The Pedestrian(Ray Bradbury)
Questions
What happens in the story?
Leonard Mead lives in a dystopian society. He spends his nights walking the empty streets, where he passes the homes of other citizens. The police find him, interrogate him and proceed to take him to a Psychiatric Center.
Who is the main character? What do we know about him?
The main character is Leonard Mead, who is a writer, unmarried man and does not own a television. (p. 175-176)
Why does he go on a walk? What does it suggest about him?
“Walking for air. Walking to see”
Mead’s walks become a tradition for over 10 year, is his way of unwinding after a long day. He doesn't feel as comfortable with the technological changes as the others, and this is his way of connecting with the world.
Why is he arrested and sent to the Psychiatric Centre for Research on Regressive Tendencies? What is meant by ‘regressive tendencies’?
The police think his answers are odd and find him suspicious.
By “regressive tendencies'' they mean that Mead doesn't want to fit in the constructed society. While the others spend their nights watching TV, he likes to walk, he doesn't even own a TV, which is unusual, his description in general is perceived as outdated.
What is the atmosphere like at the start of the story? Use evidence from the text to back up your answers.
The atmosphere is described as silent, cold and lonely.
“To enter out into that silence that was the city…”
“he would stride off, sending patterns of frosty air..”
“he was alone in this world of A.D. 2053”
Describe the setting that is introduced to us in the first paragraph.
The story takes place in a misty evening of November, in the world of A.D. 2053, a city with highways and intersections.
What do you think the purpose of the text is?
Bradbury writes about the rise of technology and contemplates its impact in people’s life.
Describe the society in which Leonard Mead lives. Use evidence from the text to support your answer.
Mead lives in a dystopian society, with low crime rates, where he calls the citizens phantoms and their houses graveyards, the only thing they seem to do is to watch TV.
“Sudden gray phantoms seemed to manifest upon inner room walls where a curtain was still undrawn against the night..”
“In a city of three million, there was only one police car left..”
Explain the possible reasons that Leonard Mead does not fit into this
society.
He was considered an outsider because he didn't follow the basic lifestyle. He preferred other hobbies, rather than watching TV, he wasn't married, he was a writer, and he went outside.
Why does he keep all of his lights on?
In the story this indicates he’s different.
He expresses how the other houses looked like graveyards, so perhaps by keeping his lights on, it felt more like home.
Bradbury uses repetition of words and images to establish the tone or mood of the story. What is the tone? What specific words or images does Bradbury repeat to help establish the tone of the story? Identify at least three words or images.
Tone: Tentative and isolated.
Images:
Tomb-like, graveyard, phantoms
“It smelled of riveted steel. It smelled of harsh antiseptic; it smelled too clean and hard and metallic.”
“The car moved down the empty riverbed streets and off away, leaving the empty streets with the empty sidewalks and no sound and no motion all the rest of the chill November night,”
Write down the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution of the story. Use one quotation for each point to back up your answers.
Exposition: Leonard Mead going out for his nightly walk.
“To enter out into that silence that was the city at eight o'clock of a misty evening in November, to put your feet upon the buckling concrete walk, to step over grassy seams and make your way, hands in pocket, through the silences, that was one Mr. Leonard Mead most dearly loved to do.”
Rising Action: When the police car found him before he almost arrived at his house.
“He was within a block of his destination when the lone car turned a corner …”
Climax: When security tells him to put his hands up and starts interrogating him.
“No profession,”said the police car, as if talking to itself.
Falling action: When the police indicate Mr. Mead to get in the car.
“Get in.”
Resolution: Security takes Mead to Psychiatric Center.”
“To the Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive Tendencies.”
Essay
Significant technological advancements and social shifts have occurred during the last decades, many of these developments showed up unexpectedly, but swiftly became part of our daily lives, which lead us to anticipate revolutionary changes and to believe that technology will keep evolving with us in the decades to come.
The story discusses the negative effect that technology could have on humanity, how an overdependence on it could disconnect us from what life is really about, this situation takes place in 2053, but in the present many people have adopted the lifestyle of the phantoms.
Additionally, in the reading, the police describe Leonard’s job as outdated, which is something that could happen in the future, but, with other jobs. Artificial intelligence can dramatically improve the efficiencies of workplaces and can augment the work humans can do. When AI takes over repetitive or dangerous tasks, it would “free” up the human workforce to do other tasks that involve creativity and empathy.
Science fiction will continue to become our reality. Throughout the years, this genre has inspired many generations and eras of science, which resulted in innovations such as rockets, cloning, artificial intelligence, satellites, wireless internet, among many others that currently are part of our present.
From the future, we should expect the good side of technological studies and how they will shape our future and help us achieve my goals. Developing clean energy, transport possibilities with less emissions, low-energy houses to save resources are just some examples of new applications that could potentially help us save planet Earth.
By Valeria Villera, Step 11
