What struck me about the admissions scene was the university officials' stubborn labeling of Hal's "sounds" as "subanimalistic." They compare him to a goat, a stick of butter; this organism can be anything but human since they are incapable of understanding him. They can't see beyond his lingustic difficulties/differences and instantly feel like they have to regulate him to a "lower" species because of it. "We witnessed something only marginally mammalian in there, sir" (15).

"And who could not love that special and leonine roar of a public toilet" also seems to imply some irony. They accept that "roar" of the toilet on a regular basis, but can't take similarly animalistic sounds with actual substance behind them?