The Family In The Veldt By Ray Bradbury

Jason Silva, a Venezuelan filmmaker and public speaker, once said, “Technology is, of course, a double edged sword. Fire can cook our food, but also burn us.” Technology can make lives a lot easier, but it can also take over. This is a main point of Ray Bradbury’s short story, “The Veldt.” In this story, the family has everything they would ever need. This includes an extremely high-tech house that does just about everything for them. The problem is that the family is not entirely happy. The parents, George and Lydia Hadley, feel useless. They do not know what to do with themselves. Their “Happylife Home” has basically taken the place of them to their children. The children’s nursery is the main problem. It can transform into whatever the

When George Hadley asks his children about the African veldt, they turn it into a forest. George then walks through this forest and finds one of his old wallets. Bradbury tells us, “George Hadley walked through the singing glade and picked up something that lay in the corner near where the lions had been. He walked slowly back to his wife. ‘What is that?’ she asked. ‘An old wallet of mine,’ he said” (Bradbury). His wallet symbolizes wealth. Their family has great affluence and they can have basically whatever they want. George is not fearful of spending his money. He did not even realize that this wallet was gone or know how it got into the nursery. In a secondary source about “The Veldt”, the author, Ira Mark Milne, reminds the readers, “Before George and Lydia leave the room, they find a wallet lying on the floor. It is one of George's old wallets. It has been chewed and has blood smears on each side. George and Lydia leave the nursery and lock the door” (Milne). The wallet was destroyed and the children do not even care. Peter and Wendy did not even tell their father. This technology makes them do crazy things. Another symbol that is used in “The Veldt” is Lydia Hadley’s scarf. When David McClean drops by to check on the nursery, George walks him through it. McClean finds Lydia’s scarf. Bradbury tells readers how it happened when he says, “He bent and picked up a bloody scarf. ‘This yours?’‘No.’

Personification serves as another key literary device that can be used to interest the readers. When human characteristics are given to inanimate objects, just as it is done in “The Veldt,” it helps readers better understand how the objects act. When the parents suggest turning off the house, George thinks the room has feelings and would hate being turned off. Bradbury explains this when he says, “‘I don’t imagine a room would like to be turned off,’ said the father, ‘Nothing ever likes to die- even a room’” (Bradbury). Rooms cannot like or dislike things. They are objects and do not have the characteristic. The family’s use of technology is clouding their judgement. The high-tech house has caused the family to form false ideas. The room will not know whether or not it is turned on. It cannot feel anything. The author of the secondary source, Milne, tells readers, “By turning the house into a living, breathing entity through personification, Bradbury heightens the tension and the threat. Now the parents are not only fighting their children, they are also pitted against a technological monster that is working to destroy them” (Milne). The parents look at the house as an object with feelings and the ability to make opinions. George and Lydia are afraid to anger the house. They are scared of something that is not even possible. The nursery walls are also