Discussion Topic

The significance of the virtual reality room being called a "nursery" in "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury

Summary:

The term "nursery" in "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury signifies a place of growth and development for the children. However, it ironically becomes a source of danger, reflecting the perversion of technology that was meant to nurture but instead ends up harming due to the children's unchecked imaginations and the parents' lack of control.

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Why does Bradbury refer to the virtual reality room as the "nursery" in "The Veldt"?

Looking up the word nursery in a dictionary, you will find a definition like the following:

1(a): an infant's bedroom b) a room or apartment in a home, set apart for the children as a playroom, study, dining room, etc. (Webster's New World College Dictionary)

What you see in these (and other) definitions is that the term nursery contains specific connotations related to childhood (and specifically early childhood), connotations that would be lost were Bradbury to use a different word choice. Take, for example, game room: one can easily imagine an adult's version of a game room, featuring perhaps a pool table or a table for card games. It is not necessarily exclusive towards the childhood experience in the same way that a nursery is.

This is important, given how central childhood is as a theme within "The Veldt." You can see this strongly reflected even in...

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the children's names, Peter and Wendy: these names serve as anallusion to the story of Peter Pan, the story of a young boy who refuses to grow up, preferring to remain in a state of perpetual adolescence. One might interpret the children of "The Veldt" as exhibiting a similar attitude. Just as Peter Pan refuses to grow up and leave childhood behind, one might suggest that the same thing applies to Bradbury's Peter and Wendy, given their dependency on the nursery and what this dependency might mean on a thematic and developmental level.

Furthermore, it is also worth noting that the word nursery, in addition to specifically reflecting the experience of early childhood, involves a nurturing component to it as well. A nursery, one might say, is where the child is cared for and raised, in contrast to a playroom or a game room, which would have a much more limited dynamic, as a place whose sole purpose is recreation. This makes Bradbury's word selection all the more thematically important, given that the nursery in "The Veldt" is more than simply a place for recreation or games. With the parents having surrendered all responsibility for raising their children to the nursery, the nursery has taken up their role as primary caregiver in the children's lives.

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What is the nursery in "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury?

The nursery in "The Veldt" is a very large room that displays interactive, immersive computer simulations that respond to and reflect the thoughts of the participants. In short, it is like an advanced form of virtual reality.

David McClean, the psychologist in the story, seems to imply that the nursery technology originally was used as a therapeutic tool rather than a consumer product; the intention was to observe the "patterns" that the child interacting with the computer produced in order to gain an insight into trauma. However, since the technology has apparently become commercialized, it has instead taken a turn for more entertainment-based functions, and has essentially replaced nearly all other forms of leisure for the Hadley children, including their relationship with their parents.

The nursery is operated by a computer, whose technology is implied to be more advanced than our own. The computer is capable of obeying both thought commands and spoken ones, and can create a wide variety of environments, which it displays on the walls of the nursery. The illusion is supported by chemical scents and weather, as indicated by the sun causes characters to sweat. 

The ending of the story does not clarify whether the Hadley's nursery was malfunctioning, or if Peter and Wendy had somehow hacked it to respond only to their commands, or to alter its functions. However, the nursery does not respond to their father's orders, and it is somehow able to make the lions tangible enough to kill their parents, which seems to defy the idea that the images are all "behind glass screens" as Mr. Hadley had stated.

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In "The Veldt," why is the virtual room called a "nursery" instead of a playroom?

The definitions for nursery and playroom and the context of the story make it clear why Bradbury used the term instead of calling it a playroom. The Oxford English dictionary defines a nursery as "a place where young children and babies are taken care of while their parents are at work" and as "a room in a house where small children sleep and play." On the other hand, a playroom is simply described as "a room intended for children to play in."

A nursery, regarding the definitions, better defines the purpose of the room the Hadleys had built for their children. Since they are busy parents, the room serves as a substitute for parental care. It is, therefore, not simply a place for the children to play in. The expectation most certainly seems to be that it will also provide some form of nurture and care and give the parents more time for themselves.

It becomes apparent that the children's obsessive dependence on the nursery alienates them from their parents. The room provides them with everything they want. Not only that, but they can instruct it and exercise their every whim. The nursery is so unlike their parents, who they have come to resent for meddling in their fun and not giving them what they demand. The room has become, to the two spoilt children at least, a better caregiver than their parents, as David McClean, the psychologist, tells George:

This room is their mother and father, far more important in their lives than their real parents.

In this context, then, nursery is the more fitting word to describe the room.

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The term "nursery" suggests a place where the children are raised, not kept entertained, which is why Ray Bradbury's word choice in "The Veldt" is extremely important. David McClean, the psychologist George and Lydia calls to diagnose the room, directly spells out this idea: "This room is their mother and father, far more important than their real parents."

This idea of the nursery as parent is the reason why the children's loyalty toward the room is complete, while their parents consistently disappoint them. Throughout the story, the narrator reveals how the children had drifted away from their parents in general, but particularly when they introduced the nursery to the house. The parents consistently let the children down. They tell David that they let their children down when they wouldn't let them go to New York and then when they shut down the nursery for a few days until the children finished their homework. 

Finally, as a child would when someone threatens his or her actual parents, Wendy and Peter defend the room completely. Sensing the threat of losing the nursery, their primary caregiver, they lure their mother and father into the magical room where hungry lions are waiting to eat them.

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Why does Bradbury refer to the children's virtual reality room as a "nursery" in "The Veldt"?

This is an interesting question. The word nursery functions in "The Veldt" on three levels:

First, it echoes the attic nursery in Peter Pan, which is the starting point for the children to fly to Neverland. The use of nursery rather than playroom reinforces the story's allusions (references) to Peter Pan, also found in the children's names, Peter and Wendy. This story's Peter and Wendy travel to their own "Neverland" of the veldt from the nursery.

Second, in the modern American idiom, we associate the word nursery, as in nursery school, with children younger than Peter and Wendy, suggesting that they are being babied and perhaps infantilized by this room.

Third, we also know of a nursery as a place where plants and young children are nurtured. The nursery is nurturing Peter and Wendy, raising them instead of their parents, but what kind of monsters is this technological "parent" producing? One could argue that this form of nursing is no good for anyone—except the room itself.

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Why do the children in "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury spend time in the nursery?

In Ray Bradbury's short story "The Veldt," George and Lydia Hadley purchase an expensive nursery for their children, Peter and Wendy, that projects their thoughts and creations onto the walls. The nursery at first seems like a wondrous purchase that allows the children to be creative and that entertains them and takes care of their needs so the parents don't have to. However, over time, the children become obsessed with the nursery and start using it to bad ends.

Part of the reason that the kids spend all their time in the nursery, which they have decided to turn into an African veldt, is that it is so much more fun than real life. As a result, they start to ignore their parents. As their mother, Lydia, asks, "Can I compete with an African veldt?" In the past, the children have decided to turn their nursery into Alice in Wonderland, Aladdin, and lots of other adventures. However, lately, their creation seems ominous. Their father, George, refers to it as "this bake oven with murder in the heat."

Another reason the children have resorted to spending all their time in the nursery is that they have started not to care about their parents. After all, the veldt has satisfied their every wish for years, so the children don't relate to their parents or respect them. When his father tells him he might turn off the nursery, Peter says, "I don't think you'd better consider it anymore." In other words, the children, having been distanced from their parents for so long, have turned into cold people who only care about the nursery and are, in fact, murderers. 

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In "The Veldt," why is the children's virtual-reality room called a "nursery"?

What is interesting about Ray Bradbury's choice to call the children's room their "nursery" rather than their playroom or something else is that "nursery" is a word which is typically associated with infants or very young children. Such young children, babies even, are very much associated with innocence. In the story of Peter Pan, for which George and Lydia Hadley's children—Peter and Wendy—seem to be named, the children still have a nursery, though Wendy's father believes it is now time for her to move into her own room. Wendy rails against this proposed change, not wanting to leave the nursery.

Peter and Wendy Hadley, on the other hand, seem to have already completely lost their innocence and ought to have been removed from the "nursery" long ago. The fact that this word is still used is terribly and awfully ironic, given the fact that Peter and Wendy, when not getting their way, plot to kill their parents in a horrifyingly brutal manner. When their parents discuss keeping the children from the nursery, as Mr. Darling does with Wendy in Peter Pan, these children actually plan their parents' demise, a comment on what being spoiled does to children's characters. George Hadley has said that "nothing's too good for our children," and now they have become entitled and cruel.

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What's interesting about Bradbury's use of "nursery" in "The Veldt"?

The use of "nursery" is interesting and ironic since it is the most dangerous room in the house, and anything but a nursery as the children are not babies, and their games are anything but harmless children's activities.

     Also ironically interesting is the use of the names Peter and Wendy, which are suggestive of the fantasy novel Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. This is a charming children's story about a boy who refuses to mature into a man, and wants Wendy to remain a child with him. However, Wendy is allowed to return home when she tells Peter that her place is at home.
     But, what is interesting about the nursery, too, is that rather than being a soothing bedroom, it is the room in which Mr. and Mrs. Hadley are destroyed as the children's room has evolved into much more than intended. For, the virtual reality has overtaken the true reality, and the children become confused in their use of the technology, believing that their anger against their parents is justified because the room, the nursery, encourages the children in their sadistic desires. Thus, the technology produces the reverse effect from what has been intended. Rather than provide the children an outlet for their energy or negativity, the Veldt becomes a sinister room.

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