What are some similarities between teens in "Fahrenheit 451" and teens today?What are some similarities between teens in "Fahrenheit 451" and teens today?

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mrs-campbell eNotes educator| Certified Educator

Most of the information that we get about teenagers in Montag's society comes from the descriptions that Clarisse gives to Montag as they talk.  There are many ways that teenagers in her world are similar to teenagers in our world, although in her world they are more exaggerated and extreme.  Let's look at some of the things she says about them.  She says that after school, for fun, teenagers go to "a Fun Park...or go out in the cars and race on the streets."  Often times today, teenagers go to amusment parks, or city parks, to kill time and do stupid things.  They like to race in cars and dare each other to do things.  There's plenty of mailbox smashing, pumpkin tossing, and speed racing going on by teenagers these days.  Later, Clarisse adds,

"six of my friends have been shot in the last  year alone.  Ten of them died in car wrecks."

This might not apply to all areas, but in the inner cities, often gang violence takes the lives of many teenagers.  Car wrecks involving teenagers are unfortunately very common too.  So that is another similarity.  On a less extreme note, Clarisse says that all the teenagers talk about is

"cars or clothes or swimming pools...they all say the same things and nobody says anyhthing different from anyone else."

I teach high school, and have noticed that most of the conversations center around the same things all of the time:  parties, fashion, the latest movies, albums, video games or t.v. shows, or the school gossip.  Clarisse laments that they don't really talk about deep, serious stuff; I think that a comparison can be drawn to a lot of teenagers today.  Conversations are surface level, and repetitive.  Another thing teenagers in Montag's society do is spend a lot of time with the t.v. walls, which are interactive.  This is a lot like video games today, and teenagers today spend a lot of hours playing video games.

I hope those comparisons help get you started; good luck!

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Fahrenheit 451

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