The Veldt Literary Analysis

In Ray Bradbury’s, “The Veldt,” a family has a nursery that turns the room into whatever Wendy and Peter are imagining. When the parents decide to turn off the nursery and try to turn off the house, the kids take a horrible action on the parents. However, the author tries to illustrate that technology can affect the way of life. The theme of this story is that technology can change the way of life

In “The veldt,” technology changes the way of life for a family. In a household, one would expect essential technology such as: an oven, a refrigerator, a microwave, etc. For this family, they have a nursery that brings the children’s imagination to life. The author describes, “The walls were blank and two dimensional. Now, as George and Lydia Hadley stood in the center of the room, the walls began to purr and recede in crystalline distance, it seemed, a presently an African veldt appeared...” (Ray Bradbury). Clearly, as the children’s imagination becomes more vivid, the nursery becomes more detailed and feels more real. The room becomes too intense to where the parents want to turn off the nursery for good.

As the story progresses, the parents starts to realize that the house has become every form of care the children need and feel like they’re drifting away from their children.

The mother, Lydia Hadley, expresses, “That’s just it, I feel like I don’t belong here. The house is wife and mother now, and nursemaid. Can I compete with an African veldt? Can I give a bath and scrub the children as efficiently or quickly as an automatic scrub bath can? I cannot. And it just isn’t me.” (Ray Bradbury) Mrs. Hadley feels that her children don’t need her anymore. This shows that she wants to to take an action to make Wendy and Peter not rely on technology for everything. She wants to be able to do her own work around the house and to be able to care for her children instead of a robotic house doing all the housekeeping for

her.

Later in the story, Mrs. Hadley expresses to her husband that she wants to care for him and her children because she feels that she doesn’t have enough to do. The parents go on to tell their children that they’re locking the nursery by explaining, “ Matter of fact, we’re thinking of turning the whole house off for about a month. Live sort of a carefree one-for-all existence.” (Ray Bradbury) The children lose it by thinking about having to tie their own shoes and having to keep track of their own hygiene. Clearly, this shows that the children are so used to using technology to the point where they think that no technology is a punishment.