Peter Pan Allusion

Most times, it is believed that happiness is a state-of-mind that is expected to might be a top priority among children. However, in The Veldt, Bradbury feels that parents hold a responsibility for making their children happy; parents must also enforce discipline to balance out the sense of happiness to raise a well-rounded child. In The Veldt, Bradbury introduces the Hadley family: the children Wendy and Peter grow up in a futuristic world where technology has over taken parental and household duties and has become the only source of reliance for the children. As the children grow more dependent on their technology, they grow more distant from their own parents. It is through the use of over indulgence in technology, allusions, and imagery,

In the story Peter Pan, two children named Wendy and Peter live in their own reserved, imaginary, little world. The children’s parents in Peter Pan ignore them and show them little attention, causing them to want to run away. In Ray Bradbury’s The Veldt, Wendy and Peter lack their parents’ attention simply because they neglect the attention their parents so desperately are trying to give them. Instead of feeling sorry for themselves that their children want nothing to do with them, Bradbury is urging Lydia and George Hadley to stand up for themselves and discipline their children for treating them so poorly. “Who was it said, ‘Children are carpets, they should be stepped on occasionally’? We’ve never lifted a hand. They’re insufferable- let’s admit it” (Bradbury 8). At this point in the story, the Hadley parents are starting to realize how spoiling their children to the point they are now was a mistake that is too late to take back now. This supports Bradbury’s claim that there comes a point where discipline is more vital to children’s growth than