There are many theories that Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, sets into motion. Some experts claim that throughout the book Montag, our "hero" is trying to become one with his hands. Others believe that he is just having a basic identity crisis; his insides are trying to match his outsides. However, there is at least one more theory, and that is that in Montag's society people are seeing one thing but being told it is something else. For example many people correlate fire with light and warmth, but in this book it is associated with devastation and destruction. In Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury makes the government out to a hypnotist and the people of its society, with a few exceptions, hypnotized.
             In the book there exists a creature that Bradbury calls the Mechanical Hound. This "hound" has eight legs such as an insect, and a proboscis like a butterfly. However, this is not any ordinary insect, its sole purpose is to track down the scents of people that own books and inject them with a lethal poison. Bradbury states, "motioned silence of the Hound leaping out like a moth in the raw light, finding, holding it's victim, inserting the needle and going back to it's kennel to die" (Bradbury 25). As stated earlier the government is a hypnotist and they want their people to believe that this, truly mechanical insect is close at hand in order to protect them, just like man's best friend, the hound. Unfortunately for the government, not everyone is falling for these tricks. Nevertheless, this is a common theme running throughout the novel.
             Another example of this theme is the impending nuclear war. The government essentially ignores it all together, and when they do address it, they make it out to be less than they should. There are a couple places in the book where people in this society bring up the war and the people with them dismiss it like a common quarrel
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