Technology and Dehumanization
Ray Bradbury’s short story “The Pedestrian” narrates the life of Leonard Mead, a resident of an unnamed city in the year 2053. For 10 years, Mead has walked the city streets alone, night after night, past homes of other citizens who sit transfixed by their televisions. He is ultimately arrested merely for walking freely on the street, an absurd event that reveals Bradbury’s grim view of 21st century: it’s a dystopian world where technology…
read analysis of Technology and Dehumanization
Nonconformity
In “The Pedestrian,” the citizens of the future city are described as being all the same, scurrying around like insects during the day or mesmerized by their televisions at night. Leonard Mead is different from everyone else, yet he does not feel lonely or alienated. Instead, he asserts his individuality in a society that expects conformity, and he lives a fulfilling life by doing what he enjoys rather than following social norms. Though Mead is…
read analysis of Nonconformity
Nature vs. the City
Nineteenth century Romantic writers portrayed the natural world as vibrant and spiritual, valuing nature as a place for introspection. Similarly, Bradbury describes nature in a Romantic way with vivid sensory imagery. Entranced by televisions indoors, all the other citizens lack the imagination and feeling to connect spiritually with the natural world. Mead, however, is a devout pedestrian: he walks thousands of miles outdoors for the sheer pleasure and beauty of the act, communing with nature…
read analysis of Nature vs. the City
