Ray Bradbury -“The Veldt” and “There Will Come Soft Rains”
When I first started reading Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt,” I wasn’t able to completely grasp what was going on (it was the same for his other piece, “There Will Come Soft Rains”). My initial reaction was actually envy after reading how Mr. and Mrs. Hadley had their dinners made by a dining table with a “mechanical interior” (page 6) because there is so much convenience in that. When I finally got an idea of what was happening with the nursery, the kids, the role of Mr. and Mrs. Hadley in the family, the changing world, I was shocked and felt somewhat uncomfortable. When Mr. McClean, the psychiatrist, explained that the kids probably felt their parents were unnecessary because of what technology offered, I saw how it was impacting family relations. I had never thought technology could make a change in the world and human interactions in the ways that Bradbury includes in his piece.
I was shocked while reading “There Will Come Soft Rains” as well because signs of life were trumped by the tinkering of technology. When the fire destroyed all “living” things in the house (i.e. mechanical mice, animals in the nursery), technology still remained; the one standing wall kept repeating the date over and over again. Both pieces feel like a story about dystopian worlds, but the fact that the world we live in today could easily become like what is described by Bradbury is really eye opening.
#Dgst101 (1/25–31)
