Hell Hound

Author's Note: I really, sincerely think that Montag is an idiot who has no idea what he is doing throughout the whole book, unless he is told what to do.  Fahrenheit 451 is my least favorite book because it bothers me that Ray Bradbury chose such a dull, brainless person to be his main character.  The book would have been a million times better if it was written with Clarisse as the main character.  Anyway, if you like Montag, I suggest you don't read this essay so you don't get offended.

The Mechanical Hound is a very misunderstood creature, simply for that reason.  The Hound is considered a creature, but it is only a machine.  It does what it is told to do, nothing more, nothing less.  For some reason, this confuses Montag.  He just doesn't understand the Hound.

The Hound perplexes Montag because, him being childish, he expects the Hound to have feeling because he has feelings.  Something that can't feel is just too hard for Montag to understand.  He wastes emotions on the beast multiple times.  One of those times is when Captain Beatty says, "It doesn't think anything we don't want it to think"(27) and Montag feels sympathy for the Hound.  He even tries to be nice to the Hound and tries to pet it, and it growls at him.  He is offended and says to Captain Beatty, "It doesn't like me"(26).  Montag is extremely shallow and expects everything and everyone to like him, and then he is upset by the Hound because it is not emotionally capable to like something.  So, technically, the Hound doesn't like him, and though it doesn't like anyone,  Montag gets upset.

The reason Montag is confused by the Mechanical Hound is because he doesn’t understand how something can not like him. He just needs to realize that the Hound is not capable of emotion.