How Does Ray Bradbury Use Characterization In The Pedestrian

In the short story, “The Pedestrian”, Ray Bradbury utilizes characterization, through characterization tools and methods of revealing character, to highlight Mr. Mead’s alienation from his surroundings and its impacts on the rest of society. As the reader begins the story, it becomes known that Mr. Mead enjoys late night strolls throughout his city. He goes out on his walks very often and for long periods of time. However, he states that in all “ten years of walking by night or day, for thousands of miles, he had never met another person walking, not once in all that time” (1). The reader understands, through what Mr. Mead says and his surroundings, that Mr. Mead is the only pedestrian in his city, whereas all the other citizens stay indoors.

The fact that Mr. Mead was walking was viewed as a bizarre occurrence because of the futuristic lifestyle all the other citizens manifested in the story. On his walk, Mr. Mead encounters an automated police car that questions him asking, “you have a viewing screen in your house to see with?” to which Mr. Mead replied, “No” (2). The reader can identify Mr. Mead’s lack of technological knowledge from what he says in this dialogue and can infer that he is much less technologically advanced than the rest of the city, who do have viewing screens in their houses. After the voice finishes its questioning, Mr. Mead is ordered to get into the car and is told he is being taken “to the Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive Tendencies” (2). Mr. Mead’s actions throughout the whole story were viewed as strange by the other characters to the point where he was taken to a medical institution. Mr. Mead’s differences are what cost him at the end.