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The Veldt Literary Analysis

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“The Veldt”, by Ray Bradbury, is a short story that contains a series of events where the children, Wendy and Peter, are constantly being spoiled with the use of technology. Their parents, George and Lydia, bought a technology filled house, which contains devices that do almost everything for them, including a nursery for the children. The nursery’s walls transform and display different environments, of which reflect one’s thoughts. The children, however, are caught using violent content inside the nursery so their parents threaten to take away all technology, including the nursery. The children become upset, throw temper tantrums, and end up locking their parents in the nursery, left there to die with hungry lions. From George and Lydia’s …show more content…

After Wendy changed the walls of the nursery to cover up the violent African savanna, her parents questioned their punishments. George stated, “’Who was it that said, ‘Children are carpets, they should be stepped on occasionally’? We’ve never lifted a hand. They’re insufferable’” (10). This means that children need discipline sometimes, and the Hadley parents find themselves not being able to follow through with it. Since the children are rarely chastised, they don’t show respect for their parents because they infrequently get in trouble for their actions. In addition, when George started to turn off all of the technology sources throughout the house, Peter and Wendy begged their mother to let them have a couple more minutes in the nursery. She reported back to George and he said, “’All right—alright, if they’ll shut up. One minute mind you and then off forever’” (16). Lydia and George are giving into the children’s temper tantrums, allowing them to spend more time in the nursery. The children use this weakness of parenting by disrespecting their parents to get what they want. The disrespect towards the children’s parents and the ability for the children to continue doing so shows that the children are overpowering their parents as a result of the lack of discipline, and they are being

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They instead have “a tendency toward a slight paranoia here or there, usual in children because they feel persecuted by parents constantly” (Bradbury 7). The theme of death is a driving force throughout the story that exemplifies how technology can cause a tendency toward violence. There is a feeling deep inside the characters, especially the wife and husband, who realize that the way the children behave is not right. The wife, Lydia Hadley, helps her husband begin to see how negatively affected the children have become as a result of technology. It now does everything and “is wife and mother now, and nursemaid”

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For example, consistently throughout the film and story, the children control their parents through the nursery and tell them when they will be coming home, where they are, and what they are doing. “At dinner they ate alone, for Wendy and Peter were at a special plastic carnival across town and had televised home to say they'd be late.” The children, Wendy and Peter, are constantly thinking about and threatening their parents through the veldt and the actions of the lions. In the end, we see this sense of control, become domination as the kids take out their parents. In addition, in the film and story, from the beginning Lydia suggests that there is an issue and throughout the story is the driving factor of the therapist, the vacation idea, and the shutdown of the nursery.

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