In Part One of Fahrenheit 451, author Ray Bradbury expresses that people are colder in this society; that is, they are crueler and more prone to be cut off from their emotions. After taking a moment to marvel at the mechanical dog in the firehouse, Montag recalls a gruesome memory: At night when things got dull, which was every night, the men slid down the brass poles, and set the ticking combinations of the olfactory system of the Hound and let loose rats in the firehouse area-way, and sometimes chickens, and sometimes cats that would have to be drowned anyway, and there would be betting to see which the Hound would seize first. The animals were turned loose. Three seconds later the game was done, the rat, cat, or chicken caught half across the areaway, gripped in gentling paws while a four-inch hollow steel needle plunged down from the proboscis of the Hound to inject massive jolts of morphine or …show more content…
He asks her why she is not in school. In her response, she points out something very important: “Do you notice how people hurt each other nowadays?... I'm afraid of children my own age. They kill each other. Did it always used to be that way? My uncle says no. Six of my friends have been shot in the last year alone. Ten of them died in car wrecks. I'm afraid of them and they don't like me because I'm afraid. My uncle says his grandfather remembered when children didn't kill each other.” This disturbing fact points out the sheer amount of violence in this society. Her uncle’s response validates that the amount of violence acts carried out has increased, perhaps by a significant amount. Because of the high number of violent acts that occur, the assumption that citizens in this society are less likely to have a consciousness can be made. This, in combination with the previous instance in the novel, reaffirms the idea that the people of this society are cruel and lack the consciousness which makes them