Bradbury writes: "Nights 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 areaway..." (24 - 25).
The hounds, in this case, are "mechanical," the rats, indicative of decay - actual and metaphysical.
Bradbury referenced a "mechanical" world with rats running rampant in "There Will Come Soft Rains" (1950). I post it here for your enjoyment. It is a great short story, another one that fits well with the ideas Bradbury presents in Fahrenheit 451.
"Nights 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 areaway..." (24 - 25).
The hounds, in this case, are "mechanical," the rats, indicative of decay - actual and metaphysical.
Bradbury referenced a "mechanical" world with rats running rampant in "There Will Come Soft Rains" (1950). I post it here for your enjoyment. It is a great short story, another one that fits well with the ideas Bradbury presents in Fahrenheit 451.
See "There Will Come Soft Rains".