The Pedestrian Short Story

Future society is an extremely unpredictable subject, because people all have different views on life. Charles G. Waugh author of the short story, “Long Way Home” tells a story about a caring father losing his son, due to the world's advanced technology. On the other hand in the short story, “The Pedestrian” by Ray Bradley, individuals are completely addicted to technology, allowing technology to over rule the world and take over people's minds. Although both stories show a possible outcome of the future, the more realistic future will most likely be “The Pedestrian”.

Imagery is one of the best used literary devices in this short story. Imagery means “The use of vivid or figurative language to represent objects, actions, or ideas.” (http://dictionary.reference.com/define/imagery) In The Pedestrian Bradbury tells us that Mr. Mead’s house “had all of its electric lights brightly lit, every window s loud yellow illumination, square and warm in the cool darkness.” (51) This story also uses imagery when it talks about the police car and says, “…peered into the back seat, which was a little cell, a little black jail with bars. It smelled of riveted steel. It smelled of harsh antiseptic; it smelled too clean and hard and metallic. There was nothing soft there.”

“If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you and you'll never learn.” (Bradbury pg.104) In Fahrenheit 451 and The Pedestrian, the main characters witnessed the rarity of social interaction and how inclined people are to their screens. Author Ray Bradbury describes how it has gotten to the point where people are more in touch with technology rather than each other. Through foreshadowing and flashback, Ray Bradbury’s short story, The Pedestrian, and his novel, Fahrenheit 451, explain how society has become more ignorant in a technology-obsessed world.

In the short story “The Pedestrian” Ray Bradbury tells a story of Mr. Leonard Mead who is alone and isolated in newly innovated world of A.D. 2053. In this futuristic society Mr. Mead is no longer needed as a writer, so he then walks over uneven sidewalks for ten years capturing vivid images of the society he currently lives in which is strongly impacted by technology. Throughout the text, Ray Bradbury uses literary devices such as imagery, foreshadowing, and symbolism to reveal how societies may be strongly influenced by the new advances of technology.

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.

Technology has become such a necessity of daily life. In the short story, “The Pedestrian” time is set in the future of 2053 A.D. It is a story about a man who is walking on the sidewalk and gets accused of being mentally mad. Technology isolates people physically from one another because it gives people a way of communicating without being face-to-face and it provides people with anything he or she might need to know.

“In the last 50 years, up to 100,000 Americans lost their lives due to inactivity leading to some sort of conditional disease such as heart disease [including the laziness within people of society]” (Wise 12). So many people have died from becoming lazy, doing nothing but go on their phones, devices, rather than doing everyday things. Technology has changed the way society approaches life, always depending on it rather than themselves and others. The society today consists of nothing but TV screens, telephone, smartphones, iPads, and items the 19th century would consider a dream to lay hands on. A book written by Bradbury presents lack of effort people put into their lives and society; Bradbury predicts how the future will become later on in the society. Becoming more similar to the laziness and ignorance in the novel, Fahrenheit 451, the society today struggles the society today struggles with dependency on technology which results to lack of social interactions with one another and failure in becoming literate with books.

Technology is evolving more and more each day. If the number of people using technology is high now, what makes us think it won’t be higher later? In the short story “The Pedestrian” one person out of a population of three million walks the streets at night while everyone is inside their homes glued to technology. Leonard is arrested by a robotic police car and taken to a psychiatric center for his “regressive” tendencies. Bradbury is correct the way he talks about technology. People need to have limits to technology because too many people are addicted to it, and the numbers will keep increasing as technology gets better.

“Three very interesting stories indeed,” I said to the rest of the class, another student commented “So all of the stories show a technology caused dystopia in different ways. “TWCSR” shows how humanity can be driven crazy and power hungry enough by technology to kill each other and only leave a frail house that gets destroyed anyway, “The Veldt” shows how technology can control everyday life enough to make humans less human to the point of psychotic murderous thoughts in children for the smallest of reasons, technology providing the successful murder, and last but not least “The Pedestrian” which states that people are brainwashed by technology most likely placed by the government, to keep the masses controlled in an unhealthy way.” “I’d say that about covers all of it” The teacher commented happily. The stories “TWCSR” “The Veldt” and “The Pedestrian” all show through skillful foreshadowing and symbolism.

It is important to note that Technology leads to relationships being destroyed. One example that proves this how the main character in “The Pedestrian”, Leonard Mead is viewed as an outcast in society for opposing to use technology like everyone else. While Mr. Mead is walking back towards his house he is face to face with a bright light that “...held him fixed like a museum specimen, needle thrust through chest” (Pedestrian 1). Since Mr.Mead is the only person in his

Technology is viewed as revolutionary, inventions that make our lives simply better by the touch of a screen to the click of a button. However, in the short story “The Veldt”, Ray Bradbury portrays that technology, despite its benefits, has many significant flaws. The improper and overuse of technology in “The Veldt” causes the characters to forget how to live for themselves. The technology takes over their independence as well as their personal lives and relationships. In “The Veldt”, Ray Bradbury asserts that becoming reliant on technology causes a strain on family relations, and can be dangerous to the way one functions as a human, taking away one's purpose in life.

“The Pedestrian” and “There Will Come Soft Rains”are two stories written Ray Bradbury.”The Pedestrian” is a about a man ,who’s name is Mr.Mead . Mr.Mead was taking a walk around town, like a normal person well what we still call normal.A police car comes up to him and asks him questions and he asks him why he was walking.Mr.Mead replies and says to get fresh air the car says don’t you have a air conditioner in your home,he replies with a yes and the car asks him another question but this one is about if he has a tv inside his house.Mr.Mead answers him with a yes, and the car takes Mead to the psychiatric center for not having his face in front of a screen like everyone else.The story “Soft Rains “ is about an automated house that can do almost everything inside the house so the owners don’t have to do anything.The owners are dead ,a radioactive bomb has hit .The house is soon destroyed by a tree falling on top of it causing it to start a fire and the house to be destroyed.

Authors of futuristic stories like to hypothesize what the future will be like. Some portray times of darkness and gloom, while others prefer to show the positive side of improving technology. In "The Pedestrian", Ray Bradbury presents a future where life is constantly monitored and removed from individualism and creativity. Contrary to "The Pedestrian", "Long Way Home" by Charles Waugh showcases how the future can be positively affected through the improvement of modern technology. I believe that "Long Way Home" describes a more realistic outcome of the future.

In the story,”The Pedestrian”, has a society taken over by technology which is similar to our world.”Today, most people in the United States carry a mobile phone that accompanies them wherever they go.” Even I carry a mobile cell phone everywhere I go, not just for communication but for entertainment. It is not just phones that distract us, but there are computers, television, and many more devices. I find myself many times being distracted by technology. With the many inventions of even more advanced technology, it is evident the future will most likely be like the story, “The

In the future of mankind, technology has taken over most of the jobs. The people live happily in their homes, everything they need inside. In both The Pedestrian and The Fun They had we learn that technology has replaced humanity.