The Veldt Literary Analysis

The kids are to blame for their parents deaths in the veldt by Ray Bradbury. In the veldt the family has bought a smart house with a virtual reality nursery in it, this is where the kids spend most of their time. After the nursery show the room as deadly africa the parents try to thinks of ways to stop the nursery.

does their work for them. Inside the house there is a room called the nursery which is a vr room capable of creating anything. The parents lose touch with the kids because they are always in the room and they set no limits. When they did set a limit the children murdered them because they saw the machine as parents to them. I strongly believe that the parents are at fault for their death.

George Hadley wants the best for his family. Already living in a smart house which was bought to make everyday life easier, the house cooks three meals a day, cleans- not just the house but the Hadley’s themselves, even brushing their teeth for them. It’s no secret Mr. Hadley is willing to spend big bucks on the finer things in life, even willing to spend an additional 30,000 dollars for another room just for his children. The Nursery. The nursery is a large room; 40 feet across by 40 feet long and 30 feet high; the room displays telepathic creations of the children’s minds and creates life to fill their every desire. “The children think of lions, so there were lions. The children think of zebras, and there were zebras. Sun-sun. Giraffes-giraffes.

​In The Veldt, Ray Bradbury exhibits the literary device of contrasting symbolism of the nursery to develop a theme of technology changing lives in a negative aspect. To begin, during the beginning of the story when the nursery is described, it’s described as, “The nursery was silent. It was empty as a jungle glade at hot high noon… Now the hidden odorophonics were beginning to blow a wind of odor at the two people in the middle of the baked veltland… And now the sounds: the thump of distant antelope feet on grassy sod, the papery rustling of vultures” (Bradbury). People associate nursery’s with babies and place a positive connotation of a nursery, however in The Veldt; Bradbury adds the negative symbol of the nursery as a veldt full of bloodthirsty lions and scavenging vultures that people normally do not associate with nursery’s. This nursery also symbolizes the kids beginning to lose grip with family and going from a family oriented life, represented by the nursery, to a more violent and animalistic life, represented by the veldt. The symbol of the nursery also signifies the parents beginning to lose their children and it displays how before the nursery was introduced everything was normal and peaceful but the nursery adds suspense and displays how the technology affected them. In

The story show some key information of the children's obviously being addicted to the actual nursery itself and leading to the parents becoming extremely aggravated of what’s happening. An example of this is when the father was to aggravated of this happening to the point of losing his cool to the point of shouting, “And the whole damn house dies as of here and now…We’ve been contemplating our mechanical, electronic navels for too long. My God, how we need a breath of honest air” (Bradbury 12). It illustrates how the father’s rage against technology by the words he used to describe the use of technology it’s. The choice of words would also showing his supreme hatred against technology by going to the point of swearing. This basically illustrated a message into the reader’s head about how annoyed the father has been towards the nursery it’s self. And he was also doing this same feeling before, making him ask nicely about if they could, “…Intersperse this Africa with a little variety-oh, Sweden perhaps, or Denmark or China-”(Bradbury 9). It shows the fact that the parents are thinking about how technology is plaguing the family extremely. This can conclude that the tools of characters feeling and actions being used by Ray Bradbury because of the whole book has a lot of parts of the father clearly hating the use of the nursery by the

George and Lydia feel unnecessary in the house because the house does everything for them. Lydia says, she feels like she does not belong there. The house is wife and mother now, and nursemaid. Can she give a bath and scrub the children as efficiently or quickly as the automatic scrub bath can? She cannot. Technology has made her feel useless. The two children, Peter and Wendy, are two perfect example of how technology can negatively affect children. They spend countless hours inside the nursery and barely any time with their parents. They are pretty much devastated when George said that he is going to shut down the house. The children do not know what life is like without the house to do everything for them. Peter even says, “Would I have to tie my own shoes instead of letting the shoe tier do it? And brush my own teeth, and comb my hair, and give myself a bath? (Bradbury)”. This child does not even know how to comb his own hair because he has had a mechanical house do it for him his entire life. Through the use of advanced technology, Bradbury expresses his theme when he discloses the uselessness of the mother, and the helplessness of the children.

“The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury deals with some of the same fundamental problems that we are now encountering in this modern day and age, such as the breakdown of family relationships due to technology. Ray Bradbury is an American writer who lived from 1920 to 2012 (Paradowski). Written in 1950, “The Veldt” is even more relevant to today than it was then. The fundamental issue, as Marcelene Cox said, “Parents are often so busy with the physical rearing of children that they miss the glory of parenthood, just as the grandeur of the trees is lost when raking leaves.” Technology creating dysfunctional families is an ever increasing problem. In the story, the Hadley family lives in a house that is entirely composed of machines. A major

The nursery is a place where the kids’ imagination can be brought to life through a series of optical illusions and sonics. Usually, Wendy and Peter think about unicorns, fairy tales, or innocent fictional places and creatures. But then when George and Lydia venture into the nursery and nearly get mauled by what’s supposed to be a hologram of a lion, tensions rise between Lydia and George. Lydia wants to shut down the nursery and the house due to her paranoia, while George wants to keep it open because he is almost 100-percent positive that his design is foolproof and no harm would come from it. Later, when the kids come home for dinner, they give off a very eerie vibe; they come in with pinched pink cheeks, bright blue eyes and are holding hands (similar to the horror movie, The Shining). Then the two children act as if they do not even know what Africa is when George brings it up talking about the nursery. Afterward, when Lydia and George are in bed they both have a strange feeling that Wendy changed the nursery - and that Peter completely hacked into the system. When the parents finally break the news to the kids that the nursery and house are getting shut down for a little while, the story takes a dark turn. The kids go into a completel tantrum; begging and pleading to their father to keep

Bradbury shows that the family lives in a high tech house when he writes, “…this house which clothed and fed and rocked them to sleep and played and sang and was good to them…” (Bradbury 1) which shows the house does almost anything for this family. The point of this house was for the house to do all the work so that the time that the parents would be working they could spend with their children. However, everything changed when the mother said, “Maybe I don’t have enough to do. Maybe I have time to think too much. Why don’t we shut the whole house off for a few days and take a vacation?”(Bradbury 4) which shows that the mother was getting overwhelmed and feeling like she was completely useless. Once the mother feels this way the parents decide to shut down the nursery which causes chaos between them and their children when they say, “They screamed and pranced and threw things. They yelled and sobbed and swore and jumped at the furniture...” (Bradbury 13) which shows that the family has actually been torn apart because of house/veldt.

The children are becoming too obsessed with the technology and its affecting their learning on other places. They aren’t using the nursery for the things that they need to learn about. They are just using it for their entertainment and not for learning basing. Although some say that it is more out of hate then technology that is why they are changing is because they are hating their parents because they won 't let them do what they want to do. Like how their dad wouldn’t

The parents left their children to the care of the house instead of caring for them and showing their love to them. By doing this, it led to their children to be reliant on the house. ‘ “Don’t let father kill everything” He turned to his father “Oh I hate you” ’-P.7 “I wish you were dead.”-P.7 Mr. McClean also said that the house is replacing the parents in the children’s heart “This room is their mother and father, far more important in their lives than their real parents”-P.6 The house was supposed to benefit the family and help them with their everyday life, but instead benefiting the family, it broke the family up completely.

Some might say that to be truly happy one would need to have the coolest and newest of everything. Ray Bradbury contradicts that theory in his short story “The Veldt”. Bradbury proves that while one might feel happy or satisfied for a small period of time after they get something, having everything the heart desires actually causes the opposite effect. People get so caught up in material possessions they forget about what really matters. Bradbury further proves the above descriptions by showing the consequences that will occur by the children’s actions. That is why through Bradbury’s use of irony in a happy life home, symbolism of the African Veldt, and the role of the parent’s vs the nursery to prove family is more important than material possessions.

Bradbury shows that the family lives in a high tech house when he writes, “…this house which clothed and fed and rocked them to sleep and played and sang and was good to them…” (Bradbury 1) which shows the house does almost anything for this family. The point of this house was for the house to do all the work so that the time that the parents would be working they could spend with their children. However, everything changed when the mother said, “Maybe I don’t have enough to do. Maybe I have time to think too much. Why don’t we shut the whole house off for a few days and take a vacation?”(Bradbury 4) which shows that the mother was getting overwhelmed and feeling like she was completely useless. Once the mother feels this way the parents decide to shut down the nursery which causes chaos between them and their children when they say, “They screamed and pranced and threw things. They yelled and sobbed and swore and jumped at the furniture...” (Bradbury 13) which shows that the family is actually being torn apart because of house/veldt.

Regarding the theme surrounding Bradbury’s works, McLaughlin once said “much of the bulk of his fiction has been concerned with a single theme—the loss of human values to the machine.” In the short story the “The Veldt” this is very prominent. “The Veldt” is a short story describing how a high-tech house, something akin to a “Happy-Life home” completely takes control of the family living there, The Hadley’s. One major piece of technology would be the nursery, a crystal room that changes scenery based on one’s imagination. Successful science fiction writer Ray Bradbury wrote many popular works such as The Martian Chronicles,Fahrenheit 451,The Illustrated Man..etc.

The original act of laziness shows on Hadley family’s purpose of buying this house that they would not have to lift a finger: “But I thought that’s is why we bought this house, so we wouldn’t have to do anything.” (Bradbury) The house does practically everything for them including brushing their teeth, making food, tying shoes and even putting their kids to sleep, so they could sit around and let the house take care the children with some technological help. As the result, the children became attached to the house. When George and Lydia attempted to turn off the machine, Peter Hadley said, “That sounds dreadful! Would I have to tie my own shoes instead of letting the shoe tier do it? And brush my own teeth and comb my hair and give myself a bath?” (Bradbury) He does not want to tie his own shoe and bath himself. They are a loving parents who buy their kids, Wendy and Peter, all the best technology machine to make their life easier, but it became too easy. Bradbury show us the predicting future technology in homes by the way we are dependent on technology and use it to our advantage, but at the same the technology can steal someone’s live without them evening knowing. In his story, the house has taken away George and Lydia roles as parents and has controlled the house.