Ray Bradbury’s “The Pedestrian” conveys a story about the terrors of the future and how man eventually will lose their personality. Leonard Mead, a simple man, walks aimlessly during the night because it is calming to him. “For thousands of miles, [Mead] had never met another person walking, not once in all that time,” but on one fateful night, a mechanical police officer sent Leonard away because of his odd behavior (Bradbury, Ray). This story shows what the future will bring to mankind. During the time of Bradbury, 1920 to 2012, technology began evolving from very simple mechanics to very complex systems that we know today. Bradbury feared that some day, technology will take over and send mankind into a state of anarchy and despair. Bradbury, influenced by society, wrote “The Pedestrian” to warn people about the danger of technology resulting in loss of personality.
As a child, Ray Bradbury loved to read fantasy novels. Inspired by his favorite writers, he longed to become a fantasy writer himself. Bradbury lived during the Great Depression with very little money, therefore he could not put himself through school. Instead, Bradbury went to the library every other day for ten years. During this time, he realized that he wanted to pursue his dream of becoming a writer. To get money, Bradbury started publishing his works in a newspaper. Because he wanted practice, he used several pseudonyms to make it look like he had several authors publishing their stories in his newspaper, but in fact, it was written entirely by Bradbury himself. “Bradbury uses [his] stories not only to entertain, but to cause readers to think about their own lives” (Clark, Tracy). He focused more on the message of his story than the popularity of it. “When ask...
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Works Cited
Bradbury, Ray. “The Pedestrian” R.A. Squires, 1951. PDF file.
Roberts, Garyn G. "Ray Bradbury: Overview." Twentieth-Century Young Adult Writers. Ed. Laura Standley Berger. Detroit: St. James Press, 1994. Twentieth-Century Writers Series. Literature Resource Center. Web. 26 Jan. 2014.
Clark, Tracy. "Ray Bradbury: Overview." Contemporary Popular Writers. Ed. Dave Mote. Detroit: St. James Press, 1997. Literature Resource Center. Web. 26 Jan. 2014.
McLaughlin, John J. "Science Fiction Theatre." Nation 200.4 (25 Jan. 1965): 92-94. Rpt. in Short Stories for Students. Ed. Ira Mark Milne. Vol. 20. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center. Web. 26 Jan. 2014.
Smith, Curtis C. "Ray Bradbury: Overview." Contemporary Novelists. Susan Windisch Brown. 6th ed. New York: St. James Press, 1996. Literature Resource Center. Web. 26 Jan. 2014.
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 2189.
American Literature. 6th Edition. Vol. A. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. 2003. 783-791
Ray Bradbury uses figurative language to develop from a naïve tone to a frantic tone to emphasize that technology, the devices that we rely on so much will end up destroying society and nature will not miss our absence. The house, the protagonist in this story symbolizes mankind. Bradbury describes the house having a self-protective and an alert personality when the bird, a symbol of nature, brushes against the houses window. The author writes… “If a sparrow brushed a window, the shade sapped up. The bird, startled, flew off! No, not even a bird must touch the house!” This house not letting anything in implies technologies ignorance to the outside world.
stories on butcher paper. In 1932, after his father was laid off his job as
Ray Bradbury does an excellent job of making his literature both interesting and fascinating to read. This makes him a great American author. He wrote a novel, The Illustrated Man, which is filled with details about futuristic events. An effect on the outcome of the way this piece of literature was the time it was written. The time period was revealed through the use of characterization, and setting. Throughout the novel, Bradbury uses the literary elements simile and theme to get his point across.
2nd ed. of the book. New York: St. James Press, 1995. Literature Resource Center -. Web.
Macnee, Marie J. “Ray Bradbury.” Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Writers. Eds. Martin H. Greenburg and Joseph D. Olander. Vol. 1. New York: Gale Research Inc., 1995. 58. Print.
Ray Bradbury is a well-known author for his outstanding fictional works. In every story he has written throughout his career, readers will quickly begin to notice a repeating pattern of him creating an excellent story revolving around technology. However, unlike how we perceive technology as one of the greatest inventions ever created and how much they have improved our everyday lives, Bradbury predicts serious danger if we let technology become too dominant. “Marionettes Inc.” and “The Veldt” are two short stories written by Bradbury that use multiple literature elements to warn society the dangerous future if technology claims power. In “Marionettes Inc.” two men, Braling and Smith explain to each other the hardships they must deal with their
Ray Bradbury, an author of many short stories or prose fictions, but more importantly the author of The Pedestrian and There will come soft rains. Bradbury constructs his stories in order to portray particular ideas of the future and the role in which technology would have on the lives of people of future generations. In The pedestrian Bradbury talks of a man named Leonard Mead, who has not yet come to terms with the taking over of technology and still lives in the ‘era’ where communication between one another was the norm, but through various narrative techniques he shows readers that he is alone in that ‘era’ where technology has totally broken down communication between people to the point where it is almost non-existent. In Bradbury’s other
“I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots” Albert Einstein. The role of technology is changing all of the time and the human race depends on it more and more. This is important because as humans depend more on technology they could be leaving behind other important things like being social and getting out and enjoying the real world. In the short story The Pedestrian written by Ray Bradbury the main character Leonard Meed goes out for a walk in the city alone. Technology has overtook the city, and Leonard is the only social person left which, means technology is negitively impacting society.
In the year 2052, Mr. Leonard Mead takes his traditional evening stroll through the neighborhood at eight o’clock. Everyone else in the city is tuned into their televisions sets at night. During this particular day in November he takes in his surroundings of the city. The direction he walks doesn’t matter. Bradbury gives a warning of what the future might look like when technology shapes and conforms a whole society.
Harmon, William, William Flint Thrall, Addison Hibbard, and C. Hugh Holman. A Handbook to Literature. 11th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009. Print.
Two Works Cited Mankind has made great leaps toward progress with inventions like the television. However, as children give up reading and playing outdoors to plug into the television set, one might wonder whether it is progress or regression. In "The Pedestrian," Ray Bradbury has chosen to make a statement on the effects of these improvements. Through characterization and imagery, he shows that if mankind advances to the point where society loses its humanity, then mankind may as well cease to exist.
Our society today is too involved in technology. In the short story "The Pedestrian" Braudbury introduces the main character, Mr. Lenard
Harmon, William, and C. Hugh Holman. A Handbook to Literature. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1996.