In Part Three of Fahrenheit 451, Montag is resting in a barn after fleeing the Mechanical Hound in the city. As he thinks about Clarisse, he thinks of the dandelion because she is "the girl who knew what dandelions meant" when they are rubbed under the chin. For Montag, the dandelion is symbolic of his brief relationship with Clarisse because she made him realise that he was not truly happy nor in love before he met her.
Montag also thinks of the dandelion because, in this moment, it represents his hope for the future. As he lies in the barn, for example, he daydreams and constructs an ideal world in which Clarisse never disappeared and he had a person he could rely on. With so much at stake, Montag is understandably nervous about what will happen next:
This was all he wanted now. Some sign that the immense world would accept him and give him the long time needed to think all the things that must be thought.
In this time of uncertainty, then, the dandelion provides a comforting memory and some optimism for the future.
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