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What is the falling action in Ray Bradbury's "The Veldt"?
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In Ray Bradbury's "The Veldt," the falling action begins when psychologist David McClean arrives to help the family move to Iowa. He finds the children in the nursery, where the lions are devouring George and Lydia, though McClean initially doesn't realize this. The story concludes with the children showing no remorse, enjoying a picnic as McClean starts to understand the grim reality.
The climax of the story comes when George and Lydia rush into the nursery, realizing too late that their children have locked them in and that the lions approach them "on three sides [...] in the yellow veldt grass," and they suddenly realize "why those other screams had sounded familiar" earlier in the story: those screams were their own; their own children must have been imagining their violent and horrible deaths. The falling action begins, then, when David McClean arrives to help the family get packed so that they can move to Iowa, as George and Lydia had planned (before they were killed by the lions, essentially murdered by their kids). He says, "'Well, here I am,'' and proceeds to greet the children, who are enjoying a picnic in their terrible nursery. His face begins to become hot and "shadow[s] flickered over" it again and again; it seems, symbolically, then,...
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that he may realize what the lions are eating and that George and Lydia will not "'be here directly,'" as the children have told him. The story resolves with Wendy's offer of tea; the children clearly feel no remorse or even concern.
In "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury, the falling action begins when psychologist David McClean shows up to see the family off on their vacation to Iowa. He finds the children, Peter and Wendy, in the nursery, which is once again set to the veldt. This occurs right after the climax of the story when the children have lured their parents to the nursery and locked them in to be devoured by the lions. When Mr. McClean gets there, he asks the children where their parents are and is told they will be there soon. McClean sees the lions in the distance finishing off their delicious George and Lydia meal (although he cannot tell what it is the lions are eating) as the children sit enjoying their own picnic lunch seemingly without a care in the world.