The Setting In The Veldt By Ray Bradbury

1259 Words6 Pages

One of the most popular directors and producers in film history, Steven Spielberg, once said, “Technology can be our best friend, and technology can also be the biggest party pooper of our lives. It interrupts our own story, interrupts our ability to have a thought or a daydream, to imagine something wonderful, because we're too busy bridging the walk from the cafeteria back to the office on the cell phone.” Similar to what Spielberg states, the 1951 science fiction short story titled “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury also has issues involving technology interrupting people’s lives. “The Veldt” takes place in George and Lydia Hadley’s Happy-Life Home that automatically tends to the family’s every need. The house also has an expensive, high-tech nursery …show more content…

The setting is one of the main focus points of his short story. In “The Veldt,” the characters can change the setting of the nursery with their mind. As stated by Bradbury, “He knew the principle of the room exactly. You sent out your thoughts. Whatever you thought would appear” (Bradbury). Because the room listens directly to the thoughts of the family members, it can change the setting of the nursery in an instant. This ability causes George and Lydia to lose control of the nursery and get killed by its technology. Milne writes more about this saying, “The children are able to use their telepathy to direct their destructive powers into the nursery images, thus creating a deadly setting for their parents” (Milne). By controlling the powers of the nursery, the children can change it into deadly settings. These settings end up killing the parents and show how technology will hurt those who let it take over their …show more content…

At the end of the story, when George and Lydia are locked in the nursery, the lions in the veldt eat them alive. Bradbury states towards the end of “The Veldt,” “The lions on three sides of them, in the yellow veldt grass, padding through the dry straw, rumbling and roaring in their throats. The lions. Mr. Hadley looked at his wife and they turned and looked back at the beasts edging slowly forward crouching, tails stiff. Mr. and Mrs. Hadley screamed” (Bradbury). In this depiction of the nursery, George and Lydia are in an African veldt with lions surrounding them. Because the Hadleys are stuck in this setting, they get eaten alive by the lions since they have no way to escape the nursery. The technology is their misery and therefore creates a dystopian setting that they find themselves in. Milne goes on to further explain this writing, “Bradbury turns the Hadley's Happy-life Home into a dystopia that gradually dehumanizes the children and destroys the parents. The dangers are revealed slowly through the story as George begins to realize that the wonderful home that he has provided for his family might not be so wonderful at all” (Milne). With this information, it is shown how the dystopian setting ties back to the theme. Because the technology of the nursery, specifically the setting of the veldt, destroys the parents and dehumanizes the children, it shows that people should