Fahrenheit 451

Have you ever known two people from the same family who look so different but act so much alike? My best friend, Mike, looks totally different from his older brother, but even if you didn't know them, you'd swear they were related. That's because they both have the same taste in music, they share common mannerisms, and they both share a twisted sense of humor. The same can be said of the people and the mechanical hound in Fahrenheit 451. Although they look so different, when you look closer you'll discover they really share much in common.

Perhaps the most common similarity between these two is that they are both "programmed" for what to think or what to do. Obviously the mechanical hound can do nothing without being programmed to do so first. It is a robot, an empty machine. We learn that it has over ten thousand different scents programmed into its "brain" so it can track people. On slow nights at the station, the firemen program it attack cats and dogs. Capt. Beatty even programs it to "sniff" around Montag's house to warn him. Unlikely as it may seem, the people, too, are really nothing more than robots and empty machines. They are "programmed" by "the family" on their television screens. For example, at one point in the story, Mildred is given a part in a play with the family. What is her role? To say that she agrees with whatever the "family" says on her screen at home. Later in the story, someone on the screen orders everyone to go outside and look for Montag. In one breath, everyone opens their door and looks for the escaped Montag - just as they were "programmed."

Another similarity - and another way that the people seem as mechanical as the hound - is that neither seem to have any feelings. Since the hound is only a machine, it obviously has no feelings. It feels so sorrow or guilt as it chases its prey. It feels no sorrow or guilt in killing its prey. It feels nothing. But the people in this futuristic society are also like that: they have no feelings either. Neither Montag nor Mildred can recall how they met or whether they loved the other. When Montag tries to re-kindle their marriage by sharing his books with Mildred, she simply calls the firemen on her husband. Later in the story, we meet a few of Mildred's friends. They talk about how their children hate them or how many husbands they have had. There seems to be no