The Pedestrian Analysis

“The Pedestrian”, by Ray Bradbury, is a story about a world where technology has overtaken the minds of citizens and turned a pastime, walking, into something seen as outdated and abnormal. Unlike the other citizens in his town, Mr. Mead chooses not to pay attention to the unsaid rules, and embraces acting off his own conscious. He refrains from being drawn into a world blinded by technology and instead, chooses to spend his time walking. Mr. Mead’s behavior is concerning to society as it threatens their monopoly of control, by expressing individuality, ingenuity, and imagination. Humanity is seen through our interactions with one and there is an absence of it in society. Mr. Mead is one of the few members in his society to walk and think

The technological advancements have created new expectations that society abides by, such as having a viewing screen and remaining indoors. The citizens in the city behave as if they are dead and have no actual purpose to life, other than to watch their viewing screens, “whispering and murmurs where a window in a tomb-like building was still open”. Advances in technology, can help accomplish amazing things, but if technology is only used for entertainment purposes and does not actually involve using our brains, it can separate humans, instead of uniting us. Mr. Mead is a man who has no intention for his mind to rot and wither away with the meaninglessness of viewing screens. Instead of going through life in a blur, Mr. Mead chooses to appreciate the little things in life. He is aware of the fact that what he is doing is not seen as regular, yet still chose to disregard what society thinks we should do:

“For long ago he had wisely changed to sneakers when strolling at night, because the dogs in intermittent squads would parallel his journey with barkings if he wore hard heels, and light might click on and faces appear and an entire street startled by the passing of a lone

Mead lives in a dystopian society, a city where the citizens have become, “grey phantoms”, that show no aspects of true human nature. Technology has created a world where people are given instructions and expected to comply, they have been stripped of their humanity and now simply follow programs and functions accordingly, “The car hesitated, or rather gave a faint whirring click, as if information, somewhere, was dropping card by punch-slotted card under electric eyes”. The police car is not a human being and so is unable to make connections and think for itself, all it can conclude is that what Mr. Mead is not doing what is the norm and so it must be against the law. Much like the police car, society has made the citizens lose the demeanor of people who think for themselves and take on the appearance of people who follow blindly what they have been told,