The Pedestrian By Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury’s ‘The Pedestrian’ (1951) criticises the technologised ‘ideal’ society for its social criminalisation of individualism, provoking an analysis of humanity’s myopic obsession with media. 1950s America saw the proliferation of television and consequently a pandemic of popular culture that rejected the expression of artistic values. ‘The Pedestrian’ reveals that the suppression of creative freedom is exacerbated by the widespread reliance on technology, creating gross similitude in mass society.

Engagement with technology supersedes vital human experiences, diminishing artistic freedom in greater society. In ‘The Pedestrian’, Bradbury constructs an analogy between individuals who are consumed by media and the dead. The ‘utopia’ is

The lights are “touching their faces, but never really touching them,” suggesting that television has rendered them unable to meaningfully interact with the world. In juxtaposition, the cheerful Mr Mead states that he does not even have “a viewing screen in [his] house to see with.” Instead, he attains fulfilment when he is “walking for air, walking to see.” Mead’s journey is listless, relaxed and enriching. His dialogue employs a lyrical anaphora which conveys his embracement of poetic values—a cherishment of small pleasures and nature’s splendour to which mass society is desensitised. The dreariness of the ‘tombs’ and the joviality of Mr Mead construct a dichotomy that highlights technology’s tendency to anaesthetise individuals to the sentimental values of human experience, displaced by the sterile culture of technology. Bradbury furthers this notion through Mead’s discovery of the leaf, which transforms the metropolis into a biosphere,

In ‘The Pedestrian’, Bradbury draws inspiration from the tradition of the nightwalker in his characterisation of Mead to underline perceptions of the nonconformist as an inherent threat to humanity. Reservations against the nightwalker prevailed in urban neighbourhoods of 1950s North America and held that the night vagrant was a danger to lawful society. Mead is aware of the transgressive nature of his nightwalking, even changing “to sneakers when strolling at night” to avoid startling the streets with “the passing of a lone figure,” and hiding his offence. Here, there is an implicit ‘man versus society’ conflict which spotlights Mead as the solitary maverick opposing an intolerant world. This narrative subverts connotations of Mead’s ‘dangerous’ nightwalking and transforms him into a postmodern evolution of the benandanti—a vigilante of the night who battles witches and protects his community. Bradbury transforms the act of nightwalking into a bohemian reclamation of the night, unfairly maligned by society. Hence, Bradbury provokes audiences to question the treatment of nonconformists even within the ostensible utopia. Later, the car orders Mead to "Get in" as he pleads his innocence. Bradbury draws a connection between this unacceptance and the ramifications of technology through the