In the short story "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury, the parents, Lydia and George Hadley, buy their children the a magic nursery, part of a futuristic "Happylife Home." This home has everything the family could ever want, including a nursery to entertain the children and to channel their energies. The nursery can read a child's mind and re-create what he or she is thinking. As Lydia says, "It's supposed to help them work off their neuroses in a healthful way." In other words, the nursery is intended to encourage the children's curiosity and to set them to roam free without their parents in a productive way.

The nursery is supposed to help parents and others understand the children. As David McLean, the psychologist in the story says, "One of the original uses of these nurseries was so that we could study the patterns left on the walls by the child's mind, study at our leisure, and help the child." In other words, psychologists created the nursery to help parents and professionals understand what is going on in children's minds. What the children imagine appears in the nursery, so that the parents and professionals can see the children's innermost thoughts, understand their desires and motivations, and channel the children's thoughts and desires in the right way. This is the goal the parents, Lydia and George, had in mind when they bought the nursery.

However, the nursery has not turned out as the Hadleys had hoped. As David McClean says, "In this case, however, the room has become a channel toward destructive thoughts, instead of a release away from them." In other words, the children, Wendy and Peter, have been allowed too much freedom, and their thoughts have turned to destruction, including the creation of man-eating lions. Rather than channeling and controlling the children's destructive thoughts, the nursery their parents bought them has only amplified these thoughts.