Modern Inklings

Primitivism is “a belief that it is best to live simply and in a natural environment” (“Primitivism”).  It is also “a belief in the value of what is simple and unsophisticated” (Goyal).  Primitivism was a popular movement in the 1950’s as a response to modern industrialism.  Author Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 in 1953 and one of the thematic elements of the book is primitivism.  In fact, Bradbury’s “best works are powerful indictments of the dangers of unrestrained scientific and technological progress” and Fahrenheit 451 is no exception to the rule” (Mambrol). Perhaps one of the most endearing characters of Bradbury’s works who embodies the values of primitivism is Clarisse McClellan.  Even though Clarisse only makes a brief appearance at the beginning of the book, her representative embodiment of primitivism ideals is striking.   She is “delightfully human and aware of her surroundings,” she is “powered by insatiable curiosity,” and she effortlessly leaves a lasting impression as “a lover of life and nature” (Hiner). She is a perfect example of primitivism, and that is evident in the things that she says, what she does, and in her personality. 

When Montag first encounters Clarisse he notes that “her head was half bent to watch her shoes stir the circling leaves” and he notices that in her face “was a kind of gentle hunger that touched over everything with tireless curiosity” (Bradbury, 3). As if to add an exclamation mark to her introduction to Montag, she innocently tells him, “I’m seventeen and I’m crazy.  My uncle says the two always go together.  When people ask your age, he said, always say seventeen and insane” (5).

As if to add an exclamation mark to her introduction to Montag, she innocently tells him, “I’m seventeen and I’m crazy.  My uncle says the two always go together.  When people ask your age, he said, always say seventeen and insane” (5).

It is this kind of honest self-evaluation that represents the childlike innocence of one untouched by the hardness of modern technology and it is with that same innocence that she asks Montag if he ever actually reads any of the books he burns or if it’s “true that long ago firemen put fires out instead of going to start them”. Montag replies with authoritative adult-like certainty, “No. Houses have always been fireproof, take my word for it” (6). He doesn’t even think for a moment that he might be wrong in that assertion, but the girl doesn’t challenge him. Instead, she wisely and innocently suggests an alternative reality to his words by telling him that she had heard that “once a long time ago houses used to burn by accident” and firemen actually used to stop fires like that rather than start them (6).  It’s interesting that Clarisse doesn’t outright challenge Montag, but she quietly introduces new thoughts and ideas that Montag later thinks about and formulates ideas around.

Clarisse puts forth her casual observations of nature by explaining that she loves to walk at night because “she likes to smell things and look at things” and then informs him that she “sometimes stay[s] up all night, walking, and [watching] the sunrise” (5). Montag soon notices in her face “a constant light” and he compares it to the “gently flattering light of the candle” as he puzzles over its source (5). He laughs at her oddness as she describes blurs of color that drivers of automobiles must see when they speed past things at 100 miles per hour, “If you showed a driver a green blur, oh yes! He’d say, that’s grass!  A pink blur? That’s a rose garden!” (6). According to her, white blurs would be houses, and brown blurs would be cows, then she marvels at the fact that her uncle, who once drove 40 miles per hour, got jailed for two days for driving too slowly. From this narrative we see that Clarisse demonstrates new ways of thinking and seeing the world, which causes Montag to reflect on where her observations come from. He is entertained by her refreshing look on things which is different from what all the other “sheep” see and talk about.

…she describes blurs of color that drivers of automobiles must see when they speed past things at 100 miles per hour…

The author doesn’t stop at demonstrating primitivism in the things that Clarisse says, does, or shows in her personality, but he demonstrates it through characteristics of her life.  For instance, when she and Montag approach her house, Montag notices that “all the lights were blazing” and he ask her about it, thinking that something is going on (7).  Clarisse explains that it’s just her mother, father, and uncle sitting around talking.  She is not surprised by this, but Montag clearly is amazed as he asks her incredulously what they could possibly be talking about.  It’s not a thing that’s done in this modernistic society; sitting around for hours and just talking. This would seem odd to readers if it didn’t ring so true, especially in our own modern world.  Sitting and talking for hours with family members seems to be disappearing in modern reality as much as it does in Bradbury’s fictional world.  When the author wrote of such things in the novel, he thought he “was writing a story of prediction, describing a world that might evolve in four or five decades” but he was shocked to realize that his fantasy world was already becoming relevant (as qtd. in Bradbury, 188). He observed a couple in Beverly Hills out walking their dog and he was “absolutely stunned” to see that the woman “held in one hand a small cigarette-packaged-size radio…which ended in a dainty cone plugged into her right ear” (as qtd. in Bradbury, 188).  She was oblivious to the man and the dog, or anything else, for that matter, as she walked down the street with this thing attached to her ear. Would Bradbury be shocked by the way people wonder around now, with phone in hand and eyes focused on it as they walk with little white things sticking out of their ears? Since he predicted it, maybe it would not be too foreign of an idea to him, it just happened faster than he thought it would.

Bradbury explains, “I thought I had raced ahead of science, predicting the radio-induced semi-catatonic.  In the long haul, science pulled abreast, tipped its hat, and fed me the dust” (as qtd. in Bradbury, 188). It had all happened earlier than he had supposed.  A return to primitivism may not be such a bad idea, especially now.  It’s hard not to miss that childlike innocence and wide-eyed wonder of nature and the world that Clarisse represents.  It’s something well worth considering more than fifty years after Bradbury’s eerily predictive narrative. 

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451, Simon & Schuster, May 2018. Print.

Goyal, Vipin Behari. “Primitivism In 20th Century Literature.” Medium, Medium, 15 May 2020, https://medium.com/@VipinBGoyal/primitivism-in-20th-century-literature-184b40cc3e69.

Hiner, Kristi. CliffsNotes on Fahrenheit 451. 15 Jul 2021, </literature/f/fahrenheit-451/book-summary>

Mambrol, Nasrullah. “Analysis of Ray Bradbury’s Novels.” Literary Theory and Criticism, Literariness.org, 10 May 2018, https://literariness.org/2018/05/10/analysis-of-ray-bradburys-novels/.

“Primitivism.” American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. 2011. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company 9 Dec. 2021 https://www.thefreedictionary.com/primitivism