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The Veldt Literary Analysis

Decent Essays

Technology has long been the cause of major debate due to the many negatives that technology can cause. The inventions of video games and the computer have given people platforms to exercise all their inner violence but these technologies and their given platforms have spread to the real world. As in the story, people have transferred their violent thoughts into those platforms and the inner violence becomes who they are and the result is loss of life. This connects to the story because the kids use their nursery as a platform for their violent thoughts and when something comes in the way, the kids use the technology to retaliate. In The Veldt, Ray Bradbury exhibits the literary devices of contrasting symbolism, eerie dialogue between family …show more content…

In The Veldt, Ray Bradbury exhibits the literary device of contrasting symbolism of the nursery to develop a theme of technology changing lives in a negative aspect. To begin, during the beginning of the story when the nursery is described, it’s described as, “The nursery was silent. It was empty as a jungle glade at hot high noon… Now the hidden odorophonics were beginning to blow a wind of odor at the two people in the middle of the baked veltland… And now the sounds: the thump of distant antelope feet on grassy sod, the papery rustling of vultures” (Bradbury). People associate nursery’s with babies and place a positive connotation of a nursery, however in The Veldt; Bradbury adds the negative symbol of the nursery as a veldt full of bloodthirsty lions and scavenging vultures that people normally do not associate with nursery’s. This nursery also symbolizes the kids beginning to lose grip with family and going from a family oriented life, represented by the nursery, to a more violent and animalistic life, represented by the veldt. The symbol of the nursery also signifies the parents beginning to lose their children and it displays how before the nursery was introduced everything was normal and peaceful but the nursery adds suspense and displays how the technology affected them. In …show more content…

For example, when Misses Hadley is talking about the house, she states,” "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?” (Bradbury) This point of view from the mother exibits how she is being replaced and that the technology is beginning to be the mother she is not. This creates a rift between the kids and adults because now that the house is pretty much acting as parents, the kids are more and more prone to go against and not listen to their parents. Without the point of view, the rift would not have been created in the story and her point of view is important because it is her feelings and it adds emotion because people can relate to a mothers struggles. This viewpoint of a mother losing her motherhood is also symbolic because at the same time the parents are losing a piece of themselves, their kids are beginning to lose grip on their last bit of innocence. As a result, the point of view leads to a conflict where the parents begin to take back that piece of them, however because it had already been stripped away, they ended up losing their lives because of it. In addition, “Surely the Happylife Home keeps their house clean, feeds and cares for them in every way a full range of maids and butlers would, but the Happylife Home has also robbed

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