Compare and Contrast Mildred and Clarisse as portrayals of strong and weak characters

Clarisse is strong in that she is curious, wants to learn, doesn't care that she doesn't fit in, and she actually THINKS (unlike the novel's other female characters.

Mildred is the weak character, if we can either call her that. She's practically non-existant, has no personality, lives her life through a televsion screen............. she's pathetic, but she's not even that because she doesn't know it herself. Mildred is supposed to be happy, so she tells her husband she's happy....... she's anything but. Like many other women (so we learn from the plumbers) she tries to take her own life.

thank you jill!!!!