Fahrenheit 451 - Symbolism

Fahrenheit 451 is a novel absolutely brimming and overflowing with symbolism. From people to ideas everything represent something else. A good place to start is with the main part of the book. In my opinion burning books should be taken more as a symbol for government oppression than literally burning books. Like burning books government oppression keeps the public occupied and dumb. Busy with it's free bread shows like the ancient romans, the public is unable to realize how completely in check the government has them. Firemen in the story in my opinion are like the agents of the government. Carrying out all of the work, tricked in to believing their work is patriotic and for the good of the people they mindlessly do atrocity after atrocity, every action furthering the broken system of government they not knowingly work for. For example Beatty is the government crazed nut case, willing to kill in a heart beat. Beatty knows more than the average Joe and still believes he is doing the right thing. Always looking for the best way to keep his men under control and to help the government continue with the acts that got them as far as they are. I think the hound is suppose to represent two things, one is the sneaky creepy people in society. The really weird ones, who often go around and torture small animals for the enjoyment. I also believe that it represents the governments ability to kill heartlessly, even if simply to save face with the unwitting public. The hound is a pretty easy one to figure out. I mean it is a pretty menacing thing in the story. Made solely to find and kill people in the primitive way of stalking it's prey tirelessly. It is a tool of the people who work to help the government remain in power by keeping the public inf ear, knowing that if they do something wrong it will be only a matter of time before they die, with the precision and terror of a machine hunting them.