What is the mechanical hound in Fahrenheit 451?
The mechanical hound is a destructive, man-made monster resmebling a hound. It is a soulless, hollow enforcer that kills thinkers and readers. Unlike the firehouse dog, the Hound does not rescue people. Instead, it either kills them, disables them, or ignores them (even when they are endangered). Physical characteristics of the hound are the fact that it is an eight-legged artificial creature capable of detecting and memorizing the scents of up to 10,000 people. A needle bursts from its nose, and the needle is capable of stunning, paralyzing, wounding, poisioning, and/or killing a victim alltogether (due to the different poisons it stores).
