The Pedestrian Passage Analysis
As examples of dystopian fiction, metropolis and 1984 share some common concerns and conventions. In a comparative essay, analyse and evaluate each text as an artistic response to the political, social and cultural climates of their respective contexts: Texts are inherently responses which represents composers concerns of their political, social and cultural climates. Both Fritz Lang’s German Expressionist Film Metropolis (1927) and George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1948) portray the subjugation of the individual and the divide between social classes. Lang’s focus is on the consequences to society due to loss of values such as compassion in Weimar Germany following WWI.
Dystopia is a popular genre in which authors write about a fictional society that is perceived to be perfect and ideal by the vast majority of the people in it. Authors must intrigue the reader, and this is difficult because they have to somehow illustrate a future that is vaguely similar to ours. However, it has to be completely fictional, which makes it tough to formulate realistic storylines. Nevertheless, these authors use literary elements to counter these difficulties and produce realistic characters and you can see this when Ray Bradbury, Ayn Rand, and James Dashner use symbolism in their respected novels, Fahrenheit 451, Anthem, and The Maze Runner. This literary technique gives Dystopian Literature the uniqueness and adds the key elements to make the story flow.
In the “Pedestrian” the author Ray Bradbury uses diction to give a setting to the writing to help convey the author's meaning to the reader. Bradbury uses diction to give a setting helping the reader understand the meaning of “The Pedestrian” by using words like “metallic” or “ill-lit” it gives you an idea of what the setting was. When in “The Pedestrian” the author explains what the setting sounds like by saying “a metallic voice” it helps you hear it in your head and know what it would be like to be in the pedestrian's position. Another way the author's diction helps you see a different part setting is the author using words like “buckling concrete” or “grassy seams” when he uses diction like this it helps you see another part of the setting
Imagine living in a world that is completely ruled by technology. “The Pedestrian” is a short story written by Ray Bradbury that shows how technology rules all of us. Ray Bradbury creates a fictional future where people’s lives are overrun by technology. This story shows that technology has taken over people’s lives through the characters and the the setting, and it has caused them to neglect traditional ways of living. To begin with, the theme of “The Pedestrian” is shown through the characters in the story.
Many books prove that a Utopian society is unlikely to form. Fictional books such as “The House of The Scorpion”, “Animal Farm”, and “Harrison Bergeron” all prove that utopia’s can’t happen even in fictional settings. “The House of The Scorpion” by Nancy Farmer took place in Opium, Opium was controlled by a rich drug lord El Patrón. Once El Patrón passes, Opium is left in despair. Although Matt is now in charge the used to be “utopia” is now considered a dystopia.
Gatlin Farrington 12/1 P.4 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is an excellent utopian/dystopian fictional story about a man who fights for the freedom to read. The government in this world has made almost every book (with a few exceptions) illegal. They have done this due to the contradictory ideas found in them. It was thought that all of the contradictions might confuse citizens on what is the truth and what isn’t.
Futuristic and dystopian stories are oftentimes a way for their authors to express grievances and hopes about the way their particular society progresses. For example, Ray Bradbury uses the cold, lonely, urban setting in “The Pedestrian” to suggest that extreme, government-enforced conformity leads to a frigid lack of human identity and dignity. Set in 2053, “The Pedestrian” follows an old man on an evening walk through “long moonlit avenues of pavement.” The streets are empty, the air “frosty,” and even the cottages are dark. The whole scene is like a graveyard: completely void of warmth where “grey phantoms” seem to appear through the curtains of faintly lit homes.
The Pedestrian Thesis: In a short story titled “The Pedestrian”, written by Ray Bradbury, Bradbury uses the setting to display a lonely, sad mood and person vs society conflict as he battles the lonely streets. Bradbury shows the lonely mood by having the character walk alone in the empty streets. Bradbury wasted no time describing the streets as silent and misty making for a very lonely mood. Mead, the main character, walks along the streets alone with no sign of life, saying “he would see cottages and homes with their dark windows, and it was not unequal to walking through a graveyard where the faintest light is a flicker of a firefly” Bradbury’s quote shows how empty and lonely the streets are by referring to them as a
One illustration from the book that could make it easy to believe the society is dystopian is when Jonas is watching the video tape, “the new child, no longer crying, moved his arms in a jerking motion. Then he went limp. His head fell to the side, his eyes half open. Then he was still”(Lowry 187). This shows how some of the society's methods of making this utopian world possible could be viewed as rather violent and questionable.
In “The Pedestrian” Ray Bradbury uses personification, simile, and imagery to develop the mood of loneliness so that the reader can understand the dark and lonely world the character is living in. This matters because it changes how the reader reads the story and it makes you better understand the character and the life the character is living. By using the quotes that the author did, it not only changed the mood of the story but it also changes the mood of the reader and how he/she
Ray Bradbury’s “The Pedestrian” is filled repeatedly with imagery. These descriptive phrases of imagery provide vivid details that make the story easy to imagine, so real and visual. Bradbury’s writing comes alive to the reader. This short story is about a peaceful man, walking by himself, who is picked up by the police and thrown in jail. Imagery helped readers understand the setting of “The pedestrian.”
---ILLUSION OF A UTOPIA Dystopias may be illusions of a utopia, either for the readers or, more frequently, the society depicted in the book. The government uses censorship, propaganda and other forms of manipulation in order to make people believe that they are living in a perfect society. This illusion can be also maintained through corporate or mass-media control, new technologies like robots or scientific methods, religious ideology etc. Sometimes the readers may think that they are reading utopian fiction because the author intentionally did not reveal dystopian elements of the society early in the book. However, eventually a hidden truth behind the seemingly perfect society is uncovered to shock the reader how easily he or she was manipulated by the narrative.
In Ray Bradbury’s short story “The Pedestrian”, the motifs of the story were appeared a lot of times. Motifs always repeat in the story and give a dominant central idea to strengthen the theme. By reading the motifs in the story, we could learn more about the things that the writer wants to tell us. In this story, there are lots of words of motifs; for examples, silence, alone, darkness, empty and frozen. Those motifs shows the lacking of inspiration and excitement in the story and determines the dark keynote of the story.
The science fiction works of “Harrison Bergeron”, by Kurt Vonnegut and “The Pedestrian”, by Ray Bradbury are sarcastic portrayals of futuristic societies that are controlled by authoritative governments that have completely made their communities equal. Each of these stories take a look at the prospect of promoting sameness and conformity among all people, and questions the effects of the forced elimination of citizens’ individuality in order to maintain equality. In “The Pedestrian” Mr. Leonard Mead faces extreme consequences for his nightly stroll in the city. In the year 2053, Mead’s society has become completely taken over by televisions and the media.
In the beginning of the story Mr. Mead walks down the barren city sidewalks of this city where he lives and this really shows the setting of a dystopian society. No one walked anymore; no one had the time to, no one wanted to, so Bradbury shows imagery on how no one does this, “The cement was vanishing under flowers and grass. In ten years of walking by night or day...he had never met another person walking.” (pg 174) In the middle of the story, an officer finds Mr. Mead and tells him to stop, “‘Stand still.
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