Fahrenheit 451RayBradbury’s satire, Fahrenheit 451, is a novel full of symbols criticizing themodern world. Among those symbols appears The Hound. The Hound’s actions andeven its shape are reflections of the society Bradbury has predicted to come.
Montag’s world continues on without thought; without any real reason. There isno learning, no growth, and no purpose. “The Mechanical Hound slept but didnot sleep, lived but did not live in its gently humming, gently vibrating,softly illuminated kennel back in the dark corner of the firehouse” (24),wrote Bradbury to describe this hound. Like the hound, society was alive yetdead as well, drudging through life; mindless. The Hound was a programmed robotthat didn’t thing on its own; that only acted as it was told.
Captain Beattystates, “It just ?functions’. It has a trajectory we decide on for it. Itfollows through. It targets itself, homes itself, and cuts off. Its only copperwire, storage batteries, and electricity” (20), and “It doesn’t thinkanything we don’t want it to think” (27). That society was programmed to notthink, wonder or ask why.
They didn’t do anything that they weren’t supposedto do. Today, everything is happening just as The Hound is controlled. Programming is happening in our very world. Take schools for example. ConsiderPavlov’s experiment with ringing bells to provoke an automatic response indogs. He rang a bell; the dogs salivated expecting food.
The school board ringsa bell, and students rise to show respect for the American flag because ?nowis the designated time to be patriotic, and you will or face consequences”. The bell rings, students stand. The bell rings, the students sit, the studentwalks, the student is allowed to eat. We’re robots in the programmed society. The perversion of Montag’s society was eminent in the appearance of theMechanical Hound. A ?hound’ with “eight spidery legs”, a metal body andelectrical eyes is far from just short of a normal dog.
As it was with TheHound, society was far from normal. The society was strange, backward andtotally abnormal. There was no compassion for life as Mildred makes apparent bystating “It’s fun out in the country. You hit rabbits, sometimes you hitdogs.
Go take the beetle” (64). Here Mildred tells Montag to take the car outand hit animals to relieve stress and anxiety. Schools no longer teach coresubjects, only sports and ?fun’ things. Bradbury’s society hasn’t thetime, nor the desire, to actually learn or better themselves.
Society isperverted. Today, the computer games, television programs, and other suchentertainment possesses more attention than family members, creating a voidwhere once lay family value, and important family time. Therefore, more oftenthan not, that void is filled with harmful, unmoral behavior, much like thatbehavior demonstrated in Bradbury’s novel when some teenagers wereintentionally trying to run him over with their car. Is this normal?Unfortunately, it is becoming exactly that. In this society Bradbury created,you are pampered, entertained and kept completely happy with no worries; nothingto fear.
However, the quest for happiness ultimately leads to the downfall. Allcommunication to the ?disturbing’ outside world was cut off as to protectthe citizens from having to worry. The people were oblivious to the war ragingoutside, and the bomb that eventually killed them. The society lived in blindhappiness. Paralleling this society is The Hound. When it attacks its victim, itinjects lethal doses of morphine, causing the person to experience drowsinessand fall into a deep relaxing sleep, unaware that they will never wake up.
