Essay #1

          In Fahrenheit 451 the author Ray Bradbury uses various tones for characters in the book with his use of diction and detail. The tone that Bradbury uses specifically with regard to Clarisse and Beatty are very different. As it can be seen Clarisse is described and presented to us as a girl who is spontaneous and open to what the world has to offer, meanwhile Beatty is a very intellectual and puzzling person. This can be seen throughout the book with Bradbury's use of diction and detail. 

          In the beginning of the book Bradbury describes Clarisse as a very spontaneous girl who is full of curiosity. She is open to new things every day and all she wants to do is enjoy life. The fact that Bradbury introduces her in the beginning of the book and describes her in such a compelling tone would be to give an effect to the reader. By introducing Clarisse in that way the author gives an idea to the reader of Montag's life and the reality of it. With her personality Montag realizes that he has no love, peace, or happiness in his life. Clarisse was the character that the author introduced to help Montag realize that and start to make change in his life little by little. Unlike Clarisse, with Beatty the author uses a different and opposite tone. 

          When Bradbury introduces Beatty he uses a wise tone to present him as an intellectual and puzzling character. Although Beatty is very intellectual and he knows a lot about books he gives Montag the opposite message. We can see that Bradbury's use of diction and detail is expressed when he uses short sentences and phrases every time that Beatty speaks which makes everything that he talks about very fast paced. The author can be using this type of diction to relate Beatty to the society and how the world is becoming simpler every single day that goes by. This is the message that the author is trying to give Montag through Beatty and this can be seen when Beatty says, " More cartoons in books. More pictures. The man drinks less and less," meaning that the more things that people add in books or magazines just to entertain the person, the less reading and writing there will actually be which is one of the reasons why and how books are slowly forgotten and prohibited. That is why Beatty is such a puzzling person. He is so intellectual when it comes to books, yet he thinks that they should vanish. 

          To conclude it can be clearly seen that Bradbury uses different types of diction and detail to set a spontaneous, wonderful, and a curios tone for Clarisse while setting a intellectual, puzzling, and wise tone for Beatty so that they could both convey a message to the reader through Montag so we could know the situations that Montag faces through out the book.