Fahrenheit 451: Clarisse Living or Dying

There are two versions of the book that Bradbury is cool with. One is the ending of the movie in which it is revealed that Clarisse never died but she ended up living with the hobos out in the middle of nowhere (an ending that Bradbury liked so much he ended up re-writing that as the ending to later versions of the novel.) The second and in this version of the novel canonical ending is one where the fate of Clarisse if ambiguous. It is never proven that Clarisse is killed in an auto-accident. This could just be information that Beatty uses to get inside Guy's head and mess with him as he always does. Or it could be that she really was killed by a traffic incident and it just sucks to be Guy. Personally I like thinking that she actually did die, because in this case it is best for his character development. She's more of an angel in this way in that she comes to help him and then departs very suddenly, or something along those lines. I'm not just being an evil little freak now either because it is seriously for the better if she dies for Guy. It's like his mentor the one who has caused him to open up his eyes to the world around him is killed by the very thing he has been helping to maintain all of these years and this event finally causes him to realize what is wrong with what he has been doing and to attempt to right all of his wrongs. It's got a much better sense of poetic irony in this sense and I think adds another layer of depth to the novel and the character of Guy. If she survives then sure it gives Guy some happiness but if she dies it really gives a sense to the actions that he takes against the firemen and adds a layer of justice and nobility to everything that he does.