Technology Exposed In The Veldt By Ray Bradbury

Our modern day and age tends to overlook the true damage that technology can bring to us. Technology has the potential to ruin relationships and bonds that took time to form and grow. “The Veldt” is a short story by Ray Bradbury that explains to readers the idea of how technology is able to break people apart and take over human activities. In this short story, the parents neglect their children and leave them in the care of the futuristic house. Peter and Wendy play the part of the neglected children in this story while their parents are George and Lydia Hadley. After Peter and Wendy begged for George to leave the nursery on and he refuses they get frustrated and seek revenge. In the end the children push their parents into the nursery and

One example of the use of similes is in the following quote: “The only flaw to the illusion was the open door through which he could see his wife, far down the dark hall, like a framed picture, eating her dinner abstractedly” (Bradbury). This quote is explaining how George sees his wife sitting at the end of the hall eating through the door in the nursery. “Bradbury also uses similes to heighten the tension of the short story. This description provides a clear mental image for the reader and also under-scores the theme of technology and death” (Milne). Another smilie found was: “Wendy and Peter were coming in the front door, cheeks like peppermint candy, eyes like bright blue agate marbles, a smell of ozone on their jumpers from their trip in the helicopter.” (Bradbury). This quote describes the kids. “The similes here serve to emphasize the fact that these are two cute, energetic children who might be found in any typical middle-American Family”

“In this case, however, the room has become a channel toward-destructive thoughts, instead of a release away from them” (Bradbury). The children had become more violent throughout the story due to them not receiving what they wanted. “Bradbury sets up a tense, oppressive ambience in the story through his use of description and dialogue.” (Milne) This imagery is helping build the image of how the kid’s have changed throughout the story.“The hot straw smell of lion grass, the cool green smell of the hidden water hole, the great rusty smell of animals, the smell of dust like a red paprika in the hot air. And now the sounds: the thump of distant antelope feet on grassy sod, the papery rustling of vultures.” (Bradbury). This quote is explaining what the nursery was re-creating. The images it’s creating seem to real even for a machine to create. “These descriptive passages create a sensory atmosphere and add to the sense of dread that pervades the story. The ambience lets the reader know that this is not a cheerful, happy comedy and that there is a good possibility that something terrible might happen” (Milne) In the end, the parents noticed that things were not as they seemed in that