John Quincy Adams once said “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." Throughout history, authors and writers have created characters that are meant to influence and inspire the protagonist. This is present in the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. On the other hand, there are some stories such as Test by Theodore Thomas that have taken a different approach.
First, in Fahrenheit 451 the author Ray Bradbury writes Clarisse into the novel to inspire the protagonist Guy Montag to take a stand and become an individual and to stop being controlled by the government. She does this by showing him who she is as a person, questioning his morals, and asking him about love. To begin, Clarisse attempts to show Montag who she really is and not for the fugitive that she’s claimed to be.
"Well, doesn't this mean anything to you?"
He tapped the numerals 451 stitched on his char coloured sleeve.
"Yes," she whispered. She increased her pace. "Have you ever watched the jet cars racing on the boulevards down that way?
"You're changing the subject!"
"I sometimes think drivers don't know what grass is, or flowers, because they never see them slowly," she said. "If you showed a driver a green blur, Oh yes! He’d say, that's grass! A pink blur? That's a rose-garden! White blurs are houses. Brown blurs are cows. My uncle drove slowly on a highway once. He drove forty miles an hour and they jailed him for two days. Isn't that funny, and sad, too?" (Bradbury
When Montag tries to explain to Clarisse how important and significant burning books is she turned around and tried to explain to him that if he had never read the books he burned how did he know they were bad. Clarisse also attempt to inspire Montag by questioning his morals and later forcing him to look at the world in a different perstective. "Are you happy?"