Topic > Ray Bradbury's Warning in the Veldt

Ray Bradbury was an American author, who did an effective job in conveying the message of his stories. Bradbury enjoyed writing science fiction and horror stories. His short story, The Veldt, is set nearly 50 years in the future with advanced technology. He knew how to warn about the damage that technology could cause to young children, about the separation it could impose on families. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Bradbury's short story, The Veldt, helps make his voice heard when it comes to his views on growing up in technology; using irony. Lydia, the wife begins to feel useless within her home: “The home is wife and mother now, and nurse to the children.” A family in a house with such advanced technology should live so happily, the more Lydia sees the house taking its place as mother and wife make her and people in general useless. Peter and Wendy, the children, distance themselves from their parents every day they spend in daycare “it won't hurt if the kids are locked out of it for a while.” A room for small children and families to spend time together having fun: the nursery. Bradbury uses the nursery as an example of how advanced technology can replace toys with two-dimensional walls and give children the benefit of placing themselves in another “world.” Peter and Wendy become too attached to technology, in this case daycare. “I wouldn't want the nursery locked,” Peter said coldly. "Never." After countless hours spent at nursery, Peter seems angry that his father is taking away nursery, you would expect the children to be fine with this and continue to play outside, for them this is their way of life and they are devastated by his father's choice. Technology not only has a huge effect on children but also affects parents with their lazy habit of not having to parent, Bradbury uses personification to demonstrate his message more effectively. George and Lydia completely gave up their parental role towards the house, "This house that clothed them and fed them and rocked them to sleep and played and sang and was good to them." The house became the mother and father figure in the eyes of the children, leaving Lydia and George with nothing to do but drink and smoke. Even with the thought of change, both Lydia and George would be in constant competition with the house: “Can I bathe and clean the children as efficiently and quickly as the automatic body wash can? I can't." Lydia is starting to realize how much the home has stolen from her and her family. When parents lose their role, they can be seen as children, and receive the same comfort from the home as children, "Although the their beds tried very hard, the two adults couldn't be rocked to sleep for another hour." The house can be seen providing parents with human-like comfort. Bradbury provides subtle and creative suggestions that helped understand his message using foreshadowing. Parents can be seen as uncomfortable when they hear screams coming from the nursery that sound familiar; and Mrs. Hadley screamed. And suddenly they realized why those other screams had sounded familiar to them.” The children developed a dangerous attachment to the house, so dangerous that they decided to kill their parents because their bedroom was taken away from them for a while. The setting in which this story is set also gives us a clue. This story was written in 1950, today we are on’.