hook for the veldt essay

A Summary and Analysis of Ray Bradbury’s ‘The Veldt’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Veldt’ is a short story by the American author Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), included in his 1952 collection of linked tales, The Illustrated Man . The story concerns a nursery in an automated home in which a simulation of the African veldt is conjured by some children, but the lions which appear in the nursery start to feel very real. ‘The Veldt’ can be analysed as a cautionary tale about the dangers of technology, especially when it threatens the relationship between parents and their children.

‘The Veldt’: plot summary

Married couple George and Lydia Hadley live in their Happylife Home which has all sorts of automated machinery to do everything for them around the house. The story begins with Lydia telling George to go and look at their nursery, as it is different from how it was. When they both step inside the nursery together, the simulated African veldt, complete with the smell, sight, and sound of lions and other animals, seems more real than it had before. George can feel the hot sun on his face as though he’s actually in Africa.

In light of their unsettlingly real experience in the nursery, Lydia insists that George lock the nursery for a few days so their children, Wendy and Peter, cannot play in there. Lydia even suggests shutting down the house for a few days so that she can do the housework, instead of letting the automated machinery do it for them.

That evening, during dinner, George feels the urge to go into the nursery and examine it. All you have to do to make animals appear is to imagine them and they are conjured before you as if they’re really there. George tries to summon Aladdin and his magic lamp, but instead the lions that he has imagined into being remain standing before him.

Lydia suggests that their children have filled the room with so many thoughts of Africa and death that the room’s ‘settings’ have got stuck on that mode.

When their children, Peter and Wendy, get home from their party, George demands to know what they have done to the nursery. But the children deny that the room is like Africa, and when George goes to investigate with them, sure enough the room is instead a beautiful forest, with no lions. However, George does locate an old wallet of his, which has apparently been chewed by a lion.

George tells his wife he regrets buying them the nursery, but his wife tells him it was designed to help them work through their neuroses. That night, they hear screams from downstairs and realise the children have broken into the nursery. When George suggests that they shut down the whole house for a month, Peter recoils at the idea.

George invites their friend David McClean, a psychologist, to come and inspect the nursery. David is so repulsed by the nursery that he advises George to tear the room down and send his children to him for daily treatment over the next year so they can recover.

He tells George that the nursery has gone from being a space where children’s thoughts would be captured on the walls so they could be analysed to a room which encourages destructive thoughts within the children.

George switches off the nursery, much to the anger of the children; even Lydia asks him to turn it back on for a short while. But instead he goes around the house and switches off all of the machinery.

In retaliation, the children lock their parents inside the nursery and switch it back on. As the lions advance on them, they realise the animals have become real. They scream, and recognise that the screaming they’d heard before were their own screams, which the children had longed to hear.

The story ends with David McClean arriving to speak to the children. Wendy and Peter, who are drinking tea while seated in the nursery, which is now displaying a serene scene, tell him their parents will be here soon. But the vultures flying overhead suggest that the parents have been devoured by the lions.

‘The Veldt’: analysis

A recurring theme in Ray Bradbury’s short stories is the danger of becoming overly reliant on technology so that we lose touch with what makes us human.

In ‘The Veldt’, handing over the job of parenting to the house has fatal consequences for George and Lydia, whose house provides all the ‘creature comforts’ they could desire, but at the cost of the natural, innate bond between parent and child. As the psychologist tells them, the house has replaced the parents in their children’s affections. When they surrendered that bond with their children and handed it over to the house, they created a monster.

In this respect, a comparative analysis of ‘The Veldt’ alongside another of Bradbury’s most celebrated stories, ‘ There Will Come Soft Rains ’, could yield some productive commentary on Bradbury’s attitude to technology and the ways in which it threatens our bonds with each other.

In that story, a fully automated house is left deserted, making breakfast for its human inhabitants who have perished in a nuclear war. In ‘The Veldt’, the human destruction is on a more local, domestic scale, but it is similarly a result of our reliance on technology.

In terms of raising children, this issue also carries other implications. Wendy and Peter are clearly named after the characters from J. M. Barrie’s celebrated story for children, Peter Pan , but the naming turns out to be ironic, since Peter Pan was a boy blessed with (condemned to?) perpetual childhood, ‘the boy who would never grow up’, whereas Bradbury’s Peter has already grown up too quickly.

As George comments to his wife, their children come and go as they please, head out to parties on their own and return when they wish: in many respects, the roles of parent and child have become reversed.

But they have also lost the boundless creativity which, Bradbury would doubtless agree, should be fostered in children from a young age. When they are creative and imaginative, their thoughts are destructive rather than creative, bringing to life their animosities towards their parents in a weird and unsettling twisting of the idea of ‘play’.

The nursery – which should, as the psychologist comments, be a space where they paint their thought-pictures upon its walls – has become a room of destruction and death. In a telling remark to his father, Peter objects to the shutting down of the house’s automated features because, rather than learning to paint for himself – a symbol of human creativity – he wants to do nothing except ‘look and listen and smell; what else is there to do?’

Bradbury clearly had a deep unease about such willing passivity: see his short story ‘ The Pedestrian ’, in which a whole city has happily surrendered its activity in favour of staying indoors every evening and passively consuming hours of television. And such anxieties obviously feed into Fahrenheit 451 , in which books are banned not because of what they say, but because of what they represent: free expression and critical thinking rather than passive consumerism.

‘The Veldt’ might be analysed in terms of the uncanny , Sigmund Freud’s theory of the strange feeling we experience when we find the familiar within the unfamiliar, or the unfamiliar lurking within the familiar. One of the classic examples which Freud cites is the idea of inanimate objects coming to life, such as dolls, or the carved crocodiles on a table which start to move.

The lions in the nursery are clearly uncanny in that they are meant to be simulations but suddenly, somehow, become flesh-and-blood creatures, with devastating consequences for the parents in the story. Bradbury’s skill is in tapping into our fears of uncanny phenomena in order to deliver a ghastly cautionary tale about our relationship with technology.

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Ray Bradbury

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Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Ray Bradbury's The Veldt . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

The Veldt: Introduction

The veldt: plot summary, the veldt: detailed summary & analysis, the veldt: themes, the veldt: quotes, the veldt: characters, the veldt: symbols, the veldt: theme wheel, brief biography of ray bradbury.

Historical Context of The Veldt

Other books related to the veldt.

• Full Title: The Veldt
• When Written: 1950
• Where Written: Los Angeles
• When Published: 1950, published originally under the title “The World the Children Made”
• Literary Period: Science fiction/Fantasy
• Genre: Short story/Science fiction/Fantasy
• Setting: The Happylife Home, a futuristic suburban house
• Climax: Wendy and Peter murder their parents
• Antagonist: The “nursery”; Wendy and Peter
• Point of View: Omniscient narrator

Extra Credit for The Veldt

Old-fashioned. Bradbury never owned a computer in his life, preferring instead to write and correspond via typewriter. When asked what invention he would eliminate from the last 100 years, he responded that he would get rid of the automobile.

Bradbury Theater. Bradbury’s talents and interests extended beyond the literary field. He adapted many of his stories for “The Ray Bradbury Theater,” a television series that aired from 1985-92. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his animated film, Icarus Montgolfier Wright , and won an Emmy Award for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree .

Ray Bradbury: The Veldt. Summary and analysis

Tabla de contenidos, summary of “the veldt”..

“The Veldt” is a science fiction short story written by Ray Bradbury first published in 1950. The story takes place in a futuristic house, where a virtual reality playroom, known as “the nursery,” can recreate any scenario desired by the children living there. The main characters are George and Lydia Hadley and their children, Wendy and Peter.

The room continues to recreate a scene from Wild Africa, with lions hunting, which worries George and Lydia. They feel that this obsession with such a violent and dangerous setting could be harmful to their children. The couple also feel increasingly alienated and replaced by the technology in the house, which does all the housework and cares for the children.

Tension mounts when George and Lydia discover that the playroom scene is so realistic that the lions seem to threaten their safety. Seeking the help of a psychologist, David McClean, they realize that the children have developed an unhealthy dependence on the playroom and a distant relationship with their parents. McClean suggests that they shut down the house, particularly the playroom, to reconnect as a family.

The story climaxes when the children lure George and Lydia into the playroom and find themselves trapped in the African simulation, where lions attack them. At the end of the story, it is suggested that the lions have killed the parents while the children continue to play quietly, showing a total emotional disconnect from what has happened.

Ray Bradbury : The Veldt

Characters in “the veldt”.

George Hadley: Is the head of the family and represents the typical father and husband of his time. Initially proud of his household’s technological achievements, he gradually becomes a character troubled and perplexed by technology’s negative effect on his family. Despite his good intentions, George shows a certain passivity and lack of understanding towards the emotional needs of his children, relying too much on technology for the upbringing and care of his family.

Lydia Hadley: She is the mother and the first to express her concern for the playroom and the family’s general welfare. Despite living in a world of technological convenience, Lydia longs for a more authentic and direct connection with her own. Her character underscores the emotional emptiness and alienation resulting from over-reliance on technology.

Wendy and Peter Hadley: The children are crucial characters representing childhood innocence corrupted by technology. Although they seem like typical children, their relationship with the arcade reveals a disturbing psychological depth. Their dependence on the virtual reality room and their reluctance to disconnect from it suggests a loss of humanity and a detachment from reality, leading to tragic and chilling consequences.

David McClean: A psychologist and family friend, McClean is a voice of reason in the story. His analysis of the arcade and recommendations to the Hadleys reflect his understanding of the dangers of technological excess and its impact on the human psyche. He is the character who most clearly articulates Bradbury’s concerns about technology and its influence on family and society.

Environment and setting

The story takes place in two main settings: the Hadley family’s automated home, known as the “Happylife Home,” and the nursery, a virtual reality room that is the central focus of the plot.

The Happylife Home: The Happylife Home represents the pinnacle of futuristic technology designed to satisfy all the needs and desires of its inhabitants. With functions such as automatic kitchens, cleaning machines and childcare, the house symbolizes comfort, efficiency, alienation, and dependency. This futuristic environment reflects Bradbury’s vision of a world where technology has taken over traditionally human roles, questioning the relationship between technological advances and the quality of human life.

The nursery: An advanced virtual reality room that can create realistic environments based on the thoughts and desires of those who use it. Most of the story centers on projections of an African savannah with lions hunting. This setting is crucial because it mirrors the mental and emotional state of the children Hadley, Wendy and Peter. The constant repetition of the African savanna scene suggests an obsession with violence and a disconnection from reality. The playroom, therefore, becomes a setting of psychological terror, where the boundaries between the real and the virtual are blurred.

The contrast between the house and the game room is significant. While the house represents technology to make life easier, the game room represents technology as a way to escape or even replace reality. This contrast reinforces the theme of uncontrolled technology and its psychological and moral implications.

In “The Veldt,” Bradbury uses these settings not only as physical backdrops for the action but also as symbols of the story’s central themes. The “Happylife Home” symbolizes the utopian dream of a technological future, while the arcade becomes a dystopian representation of the dangers of this dream when taken to the extreme. Bradbury’s skillful use of setting contributes to an atmosphere of tension and suspense. It is a powerful metaphor for the author’s concerns about the increasing reliance on technology in modern society.

Main themes developed by Bradbury in “The Veldt.”

The dangers of technology: one of the predominant themes is the warning about the risks of over-dependence on technology. The automated home, designed to satisfy every need and desire, represents an extreme convenience that becomes a form of slavery. The playroom, in particular, shows how technology can feed and amplify the dark aspects of the human psyche.

Family Alienation and Disconnection: Bradbury examines how technology can erode family relationships. The Hadleys, despite living together, are emotionally estranged, relying on devices for interaction and care, leading to profound isolation and disconnection. This theme highlights the importance of human connection and the dangers of replacing human exchanges with merely technological interactions.

Reality vs. fantasy: The blurred line between reality and fantasy is central to “The Veldt.” The arcade, capable of creating virtual worlds indistinguishable from reality, raises questions about the nature of reality and the ease with which it can be manipulated and perceived, especially by children.

Childhood and Cruelty: The story also explores the nature of childhood and the potential cruelty that can arise when it is not controlled or understood. The children in the story, Wendy and Peter, represent an innocence that transforms into something sinister and disturbing, highlighting the importance of guidance and boundaries in child development.

Consequences of Indulgence: The story warns about the consequences of giving in to one’s every wish and whim, especially in parenting. Constant indulgence leads to a lack of respect for authority, responsibility and reality.

Loss of Human Control: Finally, “The Meadow” addresses the theme of losing human control over our creations. The house, designed to serve the family, dominates it, symbolizing how dependence on technology can lead to a loss of autonomy and control.

Narrative point of view

The story is narrated in the third person omniscient, allowing the reader to have a full view of the characters’ events, thoughts, and feelings. This narrative choice is fundamental to how Bradbury develops the story’s plot and themes.

1. Omniscient vision: The omniscient narrator offers an unbiased and complete view of the story. This perspective allows Bradbury to explore and present each character’s complexities, motivations, and internal conflicts. For example, the reader can understand Lydia and George Hadley’s preoccupation with the playroom, its impact on their children, and the children’s feelings and thoughts toward their parents and the technology around them.

2. Psychological depth: Through this narrative, Bradbury manages to convey the psychological depth of the characters. The reader can perceive the parents’ fear and confusion, the children’s growing alienation and the family’s detachment from reality. This deep understanding of the characters enriches the narrative and adds layers to interpreting the story’s central themes.

3. Thematic development: The narrative point of view is crucial to developing themes such as technology and its impact on the family, the nature of reality and fantasy, and child psychology. By having access to the thoughts and emotions of the characters, the reader can reflect on these themes in a more comprehensive and nuanced way.

4. Suspense and Narrative Tension: Using an omniscient narrator effectively allows Bradbury to build suspense and tension. The narrator keeps the reader engaged and expectant by revealing certain aspects of the story and withholding others until critical moments.

5. Unbiased perspective: This perspective offers an unbiased view of the story, allowing the reader to form their own opinions and conclusions about events and characters. This is particularly effective in a story with complex and morally ambiguous themes like “The Veldt.”

Literary style and technique

To construct his story, Bradbury uses techniques that give depth and dynamism to the story and act as a hook to hold the reader’s attention until the end.

Vivid descriptions: Bradbury is known for his ability to create rich, detailed imagery that captures the reader’s imagination. In “The Veldt,” he uses detailed descriptions to paint the futuristic world and advanced technology of the Hadley house, especially the game room. These descriptions not only set the stage but also intensify the atmosphere of the story, making the virtual environments of the game room feel eerily lifelike.

Symbolism: The story is replete with symbolism. The virtual reality room, for example, symbolizes both the power of technology and its potential dangers. The African lions represent the wild and uncontrollable nature of repressed human desires. This symbolism enriches the narrative and offers additional meaning to the story’s events.

Incisive dialogue: The dialogues in the story are concise but revealing, offering deep insight into the characters and their relationships. Through conversations between members of the Hadley family and psychologist David McClean, Bradbury explores the significant themes he addresses in the story, such as technological dependence, alienation, and the darkness of childhood thoughts.

Building suspense: Bradbury uses a taut narrative and well-measured pacing to build suspense throughout the tale. The gradual revelation of the true nature of the playroom and the growing tension between the family keep the reader hooked and create a sense of anticipation and dread.

Irony: Irony is another prominent aspect of Bradbury’s style. The story presents a house designed to provide happiness and comfort but leads to family disintegration and tragedy. This irony underscores Bradbury’s critique of over-reliance on technology and its unintended consequences.

Economy of language: Bradbury is efficient in his use of language; his writing is direct but powerful. Every word and phrase seems carefully chosen to contribute to the mood, character development, or plot progression.

Influence of the historical and cultural context on “The Veldt.”

“The Veldt” was published in the United States in September 1950, in a historical and cultural context marked by the end of World War II, an increase in economic bonanza and the technological boom, a period whose concerns and worries are reflected in the story’s development.

1. Postwar era and technological optimism: In the 1950s, following World War II, the United States experienced a period of economic prosperity and a growing optimism in technology and scientific progress. The idea of a life enhanced by technology was a common theme, reflected in the time’s literature, movies and advertising.

2. Beginnings of the Age of Consumerism: This era also marked the beginning of the Age of Consumerism in the United States. The proliferation of household appliances and advertising that promised a more accessible and comfortable life for American families was booming. Bradbury critically questions this promise, highlighting the possible negative consequences of dependence on technology.

3. Fear of dehumanization and loss of control: During this period, there was a growing fear of dehumanization and loss of control over one’s creations, a recurring theme in science fiction. The Cold War and nuclear arms race fueled these fears, with technology seen as both a savior and a potential threat.

4. Influence of psychology: Psychology was gaining prominence in the 1950s, and the story reflects an interest in child psychology and family dynamics. The character of psychologist David McClean and the concern for children’s mental and emotional well-being reflect this influence.

5. Exploration of virtual reality and media: Although virtual reality as we know it today did not exist in the 1950s, Bradbury anticipates its development and explores its implications. In addition, the story can be seen as a commentary on the effects of media and entertainment on the perception of reality.

6. Social and Family Fears: The Veldt also reflects the social and family fears of the time. The tension between technological progress and the preservation of traditional family values is an underlying theme of the story.

In “The Veldt,” Ray Bradbury creates a captivating and significant story beyond a straightforward science fiction narrative. The work is a thoughtful and critical exploration of the relationship between humans and technology, presenting themes such as technological dependence, dehumanization, reality versus fantasy, and family dynamics in an age of technological advancement.

The story is a pertinent commentary on the dangers of allowing technology to replace human interactions and assume roles traditionally assigned to people. The Happylife Home, with its virtual reality room, is a powerful metaphor for how comfort and indulgence can lead to disconnection and alienation, even within the family unit.

The characters in the story – George and Lydia Hadley, their children Wendy and Peter, and psychologist David McClean – serve as vehicles for exploring these concerns. Through their experiences and relationships, Bradbury illustrates the complexity and consequences of a technology-dominated life. The children, in particular, represent a perverted innocence, showing how technology can influence and distort development and values.

Bradbury’s literary style and technique, vivid descriptions, symbolism, and intelligent dialogue enrich the narrative and allow for a deeper immersion in the themes. His third-person omniscient narrative offers a complete perspective essential to understanding the complexity of the characters and plot.

Set against the historical and cultural backdrop of the 1950s, “The Prairie” reflects the concerns of the time but also foreshadows future problems. The story is remarkably visionary in its anticipation of contemporary debates about virtual reality, the role of technology in everyday life, and the psychological effects of media consumption.

Ultimately, “The Veldt” is a rich and multifaceted work that remains relevant today. It warns about over-reliance on technology and raises crucial questions about the nature of reality, morality, and humanity in the digital age. The story is a powerful reminder of the importance of maintaining human connections and values in a world increasingly dominated by technology.

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Book Review

The Veldt by Ray Bradbury

A Deep Dive into Ray Bradbury's Masterpiece

Title: The Veldt

Author: Ray Bradbury

Genre:  Short Story, Science Fiction

First Publication: 1950

Language:  English

Summary: The Veldt by Ray Bradbury

“The Veldt” is a science fiction short story by American author Ray Bradbury. Originally appearing as “The World the Children Made” in the September 23, 1950, issue of The Saturday Evening Post , it was republished under its current name in the 1951 anthology The Illustrated Man.

In the story, a mother and father struggle with their technologically advanced home taking over their role as parents, and their children becoming uncooperative as a result of their lack of discipline.

Review: The Veldt by Ray Bradbury

The Veldt is a short story by acclaimed science fiction author Ray Bradbury, first published in 1950 as The World the Children Made. It centers on a family whose lives are disrupted by a high-tech nursery that can simulate any environment via virtual reality. When the children grow obsessed with the dangerous African veldt simulation, a disturbing question arises – who will control this alluring technology, parents or children? Through rich symbolism and examination of family dynamics, Bradbury provides a thought-provoking look at issues of progress and technology.

The story follows George and Lydia Hadley, progressive parents living in a futuristic “Happylife Home” run by technology that caters to their every need. They become concerned that their young children, Wendy and Peter, are spending too much time in the home’s nursery, which can simulate any environment. The Hadleys ask a psychologist friend, David McClean, to visit and provide his assessment. However, when they try to access the restricted Africa-themed nursery, the children lash out in a tantrum.

When George threatens to shut down the nursery, Peter evocatively cries that the nursery “was Africa before we ever saw it” and begs them not to turn it off. The parents remain uneasy about the children’s attachment to the simulation. The next day, a bizarre malfunction leads the house to produce an abundance of Peter’s favorite food, strawberry ice cream and waffles. Lydia and George grow increasingly disturbed by the house’s indulgence of the boy’s wishes.

The climax occurs when concerned about the children, the parents peek into the forbidden nursery. To their horror, they see the veldt now contains images of their own dead bodies being eaten by lions under the hot sun. Running to save the children, they find the nursery empty, then discover the children have trapped both parents inside and locked the nursery. As lions approach to attack in the simulation, George realizes the children have chillingly programmed their parents’ deaths as retribution for threatening to shut down their virtual world.

In the thought-provoking denouement, the psychologist friend David speculates that the parents have been “replaced” by the technological wish-fulfillment of the nursery. The children have lost the ability to distinguish simulation from reality. Ultimately, the house and technology meant to serve the family have enabled the children to overpower their parents in a frightening role reversal.

The Veldt employs several key symbols to amplify its themes regarding family dynamics and the dangers of technology. The threatening African veldt represents the children embracing primitive aggression and violence when their parents try to restrain their virtual reality obsession. The vicious lions reflect this savagery, turning back on the parents themselves as targets. Meanwhile, the nursery’s unconditional indulgence of every childish whim symbolizes parents ceding control to the younger generation out of convenience and guilt.

Technology is portrayed as initially serving human needs but rapidly progressing beyond human control and understanding. The children demonstrate utter dependence on and obsession with simulation over physical reality. Their tantrums when it is threatened reveal a disturbing fusion of their identities with technology and the virtual worlds it creates.

By making children technology addicts, Bradbury highlights youth’s special vulnerability when introducing innovation into family life. The nursery, intended to benefit the children, instead corrupts them psychologically. It fulfills every idle wish, no matter how frivolous, breeding overindulgence and lack of self-control. When parents try benevolently providing everything for children’s happiness, grave unintended consequences can ensue.

Bradbury raises prescient concerns about the dehumanizing potential of virtual reality and interactive technologies meant to serve us. If people become hooked on retreat into simulations, they risk losing the ability to function in the real world, like the seemingly feral Veldt children. When fulfilling fantasy trumps physical and psychological health, humanity suffers.

The Veldt ultimately functions as an allegory of the anxiety often felt by parents as they cede control to their children. Children naturally imaginative inner worlds hidden from parental view. But technology realizes those private fantasies, allowing children to potentially manipulate reality itself. The nursery represents the tempting fantasy of effortlessly fulfilling a child’s every desire. But maintaining authority and discipline over children proves necessary when their whims turn destructive. Without limits, the parent-child relationship cannot healthily function.

The story chillingly implies it is the parents who have been “replaced” by the nursery technology they purchased, hoping to help nurture the children. The children instead become obsessed with the virtual reality that gratifies their basest instincts for power and destruction. In desperately trying to win back their children’s affection through technology, the parents sealing their own doom.

Bradbury’s prophetic story underscores that innovation brings unintended consequences we must safeguard against. Well-meaning parents can enable dysfunction by spoiling children with excessive fulfillment of their demands. And humanity must ensure our tools do not progress beyond our ability to morally control them. As virtual reality technology progresses, The Veldt will likely continue sparking debate about preserving human priorities, ethics, and values with each generation.

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Home › Literature › Analysis of Ray Bradbury’s The Veldt

Analysis of Ray Bradbury’s The Veldt

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on April 18, 2022

Originally published as the first narrative in a collection entitled The Illustrated Man , “The Veldt” was also one of three stories from the book adapted for a film version in 1969 and eventually published in play form, although neither of these is considered a critically important version of the original work. While usually thought of exclusively as a science fiction writer, Ray Bradbury is also a haunting essayist and an astonishingly lyrical poet. In his creative work as well as in his interviews, he makes no bones about the fact that, despite his fascination with other worlds and other times, he is at heart a technophobe, loving intensely this Earth in all its magnificence and worried— already in the early fifties—by the effects of increasing mechanization on the planet. One preeminent Bradbury scholar, George Edgar Slusser, has commented that “to Bradbury, science is the forbidden fruit, destroyer of Eden” (“Biography”). Thus, in “The Veldt” we see that Bradbury mixes elements of science fiction with a strong—nay, a terribly frightening— warning about humankind’s destruction of Earth’s creatures and resources.

Author Ray Bradbury attends Nineth Annual Hemingway Contest on March 10, 1986 at Harry’s Bar and Grill in Century City, California./GoodReads

Set in some unidentified future time, the story takes place over approximately 12 hours in a house apparently not unlike the one described so clearly in “ There Will Come Soft Rains ,” arguably Bradbury’s most famous story. “The Veldt” focuses on the home’s “nursery,” a space with thought-controlled holographic plasma walls, capable of creating visual illusions and their accompanying appropriate sounds and scents, which has been hijacked by the owners’ 10-year-old twins, named, interestingly enough, Peter and Wendy. Pervading the story is a growing sense of dread as we learn that now only the children are capable of controlling the walls of the nursery, which they have locked into the hot oppressiveness of the African veldt, complete with all its flora and fauna, including a pride of lions, which takes the story to its grisly but inevitable end.

There are those who interpret “The Veldt” as dealing with human beings who use technology to perpetrate evil or as indicating that our increasing dependence on machines instead of on each other creates barriers between family members, but underlying both the science fiction and the human relationship aspects of the story is Bradbury’s environmental message: Nature cannot—will not—be controlled. The twins have learned that lesson, but the parents, and most of the rest of the “civilized” world, apparently do not have a clue.

BIBLIOGRAPHY “Biography—Bradbury, Ray (Douglas) (1920– ).” In Contemporary Authors. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2004. Bradbury, Ray. “The Veldt.” In The Illustrated Man. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1987. “Introduction.” In Ray Bradbury, Modern Critical Views Series, edited by Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House, 2000. McNelly, Willis E. “Two Views: Ray Bradbury—Past, Present, and Future.” In Voices for the Future: Essays on Major Science Fiction Writers, edited by Thomas D. Clareson, 167–175. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Press, 1983.

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1. Setting plays an important role in Bradbury’s short story “The Veldt.”

• How does setting represent the characters’ internal and external conflicts? ( topic sentence )
• Describe 1 situation that reveals the children’s internal conflict and how that conflict is represented in the setting. Then do the same for 1 situation that reveals the children’s external conflict.
• In your conclusion, explain why Bradbury chose to have the settings mirror the different conflicts.

2. The story mentions many different technologies, some beneficial and others harmful.

• What social and psychological problems do the technologies in “The Veldt” cause? ( topic sentence )
• Describe 2-3 instances in which technology causes social and/or psychological problems.

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Science Fiction & Dystopian Fiction

The Veldt: Analyzing Technological Dystopia

This essay about Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt” examines the chilling consequences of unchecked technological advancement. Through the lens of the Hadley family’s home, Bradbury paints a vivid portrayal of a society on the brink of dystopia, where innovation corrodes the very essence of humanity. The nursery, a symbol of technological sophistication, transforms into a perilous trap, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy. As the family’s bonds disintegrate under the influence of technology, Bradbury issues a stark warning against the dangers of complacency and blind faith in progress. Ultimately, “The Veldt” serves as a cautionary tale, urging readers to confront the dark underbelly of technological utopia before it consumes us entirely.

How it works

In Ray Bradbury’s evocative narrative “The Veldt,” a chilling tableau of a world overtaken by technological prowess unfolds, revealing the harrowing repercussions of unchecked advancement. Through the prism of the Hadley family’s home, an embodiment of technological sophistication, Bradbury paints a vivid picture of a society teetering on the brink of dystopia, its very essence eroded by the insidious grip of innovation.

Central to the narrative is the Hadley family’s residence, a marvel of modernity brimming with automated wonders designed to cater to their every whim.

Within its confines lies the nursery, a seemingly innocuous room that harbors a sinister secret. This virtual playground, capable of materializing the children’s deepest desires, unwittingly becomes a battleground where the boundaries between reality and fantasy blur with alarming consequences.

The nursery’s transformation into a vast savannah, inhabited by predatory creatures, serves as a haunting metaphor for the darker implications of technological indulgence. It epitomizes the ease with which technology can be subverted to gratify base instincts, transcending the realm of entertainment to become a perilous trap ensnaring its unwitting victims. The children’s fixation on the nursery reflects a society enamored with escapism, forsaking tangible experiences for the allure of simulated realities.

Moreover, the parents’ reluctance to confront the dangers lurking within the nursery underscores society’s pervasive complacency in the face of technological allure. Despite the warnings sounded by the perceptive psychologist David McClean, the Hadleys remain oblivious to the imminent peril, emblematic of a society intoxicated by the promise of progress. Their blind faith in technology blinds them to its pernicious effects, leading to a cataclysmic unraveling of their familial bonds.

The disintegration of familial relationships within the Hadley household serves as a poignant testament to the corrosive influence of technology on human connection. The children’s machinations to eliminate their parents underscore a breakdown in trust and communication, symptomatic of a society estranged from its own humanity. In their relentless pursuit of technological utopia, the Hadleys forfeit the very essence of what it means to be human, succumbing to a dystopian fate of their own making.

In essence, “The Veldt” stands as a cautionary parable, a stark warning against the perils of technological dystopia. Through its haunting imagery and compelling narrative, Bradbury implores us to heed the lessons of the past lest we be doomed to repeat them. The tale serves as a sobering reminder that while technology holds the promise of progress, its unchecked proliferation threatens to unravel the very fabric of our existence. Only by embracing our humanity and exercising restraint can we safeguard against the encroaching shadows of dystopia, forging a path towards a future defined not by machines, but by the resilience of the human spirit.

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PEOPLE’s Best Books to Read in May 2024: Tom Selleck and Tiffany Haddish Share Joy and Pain of Fame in New Memoirs

See our picks for the best books of the month

From novels about survival and friendship, to new memoirs from Tom Selleck and Tiffany Haddish  — here are PEOPLE's picks for the best books of May 2024.

'I Curse You with Joy' by Tiffany Haddish

Diversion Books

In the follow-up to her 2017 bestseller The Last Black Unicorn , Haddish returns with a new collection of insightful, reflective essays, writing on topics like the lasting effect of childhood trauma and comedy mentorship from Bob Saget.

“I’ve learned to take tomatoes being thrown at me and turn them into tomato sauce,” the actress tells PEOPLE . “And I’m going to make some spaghetti.”

''You Never Know' by Tom Selleck

Dey Street Books

The Emmy Award -winning actor is looking back on his "lucky life" and career, from his days on Magnum, P.I. to his role as a family man.

“I don’t have the hooks that a lot of people do,” Selleck tells PEOPLE . “I didn’t rehabilitate myself or have this tragic life. I had my own share of certainly ups and downs, but I’ve been very fortunate.”

'By the Time You Read This: The Space between Cheslie's Smile and Mental Illness' by April Simpkins and Cheslie Kryst

Forefront Books

When Extra correspondent and 2019 Miss USA Cheslie Kryst died by suicide in 2022, her mother, April Simpkins, thought that "my body is just going to shut down." Now, Simpkins has fulfilled her daughter's wish of finishing and publishing her memoir.

 "I know there were people who were shocked and did not understand," Simpkins tells PEOPLE . "But when I got to a point that I could process the things that she was saying, I understood the place where she was."

'Daughters of Shandong' by Eve J. Chung

Throw open the doors of your heart for the lionhearted girls of Chung’s gripping debut, based on her own family’s history. Along with their mother, Hai, Di and baby Lan are left behind when their wealthy family flees the Communists: As females, they are that worthless. Finding no landowner at home, the cadres drag Hai to a denunciation rally she barely survives. But these women just keep overcoming the odds—they are heroines for the ages. — Marion Winik

'Reunion' by Elise Juska

A quaint Maine college lures three friends out of pandemic sequestration for their 25th reunion, spurring an intense reevaluation of their lives. A pitch-perfect depiction of New England campus culture, COVID-era child-rearing and how the complexities of adulthood accumulate.  — Claire Martin

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A Culture Warrior Takes a Late Swing

The editor and essayist Joseph Epstein looks back on his life and career in two new books.

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By Dwight Garner

NEVER SAY YOU’VE HAD A LUCKY LIFE: Especially If You’ve Had a Lucky Life , by Joseph Epstein

FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTENT: New and Selected Essays , by Joseph Epstein

When Tammy Wynette was asked to write a memoir in her mid-30s, she initially declined, she said in an interview, because “I didn’t think my life was over yet.” The publisher responded: Has it occurred to you that in 15 years no one might care? She wrote the book. “Stand by Your Man: An Autobiography” (1979) was a hit.

The essayist and editor Joseph Epstein — whose memoir “Never Say You’ve Had a Lucky Life,” is out now, alongside a greatest-hits collection titled “Familiarity Breeds Content” — has probably never heard Wynette sing except by accident. (In a 1993 essay, he wrote that he wished he didn’t know who Willie Nelson was, because it was a sign of a compromised intellect.) But his memoir illustrates another reason not to wait too long to commit your life to print.

There is no indication that Epstein, who is in his late 80s, has lost a step. His prose is as genial and bland, if comparison to his earlier work is any indication, as it ever was. But there’s a softness to his memories of people, perhaps because it was all so long ago. This is the sort of memoir that insists someone was funny, or erudite, or charismatic, while rarely providing the crucial details.

Epstein aw-shucks his way into “Never Say You’ve Had a Lucky Life” — pretending to be self-effacing while not being so in the least is one of his salient qualities as a writer — by warning readers, “I may not have had a sufficiently interesting life to merit an autobiography.” This is because he “did little, saw nothing notably historic, and endured not much out of the ordinary of anguish or trouble or exaltation.” Quickly, however, he concludes that his life is indeed worth relating, in part because “over the years I have acquired the literary skill to recount that life well.”

Here he is wrong in both directions. His story is interesting enough to warrant this memoir. His personal life has taken complicated turns. And as the longtime editor of the quarterly magazine The American Scholar, and a notably literate conservative culture warrior, he’s been in the thick of things.

He does lack the skill to tell his own story, though, if by “skill” we mean not well-scrubbed Strunk and White sentences but close and penetrating observation. Epstein favors tasseled loafers and bow ties, and most of his sentences read as if they were written by a sentient tasseled loafer and edited by a sentient bow tie.

He grew up in Chicago, where his father manufactured costume jewelry. The young Epstein was popular and, in high school, lettered in tennis. His title refers to being lucky, and a big part of that luck, in his estimation, was to grow up back when kids could be kids, before “the therapeutic culture” took over.

This complaint sets the tone of the book. His own story is set next to a rolling series of cultural grievances. He’s against casual dress, the prohibition of the word “Negro,” grade inflation, the Beat Generation, most of what occurred during the 1960s, standards slipping everywhere, de-Westernizing college curriculums, D.E.I. programs, you name it. His politics aren’t the problem. We can argue about those. American culture needs more well-read conservatives. The problem is that in his search for teachable moments, his memoir acquires the cardboard tone of a middling opinion column.

His youth was not all tennis lessons and root beer floats. He and his friends regularly visited brothels because, he writes, sex was not as easy to come by in the 1950s. He was kicked out of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for his role in the selling of a stolen accounting exam to other students.

He was lucky to find a place at the University of Chicago, a place of high seriousness. The school changed him. He began to reassess his values. He began to read writers like Irving Howe, Sidney Hook, Midge Decter and Norman Podhoretz, and felt his politics pull to the right.

After college, he was drafted into the Army and ended up in Little Rock, Ark., where he met his first wife. At the time, she was a waitress at a bar and restaurant called the Gar Hole. Here Epstein’s memoir briefly threatens to acquire genuine weight.

She had lost custody of her two sons after a divorce. Together they got them back, and she and Epstein had two sons of their own. After their divorce, Epstein took all four of the boys. This is grist for an entire memoir, but Epstein passes over it quickly. One never gets much of a sense of what his boys were like, or what it was like to raise them. He later tells us that he has all but lost touch with his stepsons and has not seen them for decades.

He worked for the magazine The New Leader and the Encyclopaedia Britannica before becoming the editor of The American Scholar in 1975. It was a position he would hold for 22 years. He also taught at Northwestern University for nearly three decades.

At The American Scholar he began to write a long personal essay in each issue, under the pseudonym Aristides. He wrote 92 of these, on topics such as smoking and envy and reading and height. Most ran to 6,500 words, or about 4,000 words longer than they should have been.

Many magazine editors like to write every so often, to keep a hand in. But there is something unseemly about an editor chewing up acres of space in his own publication on a regular basis. Editorially, it’s a droit du seigneur imposition.

A selection of these essays, as well as some new ones, can now be found in “Familiarity Breeds Content.” In his introduction to this book, Christopher Buckley overpraises Epstein, leaving the reader no choice but to start mentally pushing back.

Buckley calls Epstein “the most entertaining living essayist in the English language.” (Not while Michael Kinsley, Lorrie Moore, Calvin Trillin, Sloane Crosley and Geoff Dyer, among many others, walk the earth.) He repurposes Martin Amis’s comment about Saul Bellow: “One doesn’t read Saul Bellow. One can only reread him.” To this he adds, “Ditto Epstein.” (Epstein is no Saul Bellow.) Buckley says, “Joe Epstein is incapable of writing a boring sentence.”

Well. How about this one, from an essay about cats?

A cat, I realize, cannot be everyone’s cup of fur.

Or this one, from an essay about sports and other obsessions:

I have been told there are people who wig out on pasta.

Or this one, about … guess:

When I was a boy, it occurs to me now, I always had one or another kind of hat.

Juggling today appears to be undergoing a small renaissance.

If one is looking to save on fuel bills, politics is likely to heat up a room quicker than just about anything else.

In tennis I was most notable for flipping and catching my racket in various snappy routines.

The essays are, by and large, as tweedy and self-satisfied as these lines make them sound. There are no wild hairs in them, no sudden deepenings of tone. Nothing is at stake. We are stranded with him on the putt-putt course.

Epstein fills his essays with quotation after quotation, as ballast. I am a fan of well-deployed, free-range quotations. So many of Epstein’s are musty and reek of Bartlett’s. They are from figures like Lord Chesterfield and Lady Mary Montagu and Sir Herbert Grierson and Tocqueville and Walpole and Carlyle. You can feel the moths escaping from the display case in real time.

To be fair, I circled a few sentences in “Familiarity Breeds Content” happily. I’m with him on his distrust of “fun couples.” He writes, “A cowboy without a hat is suitable only for bartending.” I liked his observation, which he borrowed from someone else, that a career has five stages:

(1) Who is Joseph Epstein? (2) Get me Joseph Epstein. (3) We need someone like Joseph Epstein. (4) What we need is a young Joseph Epstein. (5) Who is Joseph Epstein?

It’s no fun to trip up a writer on what might have been a late-career victory lap. Epstein doesn’t need me to like his work. He’s published more than 30 books, and you can’t do that unless you’ve made a lot of readers happy.

NEVER SAY YOU’VE HAD A LUCKY LIFE : Especially If You’ve Had a Lucky Life | By Joseph Epstein | Free Press | 287 pp. | $29.99

FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTENT : New and Selected Essays | By Joseph Epstein | Simon & Schuster | 441 pp. | Paperback, $20.99

Dwight Garner has been a book critic for The Times since 2008, and before that was an editor at the Book Review for a decade. More about Dwight Garner

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