The Hadley Family In The Veldt

setting of the story, how the members of the Hadley family influence the course the plot takes, and how this changes the readers' opinion on the machinery of the house.
The world that the Hadleys' live in is vastly different to the one in which we currently live. One example of this can be found in the casual manner in which the characters refer to things like "the rocket to New York" or the "air closet" which transported the children to their bedroom. Another way that this is shown is from the family that the story revolves around. 'The Veldt' was originally written in the 1950s where the ideology of the 'perfect family' was very different to the Hadley family presented in the story. The children in the story don't obey their parents, the

mother, Lydia doesn't do any of the housekeeping, and the father George clearly isn't the head of the family. The technology disrupted the normal family unit considered standard at the time. The house "clothed and fed and rocked them to sleep and played and sang and was good to them". Bradbury uses a very long sentence with many clauses to emphasize just how dependent the residents of the house are on it. This dependence is summed up perfectly by Peter when talking to his father: "I don't want to do anything but look and listen and smell; what else is there to do?". The machines in the house make life easy for the family - perhaps too easy. In my opinion this is a terrible idea. Although living in the manner Peter envisioned wouldn't be the worst thing, existing so passively and submisssively is akin to never truly living.
George and Lydia Hadley are the parents of Wendy and Peter in 'The Veldt'.

They are unhappy about the technology in the house, as it makes them feel useless and unecessery. George has to smoke, drink and take sedative just to get through the day. Lydia feels equally miserable, saying that she feels like she doesn't belong in the house, that the house is "wife and mother now, and nursemaid", and that she can't do things as efficiently or quickly as the house. George is a weak and ineffective head of the family, made clear when he says "You know how difficult Peter is about that", and therefore putting fear of his children's tantrums ahead of the suspicions he and Lydia have about the nursery. Even when he eventually does lock the nursery, he does so "reluctantly". However, he completely changes by the end of the story. He learns how to discipline his children, and consequently "marched about the house turning off the voice clocks, the stoves, the heaters" and all manner of other gadgets and gizmos. In contrast to her husband, Lydia doesn't change to a great extent throughout the story. She begins the story as a wife and mother figure, who is contolled by her emotions in every situation in which she plays a significant role. Lydia is tense and nervous about the nursery from the start, as opposed to George, who doesn't really seem to mind all that much about it. However, when George desides to turn off all of the machines in the house, she is on Wendy and Peter's side and

begs with them for one more moment of the nursery. Although the parents are ostensibly the antithesis of one another, they both want what's best for the Hadley family. Lydia does this by trying to protect her children from the nursery, and then trying to get it turned back on after seeing how upset they become. On the other hand, George does this by trying to provide the very best for his family, saying that "nothing's too good for our children". George and Lydia could have been good parents in another setting, but technology has ruined any chance of that here. In this story, the children are so dissatisfied with their real parents that they adopt virtual reality as a surrogate. The parents in 'The Veldt' teach the reader that relying on technology for everything may result in feelings of abandonment and alienation. George also helps the reader to understand that you don't necessarily need to buy the best things for your family to be the best father, as his children would likely have benefited more from his love and attention, as opposed to material goods.
The children in the story are Wendy and Peter Hadley.

They rebel against their parents throughout 'The Veldt', reprogram the nursery, and end up getting rid of their parents at the end. We learn that Peter has a high IQ, as he is able to change how the nursery functions. Peter and Wendy have eyes like "bright blue agate marbles" and cheeks like "peppermint candy", which makes them sound cute and innocent - quite unlike the sort of children to murder their parents in cold blood. Their coldness and arrogence is made clear at the beginning of the plot, when they defy their parents in small ways, such as Wendy going to the nursery when Peter told her to, even though herf father explicitly commanded her against it. However, later in the story they break into the nursery when they are meant to be asleep, and their behaviour worsens from there. Peter "never looked at his father anymore, nor his mother" when being spoken to, spoke "coldly" and "snapped" his response to his father, and gives the impression that he is in charge with an eerie "I don't think you'd better consider it anyore". The Hadley children depend on the technology around them to survive, and they "live for the nursery". In a way, they have been reared by the nursery, which has raised them to be unable to manage without it. Like the parents, in another story the childen could be seen as couragous and likeable. If they were fighting against a cruel dictatorship or evil, murderous parents, I would support them

wholeheartedly. However, the people they think of as enemies are largely decent people, who simply want the best for their children.