Isolation In The Pedestrian By Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury uses irony to display how the obsession of technology increases the possibility of losing connection with yourself. In The Pedestrian, he displays how an innocent man gets stopped and questioned by the police only because what he was doing appeared unusual. “‘What are you doing out?’ ‘Walking,’ said Leonard... ‘Have you done this often?’ ‘Every night for years.’ The police car sat in the center of the street with its radio throat faintly humming...The back door of the police car sprang wide. ‘Get in.’ ‘Wait a minute, I haven't done anything!’” (Bradbury pg2) Unexpectedly, Leonard Mead gets arrested for doing the unusual- walking around his neighborhood. What would normally seem fine is uncommon in Mr. Mead’s society, because he is the only one who wanders around his neighborhood while everyone else stays in, busy watching television. Bradbury focuses on Mr. Mead’s isolation and dissimilarity to everyone else by indicating how “He would see the cottages and homes with their dark windows, and it was not unequal to walking through a graveyard where only the faintest glimmers of firefly light appeared in flickers behind the windows.” (Bradbury pg1) Bradbury depicts a society in decline; where the houses are like coffins and the people are dead from their addiction to their screens. Mr. Mead is

In his June 12, 2015 article “Flick, Flick” published in the commonweal, Rand, Richard Copper wrote that people are addicted to their phones and they don't have time to make new conversation with others. People are using their phone to talk to their friends instead of talking to them in person. According to the article, people are “farming out” conversation, a significant part of their lives and their selves. In the article author gives an example, where his three friends and himself went to see the red sox game, instead of watching the game all of his friends were playing games on their phones. In the article he also says “ our here is disappearing” meaning that people do not want to talk to anyone in person; they just want to use their phones

Technology has deprived the citizens in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and “The Pedestrian” their freedom to think with depth and the meaningful, social interactions that make up the quality of life.

Authors are good at making things pretty suspenseful. Authors create suspense by coming up with creepy twisted stories or writing about real ones. A suspenseful story is made with disturbing background stories that end up having a major twist at the end. Like in the story, “The Pedestrian,” by Bradbury, where at the end of the story the car said it was taking him to a Psychiatric Centre for Research on Regressive Tendencies. Then the main character Leonard Mead said, “That’s my house.”

Technology has taken over, turning average human activities to a distant memory or “out of style” technique or activity. In Ray Bradbury’s short story “The Pedestrian”, technology has dehumanized the community that Mr. Leonard Mead lives in. Mr. Mead would seem to be an ordinary man to us, but in this short story he is very independent-minded compared to the other characters. Mr. Mead is a “writer” who is taking a casual walk in the evening, in a run down community. There isn’t a soul in sight; the people are inside watching their television.

The short story The Pedestrian is an intriguing story that takes place in the future. This story suggests that if the world continues the progress that it is now then we will become no more than humans who are doing nothing with our lives. It shows how people would seclude themselves from others and begin to stop caring for others. Is this actually a possibility in the future?

All these interaction involves the need to physically interact. What makes physical interactions crucial is that it helps develop shared experience. Shared experience helps form bonds and connections that can’t be done online. One might argue that it is possible to have shared experience online through liking and sharing the same things on social media. However, according to Konnikova, “[…] without investing the face-to-face time, we lack deeper connections to them […]” (Konnikova).

Ray Bradbury’s short story “The Pedestrian” is a dramatic illustration of the dangers of living in a world where contact with nature is deemed so abnormal that even walking alone at night is a crime. The dystopian story revolves around the tale of a man named Leonard Mead, living during a time period not so far away from our own, in 2053 CE. In the story, a robotic police car is so suspicious of Mead’s walking behavior during one pleasant night that he is taken away to a psychiatric hospital.

Another example of how technology eliminates human interaction, is by being the only entertainment needed. According to “Is Technology Taking Over Our Lives?” by Alyssa Hope Cooper, “More people are spending time on their computers or watching TV, rather than playing sports outside or being active.... Teenagers would rather watch Netflix or Facetime with their friends rather than hangout with their friends in person” (Cooper 1). The variety of components the digital world offers becomes our sole distraction which eradicates the need of finding entertainment with other people. This elimination of human

Author Ray Bradbury writes in “The Pedestrian”, “In ten years of walking … he had never met another person walking, not once in all that time,” There is a possibility of people not going out because they will be on their electronic devices. Technology can affect people in social interactions to the point where most people who are on their devices most of the time are having problems socializing with others. Larry Rosen claims in the article “Connecting Virtually Isn't Like Real-World Bonding”, “The total effect has been to allow us to connect more with the people in our virtual world – but communicate less with those who are in our real world.” The result of being able to access technology easier and communicate through devices has created a large amount of people to socialize less out in the real world. The outcome of the advancements of technology, displays by the groups of people who have issues, socializing by being on their electronic devices for long periods of

Technology has an eliminating effect of intimacy. The document states “ Sometimes people experience no sense of having communicated after hours of connection.” Humans who are so intact with technology, feel that if left alone for a long period of time feel as if in isolationism. So many rely on technology alone to feel the role of the human interaction.

Human interaction is vital for us to grow and learn more about each other, but when we are always connected to some type of technology it is very challenging to disconnect and make connections with each other. Nowadays more people can be caught inside using some type of technology more than they are outside interacting with one another. Due to such an addiction to technology, many nerve fibers in the brain are similar to those of addicts, according to Chris Morris from CNBC. People now are on their phones while they wait on their food and while they are with each other more than

Society has blown technology and its use out of proportion. For manifold a telephone is the first object they reach for in the morning, and the last they see before closing their eyes. Not only that but the amount of time spent using technology throughout the day is insane, “People spend an average of 8 hours 21 minutes sleeping a day – but spend an average of 8 hours 41 minutes on media devices” (Madlen Davies). People are using devices all the time, everywhere. Walking down the street odds are everyone has been in the position where they are physically run into by a person distracted by the electronic that's being used. Also during time that was previously spent socializing is now being spent engulfed in electronics. Family dinner time is being filled with heads faced down. Children are being ignored by parents to distracted by devices to pay attention to those around

Everyone has seen it. There are always those people who are way to busy looking at their cell phones to pay any attention to other people. These people are so immersed in their screens that they avoid human contact at all cost. This situation seems to be on the rise with the spread of technology to all age groups in various social classes. The limitation of human contact due to the increase of technology has caused a negative effect on people's lives because it lowers the communication skills of the average person, and it has made people uncomfortable in social situations. To begin, technology, causing a decrease in human interaction, has had a negative effect on people's lives because it lowers the communication skills of the

Instead of walking around to places we find ourselves using cars to travel, each day removing ourselves more and more from greeting and contacting new people. We have furthered this isolation through working in cubicles, and automation through computers and factories. Tv creates another scenario where we watch fake realities instead of being around other people. Even in a movie theatre we are isolated because we stare at the big screen instead of holding a true conversation with someone else.