According to Clarisse, what is school like and how do teens amuse themselves? This question is from the book Farenheit 451.

According to Clarisse McClellan, school is not conducive to proper social behavior where people truly interact and really get to know one another through fruitful talking. She is painted as being antisocial but she believes she is really quite social. However, she also believes that throwing a group of students together in a classroom and not letting them interact properly is a more proper definition of "antisocial."

To Clarisse, school amounts to the teachers feeding answers to the students like pablum to a baby. She feels that students are being force-fed ideas and doctrines that those in authority want them to believe and adhere to. She sees that no one really asks questions to dig deeper into topics and to form their own opinions.

To her, school is a monotonous repetition of transcription history classes, art (painting) classes, and sports, as well as TV and film time, but again, all just being fed to them in a systematic fashion, which does not encourage debate.

She believes that the schools tell children what to think and preach to them what reality is - even if it isn't that. The students are expected to listen, believe, and obey completely what they are being told and to not rock the boat with dangerous individual thought. Those in authority positions do not want individual thoughts that lead to actions that could threaten the status quo.

Teens amuse themselves, out of sheer boredom and inactive minds, by going to the "Window Smasher" place or the "Car Wrecker" place. This is where they blow off steam. They let out their anger and feelings of uselessness. They are not challenged in school to really be creative and think for themselves.

Deep inside these teens have an emptiness and they let out their frustrations with this by destroying things. It is actually a cry for help and a cry to let them be free individuals with a purpose in life.

However, the State is not interested in this for the students. They want conformity from them. Therefore, in this novel, Ray Bradbury is showing that the next generation that will take over in this society is already full of aggression and unfulfilled desires, which does not bode well for the future.

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