Present In Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man

Most of the short stories, Bradbury wrote in The Illustrated Man are in a different present than ours. Many people might say the book is taking place in the future, but I disagree. I believe this science fiction book is taking place in its own present, not our present. As if it were taking place in an alternate world. Bradbury gives us a slight hint toward what present his book is in when he wrote, “But this is the year 2120, Smith.” (Bradbury Ch.10) Many things have also happened in his alternate present that I could not imagine happening in our world. For example, the nuclear war that is stated to have destroyed most of the earth in many of Bradbury’s short stories. For example, Bradbury wrote in the story “The Other Foot”, “After you left,

Until last year. We bombed all of the cities of the world.” (Bradbury Ch.3) Also he states many technological advances. Our present and Bradbury’s present are different, but they still have some similarities. In Bradbury’s stories the first glimpse at the technological advances is in chapter one, “The Veldt.” Here Bradbury shows us a new state of the art nursery. In this nursery the kids were able to choose whatever they wanted the nursery to be. Bradbury wrote, “ Now, as George and Lynda Hadley stood in the center of the room, the walls began to purr and recede into crystalline distance, it seemed, and presently an African veldt appeared, in three dimensions, on all sides, in colors reproduced to the final pebble and a bit of straw.” (Bradbury Ch.1) In most of Bradbury’s stories not many people are living on earth because of the nuclear war. In chapter 3, “The Other

One similarity that I found in the two worlds is that humans tend to act the same. They are violent and fight a lot. For example, the nuclear war created by humans, and many other acts of violence or unfriendliness in the book. An example of the unfriendliness is in chapter 3, “The Other Foot”. In which the African Americans in mars discriminate against a visiting white man. “Here’s a gun,” said a man, “Here’s a gun. Here is another.”(Bradbury Ch.3) That is how they went to receive the man, with guns. Also shown is man’s envy. In the story The Visitor, Bradbury shows how people fight for something with violence. Like many do in our world. Bradbury wrote, “They looked down at the body as if they could not believe it. Saul bent down and took hold of the limp hand. Leonard, he said softly. Leonard? He shook the hand. Leonard! Leonard Mark did not move. His eyes were shut; his chest had ceased going up and down. He was getting cold.” In the story they killed the man, because he had a special power everyone wanted. Just like many humans in our world who tend to act out of