Nature vs. the City Theme Analysis

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 and finding solace in it. Despite the pervasive urbanization described in the story, the natural world endures. Bradbury shows how even in a dystopian future city where technology is all-encompassing, communing with nature still offers imaginative reverie and spiritual solace.

The story’s descriptions of nature use a variety of images to render it vivid, and even spiritual. Tactile images bring the natural world to life for the reader. In the empty streets Mead walks, “There was a good crystal frost in the air; it cut the nose and made the lungs blaze like a Christmas tree inside.” The simile comparing Mead’s lungs to a Christmas tree gives his time in nature a spiritual connotation, associating the simple act of breathing cold air with a religious celebration. Walking outdoors, then, is not merely an absent-minded hobby for Mead—it is a reverent act, similar to that of worship, which invigorates and energizes him. Auditory details further convey Mead’s impressions of nature: “He listened to the faint push of his soft shoes through autumn leaves with satisfaction, and whistled a cold quiet whistle between his teeth.” He also picks up one of the leaves and smells “its rusty smell.” This tangible sensory connection with nature creates a sense of “satisfaction” and contentment, which contrasts starkly with the people in the houses Mead passes on his walks, whose faces are touched by the light of their televisions sets but are “never really touching” what is conveyed on an emotional level.

Mead’s walks are described with imagery of peaceful solitude and communion with nature, suggesting that it is natural and good for human beings to connect with their environment, rather than cloistering themselves indoors. As Mead walks the “silent and long and empty” street, his only company is his shadow, described as “moving like the shadow of a hawk in midcountry.” Comparing Mead to a hawk suggests that he belongs in the natural world and that his solitary walks are as natural as bird flight. Depriving people of their freedom to move about in the world, as is Mead’s fate at the end of the story, is akin to clipping a wild bird’s wings. Mead’s time in nature prompts a turning inward to imagination: “If he closed his eyes and stood very still, frozen, he could imagine himself upon the center of a plain, a wintry, windless Arizona desert with no house in a thousand miles, and only dry river beds, the streets, for company.” Since Mead has never met anyone else out walking in all of his 10 years as a solitary pedestrian, the reader can infer that he feels alienated from those around him. In lieu of close human relationships, Mead feels that nature is his companion. His introspective sense of peace within this image of a barren desert shows that he is able to transcend the oppressive urban landscape of his dystopian city, just as the Romantics rebelled against the cold rationalism of their era, by escaping into the timeless sensory pleasures of the natural world.

As Mead emerges for the night, he steps onto a “buckling concrete walk” where he must “step over grassy seams.” Walking presents a challenge as it is revealed that Mead “stumbled over a particularly uneven section of sidewalk. The cement was vanishing under flowers and grass.” With no one using the sidewalks, they are reverting back to their natural state. Nature itself, then, also seems to be resisting conformist society and reclaiming the urban landscape through which Mead walks, suggesting that the manmade environment of the dystopian city is not progressive or ideal despite its futuristic image—rather, it is devoid of natural beauty and inherently unfit for living things.

Mead’s Romantic appreciation of nature represents another aspect of his nonconformity. Unlike other citizens who use the landscape only for driving during the day and metaphorically bury themselves in their homes at night, Mead appreciates, communes with, and is uplifted by his experience outdoors. In the mid-20th century, cities continued their evolution into concrete jungles and suburbs were cutting into green space. Bradbury predicted that in the future, the natural world will be largely forgotten or compartmentalized. However, the simple escape of walking outdoors and experiencing a spiritual connection with nature’s sensory details will still be available to those willing to appreciate its beauty, and it can serve as an escape from the dull, lifeless landscape of the modern city.