The Veldt | Teen Ink

The Veldt

July 11, 2015
By octoberopal PLATINUM, San Jose, California
octoberopal PLATINUM, San Jose, California
34 articles 0 photos 3 comments

What would happen if imagination could run wild with no limits, no restrictions, and no moral guidelines? In this classic short story by Ray Bradbury, he paints a picture of a technology-obsessed dystopian future with little care about parenting or relationships.

 

George and Lydia Hadley had built what they call "the Nursery" for their kids to play in. It was a room that visualized and made real whatever the kids wanted, the dream of many scientists and mechanics today. The irony is that even with all this, the kids were still unhappy with their parent's restrictions.

 

Throughout the story, the Hadley parents kept noticing something wrong with the Nursery. It was stuck on an African savannah setting with fierce animals and the smell of something dead rotting. They kept hearing screams and couldn't pinpoint what it was.

 

(Spoiler alert) In the end, the kids tricked George and Lydia into being locked into the Nursery, where they realized their fate with much screaming. That's when they realized why the screams were so familiar.

 

So what do we take from this? That technology is inherently evil and will destroy a family unit limb by limb? Not exactly. That children's minds are dark and deceptive? Perhaps.

 

Bradbury is trying to show us a world where technology tries to make a utopia, a perfect world, where everyone is happy. Such a world is a lie.

 

I highly recommend the Veldt - it'll take less than 10-20 minutes to finish, and it is very well written.


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