People buy such huge panels because watching these larger-than-life screens takes the place of interacting with other people and living life. The people that appear on the screen are referred to as 'relatives' or the 'family' because they are the substitute for family for people in this society (Watt 197). Guy Montag is the main character in the book. At the beginning of the novel, when his wife Mildred tries to commit suicide by swallowing a whole bottle of pills, doctors come in with a stomach pumper and in minutes, she is recuperated. This shows the lack of loving life. The society does not care about individual lives at all. "When Montag finally makes his break from the technological future he is pursued by a "mechanical hound," a terrifying figure which combines the relentlessness of the bloodhound with the infallibility of technology" (Huntington 113). The firemen use the Mechanical Hound to kill people that get it their way. Because of all of the technological machinery of the future, the people do not have minds of their own. People of this futuristic town do not even think twice about killing someone. They think it is okay, and it is even the right thing to do. .
"Overall, the book traces Montag's flight from the dangerous mechanical world of the city to the traditional haven of the country" (Johnson 87). After Montag leaves the technological city, he goes into the forest and meets the "book people" who further show him that the machines of the city are negative and bad and nature and the Earth is pleasant and proper. John Huntington puts the thoughts of the "book people" best when he says that in Fahrenheit 451 they feel that "nature is submissive and controllable, while technology is predatory and threatening" (114). .
Throughout Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag goes through significant changes. "In the course of [Fahrenheit 451] Montag goes from book-burner to living-book" (Johnson 86).