Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury Analysis

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Summary

In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, the Mechanical Hound is a symbol of society’s mindless existence. The Hound’s actions and appearance reflect the society Bradbury has predicted, where there is no learning, growth, or purpose. The Hound is a programmed robot that only acts as it is told. Similarly, society is programmed to not think, wonder, or question. Today, programming is happening in our world, where schools ring bells to provoke automatic responses from students. Bradbury’s society is abnormal and lacks compassion for life, where hitting animals is seen as a way to relieve stress. Society is perverted, where entertainment possesses more attention than family time, leading to harmful behavior. The quest for happiness ultimately leads to downfall, where communication to the outside world is cut off to protect the citizens. The society lives in blind happiness, much like The Hound’s victims who are injected with lethal doses of morphine.

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Ray Bradburys satire, Fahrenheit 451, is a novel full of symbols criticizing the modern world. Among those symbols appears The Hound. The Hounds actions and even its shape are reflections of the society Bradbury has predicted to come.

Montags world continues on without thought; without any real reason. There is no learning, no growth, and no purpose. The Mechanical Hound slept but did not 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 yet dead as well, drudging through life; mindless. The Hound was a programmed robot that didnt thing on its own; that only acted as it was told. Captain Beatty states, It just functions. It has a trajectory we decide on for it. It follows through. It targets itself, homes itself, and cuts off. Its only copper wire, storage batteries, and electricity (20), and It doesnt think anything we dont want it to think (27). That society was programmed to not think, wonder or ask why. They didnt do anything that they werent supposed to do. Today, everything is happening just as The Hound is controlled. Programming is happening in our very world. Take schools for example. Consider Pavlovs experiment with ringing bells to provoke an automatic response in dogs. He rang a bell; the dogs salivated expecting food. The school board rings a bell, and students rise to show respect for the American flag because now is the designated time to be patriotic, and you will or face consequences. The bell rings, students stand. The bell rings, the students sit, the student walks, the student is allowed to eat. Were robots in the programmed society.

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The perversion of Montags society was eminent in the appearance of the Mechanical Hound. A hound with eight spidery legs, a metal body and electrical eyes is far from just short of a normal dog. As it was with The Hound, society was far from normal. The society was strange, backward and totally abnormal. There was no compassion for life as Mildred makes apparent by stating Its fun out in the country. You hit rabbits, sometimes you hit dogs. Go take the beetle (64). Here Mildred tells Montag to take the car out and hit animals to relieve stress and anxiety. Schools no longer teach core subjects, only sports and fun things. Bradburys society hasnt the time, nor the desire, to actually learn or better themselves. Society is perverted. Today, the computer games, television programs, and other such entertainment possesses more attention than family members, creating a void where once lay family value, and important family time. Therefore, more often than not, that void is filled with harmful, unmoral behavior, much like that behavior demonstrated in Bradburys novel when some teenagers were intentionally 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; nothing to fear. However, the quest for happiness ultimately leads to the downfall. All communication to the disturbing outside world was cut off as to protect the citizens from having to worry. The people were oblivious to the war raging outside, and the bomb that eventually killed them. The society lived in blind happiness. Paralleling this society is The Hound. When it attacks its victim, it injects lethal doses of morphine, causing the person to experience drowsiness and fall into a deep relaxing sleep, unaware that they will never wake up.

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