Ray Bradbury's Warning in The Veldt

Ray Bradbury was an Amerian author, who did an effective job when conveying his message of his stories. Bradbury enjoyed writing about science-fiction and horror stories. His short story, The Veldt, takes place almost 50 years into the future with advanced technology. He was able to warn about the damage technology could have on young children, the detachment it could put on families.

Bradbury’s short story, The Veldt, helps projects his voice when it comes to his opinions of growth within technology; by using irony. Lydia, the wife begins to feel unnecessary within her home, “The house is wife and mother now, and nurse for the children”. A family in a home with such advance technology should live so happy, the more Lydia sees the home taking her spot as a mother and wife makes her and people in general unnecessary. Peter and Wendy, the kids, distance themselves from their parents each day they spend in the nursery “it won’t hurt for the children to be locked out of it awhile”. A room for young children, and families to be together having fun- nursery. Bradbury uses the nursery as an example of how advanced technology would replace toys with two-dimensional walls and gives children the advantage to place themselves in another “world”. Peter and Wendy grow too attached to technology, in this case, the nursery, “I wouldn’t want the nursery locked up,” said Peter coldly. “Ever.” With countless hours in the nursery, Peter seems angry at the fact that his father is taking the nursery away, you’d expect the children to be okay with this and just proceed to play outside, to them this is their way of life and are devastated with their fathers choice.

Technology is not only having a huge effect on the children but it’s also affecting the parents with their lazy habits of not having to parent, Bradbury makes use of personification to help demonstrate his message more effectively. George and Lydia completely gave up their parental roles to the house, “This house which clothed and fed and rocked them to sleep and played and sang and was good to them”. The home became the mother and father figure in the eyes of the kids, leaving nothing for Lydia and George to do but drink and smoke. Even with the thought of change both Lydia and George would be in constant competition with the home, “Can I give a bath and clean the children as efficiently or quickly as the automatic body wash can? I cannot”. Lydia is starting to realize just how much the house has stolen from her and her family. As the parents lose their roles they can be viewed as children, and are given the same comfort from the house as the children, “Although their beds tried very hard, the two adults couldn’t be rocked to sleep for another hour”. The home can be seen providing humans like comfort to the parents.

Bradbury gives subtle and creative hints which helped understand his message by using foreshadowing. The parents can be seen in discomfort when hearing screams from the nursery sounding familiar; only to find out it was their screams, “Mr. and Mrs. Hadley screamed. And suddenly they realized why those other screams had sounded familiar”. The children grew a dangerous attachment towards the home, so dangerous they made the decision to kill their parents because they were getting their nursery taken away for a while. The setting where this short story takes place gives us a hint as well. This short story was written in 1950, today we are on the path of a mass “exiction” and new technology is develope almost every other day; having homes like this isn’t that far away, hes created a picture to show we will get blinded by technology. When George and Lydia enter the nursery they become unsettled at the realism in the room, “George Hadley started to sweat from the heat. “Let’s get out of this sun,” he said. “This is a little too real.”

The more technology grows the more it can appear harmful to one’s self. Ray Bradbury uses Irony to help project his voices. Technology not only harms children but can also become harmful to adults, they may create a bond with mind illusion technology; he uses personification to effectively explain his statement. He also makes use of foreshadowing to further explain his claim. Talk about technology is very important, in today’s society everything we do is done on computers or can fall within technology; schools, records, messaging, navigation, etc all consist of technology. We are on the road of obtaining advance technology, but like Ray Bradbury said, ‘Too much of something is never too good’. 

Works Cited

1. Bradbury, R. (1950). The Veldt. The Saturday Evening Post, 222(1), 28-29.
2. Bradbury, R. (1953). Fahrenheit 451. Ballantine Books.
3. Bradbury, R. (1962). Something Wicked This Way Comes. Simon & Schuster.
4. Bradbury, R. (1972). The Halloween Tree. Alfred A. Knopf.
5. Bradbury, R. (1985). The Illustrated Man. HarperCollins.
6. Bradbury, R. (1990). Dandelion Wine. Avon Books.
7. Bradbury, R. (2001). The Martian Chronicles. Harper Voyager.
8. Bradbury, R. (2003). Something Wicked This Way Comes: The Authorized Adaptation. Hill and Wang.
9. Bradbury, R. (2005). The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury. HarperCollins.
10. Bradbury, R. (2010). Farewell Summer. Harper Perennial.