Discussion Topic
Analysis of literary devices and figurative language in "The Veldt."
Summary:
In "The Veldt," Ray Bradbury employs various literary devices and figurative language, including vivid imagery to create an immersive setting, personification to give the house lifelike qualities, and foreshadowing to hint at the story’s dark conclusion. He also uses metaphors and similes to enhance the emotional impact and to draw parallels between the technological advancements and the growing disconnect within the family.
What figurative language is used in "The Veldt"?
Some examples of figurative language from the story are as follows.
nothing’s too good for our children
This phrase actually means that all things are good enough for the children.
Children are carpets, they should be stepped on occasionally
The above includes two pieces of figurative language. Children are not literally carpets and shouldn't literally be stepped on. The figure of speech mean that children shouldn't always get their way.
We’ve never lifted a hand
This means the parents have never hit the children to discipline them. The parents and the doctor also refer to the children as "spoiled." This doesn't mean they have rotted, but that they have been over-indulged and become difficult to manage.
Why, you’d starve tomorrow if something went wrong in your kitchen.
The above idiom doesn't literally mean the Hadleys would starve without their kitchen but that they would have a hard time fending for...
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themselves.
In "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury, what are examples of figurative language?
Figurative language really comes into its own in descriptions, and thus you might like to analyse some of the descriptions that this excellent short story gives us of the veldt that the nursery walls create and the emphasis on the lifelike nature of the animals inside of it. Consider the following description that we are given of the lions, for example:
And here were the lions now, fifteen feet away, so real, so feverishly and startlingly real that you could feel the prickling fur on your hand, and your mouth was stuffed with the dusty upholstery smell of their heated pelts, and the yellow of them was in your eyes like the yellow of an exquisite French tapestry, the yellows of lions and summer grass, and the sound of the matted lion lungs exhaling on the silent noontide, and the smell of meat from the panting, dripping mouths.
Note the way that the colour of the lions is compared to the colour of "an exquisite French tapestry" through the use of a simile and the sounds that the lions make is likewise conveyed through the use of onomatopoeia in "panting." The use of such figurative language obviously helps convey the reality of these beasts, that, as George Hadley and his wife will find, are a lot more than mere figments of his children's imagination.
What literary devices are used in "The Veldt"?
This short story by Ray Bradbury includes exposition (the revelation of background information that will help the reader to understand the story's characters, setting, and conflict) in the first, true paragraph of the text. After the initial conversation between George and Lydia Hadley, we are provided with exposition concerning the Hadleys' HappyLife Home.
The story also includes vivid imagery of many varieties, especially in its descriptions of the scenes in the home's nursery: in that room, one's mouth is filled with the "dusty smell of [the lions'] heated fur." Furthermore, the
yellow of the lions and the summer grass was in your eyes like a picture in an expensive French wall hanging. And there was the sound of the lions' quick, heavy breaths in the silent mid-day sun, and the smell of meat from their dripping mouths.
Thus, there is gustatory (taste) imagery, as well as tactile (touch), olfactory (smell), visual (sight), and auditory (sound). It helps the reader to understand just how real it feels to be in this room, as we can imagine it for ourselves quite clearly from these sensory descriptions.
This story also employs allusion in the names of the Hadley children: Peter and Wendy. These are names of characters in the popular children's story Peter Pan, and they imply a certain innocence and childlike wonder. However, Peter and Wendy Hadley are anything but innocent and childlike; they are, in fact, vicious and vindictive, and they murder their parents. This allusion creates a deep irony in the text as well.