The Foreshadowing of Technology Taking Over Humanity in the Veldt
What would the world be like if technology did every task for everyone in the world? During the 1950’s Ray Bradbury wrote numerous short stories and novels that discussed the negative effect that technology had on society. In one short story, “The Veldt,” Bradbury describes the life of a family in the distant future that has allowed their children, Wendy and Peter, to be raised by a nursery that allows them to visit any location in the world. The lack of parenting by George and Lydia leads their children to become obsessed with the nursery and evidently to tragedy in the end. Therefore, Ray Bradbury’s setting exemplifies how technology tends to seemingly lead people to their true desires.
From the beginning of the story, Bradbury sets his story in the future to illustrate the effect lasting technology has on the lives of people. The disobedience of the children is seen early in the story with Wendy, Peter, and George’s conversation, “Wendy come back here! Said George Hadley, but she was gone” . In a household, the parents are meant to be in control of the family but with the story being set in the future technology has taken over the role of the parents in a child’s life. Due to the story being in the future, technological advances are implemented to emphasize the real effects of technology.
Throughout the story, Ray Bradbury utilizes the HappyLife Home’s technology to proclaim the effect that technology has on the nature of people. Wendy and Peter have never had to rely on their parents for anything, thus the HappyLife Home is the only actual parental figure in their life. Their HappyLife Home “clothed and fed and rocked them to sleep” so the children do not see their actual parents as people that are important in their lives. The lack of parenting from George and Lydia has caused the children to become spoiled, thus causing them to rebel against their parents.
Ray Bradbury’s utilizes the nursey’s technology to show the readers the effect that technology can have on people’s actions. The children constantly use their nursery to visit the African veldt as they imagine the death of their parents. After George and Lydia walk into the nursery to find the African veldt, they begin to realize their children think of “death” (332). They are unaware of the death that their children imagine until they are lured into the nursery by their children and “the door slammed” behind them (338). Once their parents were locked inside the African veldt of a nursery, the death of their parents changes from imagination to reality.
Therefore, in the short story “The Veldt” Ray Bradbury seemingly wants to warn the reader of the danger that technology has on human relationships. The time period of the story implies that the people become dependent on technology. The technology of the HappyLife Home illustrates how the way the nature of people is affected by technology. The technology of the nursery exemplifies how the technology of the nursery has corrupted the children. Thus, the idea of children having easy access to technology seems to be a great idea, but the more access they can have the more it will affect their lives.
