his job and turn toward literature for answers. The plot of the story is driven by Montag's desire to find happiness and experience enlightenment through intellectual pursuits. He goes on to break the law by reading books, consults Faber about literature, and challenges the fireman institution by killing Captain Beatty and destroying the Mechanical Hound. Montag's decision to change his life and pursue literature can be directly traced back to Clarisse's influential question.

The last question Clarisse asks Montag the first time they meet in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is "Are you happy?". This question is extremely important to the plot because the idea that Montag is not doing what brings him personal satisfaction and happiness is what makes him look closer at his life: at his job, his wife, and the norms of the society in which he lives.

At first Montag laughs at the idea that he is not happy, but then he looks at the way his wife has separated herself from her life, and how distanced they have become. He cannot even remember where they met.

On the job, Montag is horrified when the firemen burn the house of a woman who not only refuses to leave her books, but starts the fire that will end her life. He becomes confused. When Beatty becomes aggressive and accusatory, Montag has a wake-up call. We learn that he has kept a couple of books hidden himself; he reads one of his books to Mildred and her friends; and, Mildred turns him in and Beatty arrives outside his door, to burn Montag's house.

As Montag looks closely at the world around him, as Clarisse taught him to do, he realizes that he cannot live within the bounds of society and he chooses to run. Across the river, he becomes a part of the book-readers who will rebuild society with books they have read and/or memorized—in a place where the realization of true happiness is possible.

The final thing Clarisse asks Montag is if he is happy. This sets off a chain reaction, particularly in Montag's own mind. She has instigated a conflict in the story--Montag versus himself--and the initiation of this conflict causes another: Montag versus society. That same evening, earlier in the encounter, Clarisse explains the true purpose of firemen, detailing their history of putting out fires rather than setting them. She broadens Montag's horizons here, and questioning his happiness makes him question it as well, something he has never done before. In so doing, he begins to question his path and what he perpetrates daily, which leads to his rebellion. In challenging him to think, rather than simply dismissing what he does not understand and accepting social opinion, she compels him to a different way of perceiving his life and occupation. This is particularly compelling because she is innocent and genuinely curious, rather than malicious, in her questioning.

Clarisse asks Montag, "Are you happy?" It becomes especially important in the context of his life. Witnessing an old lady choose to burn with her books and finding his wife's body after she has attempted suicide both leave him shaken. Clarisse's question spurs him to begin to think for himself and to examine the life he is living and the society in which he is living it. He has been so numbed by the old woman's death that he cannot report for work the next day. Watching the technicians revive his wife makes him aware of their automatic, well practiced procedures, ones they have perfected in bring back others who no longer wanted to live in Montag's society. Montag reaches the conclusion that he, as well as those around him, are not happy, but live instead in a kind of spiritual misery that is glossed over by the superficial pleasures offered them by the state. Montag has begun to think for himself which places him in direct and dire conflict with his repressive, authoritarian government. The path and the results of his rebellion comprise the remainder of the novel.