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The Veldt Essay Examples and Topics

by Ray Bradbury

Essay Examples
Essay Topics
Brief overview
date
Date

23 September 1950

author
Author

Ray Bradbury

type
Type

Short story

genre
Genre

Science fiction

characters
Major Characters

George, Lydia, Peter, and Wendy Hadley

symbols-motives
Symbols/Motives

Machines, people’s nature, immersive entertainment

influence
Influence

The story got adapted into the Illustrated Man for the cinema. It has also been adapted for TV several times.

plot
Plot

The Hadley family owns a smart house. Robots and machines do virtually all house tasks, and the family members are left to enjoy their time. The two children can create a virtual scene from their imagination in the nursery. They choose a realistic scene from the African veldt, and the parents can smell the lion’s latest victim’s blood when they enter the room. The parents are so worried that they call a psychologist. David McClean, the psychologist, advises them to become more self-sufficient, move to the country, and turn the house off. Peter and Wendy resist that idea, and they convince their parents to leave them in the nursery for the last time. They lock their parents there, sending them to become victims of the pride of lions into their imagined virtual reality.

purpose
Why Is This Topic Important?

In this short story, Ray Bradbury predicted many technology advancements that we enjoy today. Augmented reality and immersive video games are among them.

idea
Main Ideas

When people become too immersed into technology, they lose touch with their human nature.

quotes
Key Quotes
  • “I don’t want to do anything but look and listen and smell; what else is there to do?”
  • “Too much of anything isn’t good for anyone.”
  • “Long before you knew what death was you were wishing it on someone else. When you were two years old you were shooting people with toy guns.”
argument-for
Arguments for

This is one of Bradbury’s most recognized and critically acclaimed short stories. It’s a wonderful representative of the science fiction genre. The fact that the author predicted some technology advancements makes the story more interesting today.

argument-against
Arguments against

The prose may seem too simplistic to readers used to complex works.

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