Symbolism In The Veldt

In The Veldt created by the one and only Ray Bradbury, he uses multiple examples of author’s craft such as personification and tone or mood. These crafts were written into the story to help prove and point out the theme of influencing children with so much technology early on can not only stir up violent thoughts but, can also cause breaks between friend and family relationships.

Transported into the future, Ray Bradbury paints a picture in the reader’s head of the Happy Life Home, filled with technology to fit everyday needs. A family, mom, dad, and two kids, start to slowly fall apart because of being surrounded with technology. In The Veldt, Bradbury uses multiple examples of author’s craft such as personification and tone or mood to help prove and point out a theme included in his story. His theme contained in the story is, influencing children with so much technology early on can not only stir up violent thoughts but, can also cause breaks between friend and family relationships.

In Nicholas Carr’s article, “How Smartphones Hijack Our Minds” (November 10, 2017) Carr discusses the implications of allowing our smartphones to have such a huge effect on our lives. Smartphones serve many purposes, and have created massive societal effects throughout the world despite being introduced roughly only two decades ago. One can converse with anyone in the world at any given moment, they can watch any television show they want, and they can receive alerts so they no longer have to put effort into remembering things themselves. However, with so much control over people’s own lives, one begins to wonder about the negative consequences of the smartphones themselves. Carr brings up the question of how our minds can be negatively affected by this when he asks, “So what happens to our minds when we allow a single tool such dominion over our own perception and cognition?” While Carr is aware that the smartphone serves a countless number of useful purposes and tasks, he believes we should think deeper about the lesser known effects of our smartphones which people so easily allow to take over their lives.

“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity”- Albert Einstein (BrainyQuote.com). Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and The Martian Chronicles, makes this particularly apparent in his short science fiction story, “The Veldt.” “Through the remainder of the century, Bradbury continued to write novels and short stories but also branched out to many other formats and media. He has written play scripts, screenplays, teleplays, and poetry” (Milne). “The Veldt” was yet another example of his diversity. This is a short story written in the 1950s about a fictional house that does everything from sweeping the floors to cooking the Hadley family’s food. In the short story, “The Veldt,” Bradbury uses personification and foreshadowing to prove that becoming over-dependent on technology can lead to horrific outcomes.

“The Veldt” is a unique and universal short story by Ray Bradbury. This story’s universal theme is family because there are many family conflicts in the story. “The Veldt” is unique because of the way technology is portrayed and how much power that technology has over the family.

Behavioral changes from one generation to the next naturally occur little by little. Nonetheless, changes in adolescent behavior from the millennial generation triumphing it have been substantial and revolutionary. Today’s teens have never witnessed a world without internet. The majority of them possess smartphones and waste several hours each week on social media. But while numerous parents may feel allayed about their teens’ seeming uninterested in drinking, driving and dating, they could perhaps be overlooking the effects that continuous internet access has on their teens’ mental well-being.

Ray Bradbury uses several craft moves throughout his dystopian story names ‘The Veldt’. Using imagery, foreshadowing, and irony; Ray Bradbury enriches the story with these varying craft moves. Each is used to place the setting and feel of the story in the readers’ minds.

Two pieces by Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 and The Veldt, both share the theme that society and technology shouldn’t affect the actions people take, however, this theme is portrayed differently in each novel.

use of smartphones are affecting the adolescents of this generation. Jean M. Twenge argues in her article, “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” that the redundant use of these gadgets along with social media use is in fact detrimental to the current and upcoming generations. My experience using Snapchat, Instagram, and other applications on my smartphone supports Twenge’s stance because the excessive use of these applications has caused me to feel melancholic. According to Twenge, “Psychologically, however, they (iGens) are more vulnerable than Millennials were: Rates of teen depression and suicide have skyrocketed since 2011. It’s not an exaggeration to describe iGen as being on the brink of the worst mental-health crisis in decades. Much of this deterioration can be traced to their phones” (Twenge). The essence of Twenge’s claim here is that smartphones are causing the iGen generation to be more susceptible to vulnerability in many aspects. In particular, the way it is affecting the mental health of iGens, thus causing the rates of teen depression and suicide to “skyrocket”. Ultimately, Twenge stresses that the excessive use of smartphones is the cause of the increase in rates of teen depression and suicide. Her observation rings true to me because while I do not suffer from depression nor have suicidal thoughts, I can still attest to the fact that as I’ve overused my smartphone

Ray Bradbury’s short story “The Veldt” teaches readers that too much technology can have a bad effect on people. In the story, the Hadley family lives in a Happylife Home which has machines that do pretty much everything for them. The machines make their meals, brush their teeth and tie their shoelaces. There is even a nursery for the children that creates any world they could imagine. In the end of the story, the nursery and the family take a turn for the worse. The message that too much technology is not good for people is the main theme of the story. Both the children and the parents experience effects from using the machines to do everything for them. Also, the children are so spoiled from unlimited technology that they can’t live without

In the article, “Stop Googling. Let’s Talk.” by Sherry Turkle, it talks about how the impact of phones and technology has on our conversations and interactions with people. Turkle talks about how now a days people divide their attention between multiple things, but the main two examples she uses are phones and conversations. By diving their attention, people rarely dive into deep conversations. They tend to have shallow conversations with people because they are constantly checking their phones at every vibrate or ring, which, in shallow conversations allows them to go in and out of the conversation without missing any important details. Turkle states that, “the mere presence of a phone on a table between them (two people) or in the periphery of their vision changes both what they talk about and the degree of connection they feel.” While this may be true, along with the other studies on how technology is detrimental to society, there as also positives aspects that contribute to society as well.

Authors use Imagery, Simile and Metaphor to put a clear picture in the reader's head.

“Those screams - they sound familiar” says Lydia Bradley, not quite able to place her finger on why (Bradbury 6). Lydia and George Hadley, along with their two children, Wendy and Peter Hadley, live in an eerie technology-driven dystopian future. Ray Bradbury’s clever story, “The Veldt” is a short yet haunting piece that remains with the reader long after it’s over. Through the use of symbols, setting, and theme, Ray Bradbury employs the Hadley family to convey the dangers of technology and loss of family interaction. Symbols Bradbury utilizes include the Nursery, the Veldt, and the lions, all of which showcase loss of family interaction and normal values. Setting, specifically the African Veldt and the Happylife

Bradbury believes that technology is a benefactor when it comes to the aid of people’s lives. However, Bradbury is also wary of the unintentional hazards technological innovation may cause, and fears technology that seems to replace human responsibility. Bradbury sums up his doubts, stating that technology should never come at the expense of human life. These ideologies are displayed throughout the following short stories: “The Veldt,” “There Will Come Soft Rains,” and “A Sound of Thunder.” Each story contains the underlying theme that technology must be wielded with great care.

Nowadays, technology devices become plays an important role in our daily lives, especially in adolescents’ categories. While there is a very clear argument for how the technology is effected on us and causing social isolation as we know, but in another way is also the argument that these technologies are helping us to become more social in our society. This is very probably because we have a good and perfect ability to communicate with each other. Despite long distances. We all know that the goal of technology is to make our lives easier and more efficient. I think that every future may bring technology, it will help us, but the same time, mobile phones may bring us some bad things that will leave a bad fingerprint in our societies