The Veldt Group

Question:


ummxwoahxlove
Student
High School - 10th Grade

Can you suggest quotes that indicate the futuristic setting of the story "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury ?

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Posted by ummxwoahxlove on Wednesday September 30, 2009 at 7:31 PM and tagged with future teachnology, the veldt.

Answers:


  1. egraham17 Teacher

    eNotes Editor

    The futuristic setting is implied almost from the very beginning. After expressing her concerns for the nursery, Lydia and George:

    walked down the hall of their soundproofed Happylife Home, which had cost them thirty thousand dollars installed, this house which clothed and fed and rocked them to sleep and played and sang and was good to them. Their approach sensitized a switch somewhere and the nursery light flicked on when they came within ten feet of it. Similarly, behind them, in the halls, lights went on and off as they left them behind, with a soft automaticity.

    The entire house is equipped with devices that did not exist at the time the story was written, and many of which do not exist today. The house does everything for the family: makes all meals completely automatically, bathes & dresses everyone, even rocks them to sleep. In fact, it works so well that Lydia feels completely useless as a wife and mother. This prompts the idea for a "vacation": turning off the house & doing everything for themselves.

    Another quote applies specifically to the nursery itself.

    The lions were coming. And again George Hadley was filled with admiration for the mechanical genius who had conceived this room. A miracle of efficiency selling for an absurdly low price. Every home should have one. Oh, occasionally they frightened you with their clinical accuracy, they startled you, gave you a twinge, but most of the time what fun for everyone, not only your own son and daughter, but for yourself when you felt like a quick jaunt to a foreign land, a quick change of scenery. Well, here it was!

    The unique nature of the nursery is revealed here. The nursery is the prime example of cutting-edge technology. The machine works through telepathy. It reads a person’s thoughts, then projects them onto the walls to create the environment. Anything you imagine can come to life in the room. It does function properly at first, but soon only responds to the children. As the children's thoughts become more sinister, it somehow feeds on them and brings their creations to life, with horrific consequences for their parents.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/veldt/themes
    http://www.veddma.com/veddma/Veldt.htm

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    Posted by egraham17 on Thursday October 1, 2009 at 8:01 AM