Stereotypes In The Veldt By Ray Bradbury

Why in the 21st century should texts, that have their essence perverted by sexism, bigotry, and stereotypes, be presented to the youth? “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury is one such text that is used to teach children. In “The Veldt”, a young couple (George and Lydia Hadley) and their two children (Wendy and Peter Hadley) are heavily reliant on technology in the retro-futuristic 1950s. The setting is very reminiscent of a less technologically advanced “Meet the Jetsons”. Highly technologically advanced, 1950s culture, and filled with sexism and gender roles. They even have the same family members: a daughter, a son and two parents. The parents neglect the children, leaving their nurture to technology, before deciding that the technology spoils the

To begin with, Lydia Hadley is rarely mentioned by name and instead mainly referred to as “his wife”. This characterises Lydia as being less than George and reinforces the sexist stereotype that men are better than women. Lydia is also portrayed as emotional, a common stereotype of women, in many scenes such as when “she was crying”. Lydia is also commonly portrayed as ditsy, another common stereotype, especially when Lydia says “‘I don’t know- I don’t know’ she said, blowing her nose, sitting down in a chair that immediately began to rock and comfort her.” This quote demonstrates Bradbury's conscious or subconscious thoughts on women; inept, hysterical and needing comfort. This entire book portrays Lydia as a ditsy, emotional and needy woman, but she is not the only one whose entire character is affected by sexism. George Hadley is portrayed as an emotionally-lack man who cannot cook or clean. George's most emotionally unintelligent moment is when while talking to a psychiatrist about his children he says “I want facts not feelings”, which is an insane thing to say when wondering about your child's emotional health. George is also mentioned to be “smoking too much. and drink[ing] a little more every afternoon” a stereotype of men that depicts them as easily tempted to a lot of vices. Other common tropes with this stereotype include gambling, lust, drugs and other of the

The main theme is parental neglect which unfortunately is also perverted by sexism as seen in the dialogue, diction, metaphors and imagery that Bradbury uses.. The message is heavily reliant on the poor parenting committed by George and Lydia Hadley. Their forms of parenting are also commonly seen in many forms of media. George’s parenting is selfish, self serving, aggressive and neglects his kids emotional needs and wants. George agrees with the quote “Children are carpets, they should be stepped on occasionally”, which only furthers the reader's knowledge of how flawed George's parenting is through this use of a metaphor. A common stereotype of dads is them being cold and detached from their children and George completely falls into these stereotypes and corrupts the main theme of parental neglect by making the parents one dimensional characters that are walking stereotypes. Lydia is not safe from this either, as she is seen to be a pushover letting her children run all over her and not being able to discipline them properly “The children threw themselves on a sofa crying ‘George,’ said Lydia Hadley, ‘turn it on again just for a few moments. You need to give them some more time.’” This reinforces the stereotype that women are pushovers when it comes to children and do not know how to discipline their children. This is how sexism corrupts the main themes of “The