The Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury
Answers
What happens in the story?
In this story we are introduced to a futuristic world dominated by technology, in which society is completely under control and they have no rights to think outside of the box designed by the governments. In this world, Mr. Mead lived a fairly unusual life, that included solitary walks in order to get fresh air. By coincidence, he is stopped by a police car that is completely astonished by his behavior, and he is taken to the Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive Tendencies.
Who is the main character? What do we know about him?
The main character is Leonard Mead, we learn little about as the story develops, for instance, we can infer that he is against this new society, and misses how life used to be, we can see this reflected on the things he says to the houses as he walks:
"Hello, in there," he whispered to every
house on every side as he moved. "What's up tonight
on Channel 4, Channel 7, Channel 9? Where are the
cowboys rushing, and do I see the United States
Cavalry over the next hill to the rescue?"
On the other hand, we also learn a bit about his personal life, like the fact that he is not married, he used to be a writer, and he doesn’t own a TV. We are informed of this by the interrogatory carried out by the police car:
"Business or profession?"
"I guess you'd call me a writer."
"No profession," said the police car
"And there is air in your house, you have an air conditioner, Mr. Mead?"
"Yes."
"And you have a viewing screen in your house to see with?"
"No."
"No?" "Are you married, Mr. Mead?"
"No."
"Not married," said the police voice behind the fiery beam
Why does he go on a walk? What does it suggest about him?
In a world where leaving the house is not only no longer necessary, but is also considered pointless, to go on a walk says a lot about Mr. Mead. First, it implies that he is against the change that society is going through, and he misses the good old days, which is why he defied the system and went out. On the other hand, we can infer that he was not affected by the changes of the world, and is still conscious and autonomous, and the daily walk is a way to maintain this sanity.
Why is he arrested and sent to the Psychiatric Centre for Research on Regressive Tendencies? What is meant by ‘regressive tendencies’?
Even though for us to go on a walk might be the most common thing in the world, for the police car in this futuristic and dystopian world it is just weird, so weird that it needs to be studied, since it shows “regressive tendencies” that people should possess no more. Taking into account the context of this world, we can understand regressive tendencies as behaviors that used to be related to human society but no longer apply to them, like socializing, going out, writing, not having a TV, etc.
What is the atmosphere like at the start of the story? Use evidence from the text to back up your answers.
We are introduced to a dark, solitary world, and that is exactly the atmosphere that is built for the reader at the beginning of the story, a dark misty atmosphere that adds a sense of solitude, mystery and uneasiness, that makes you feel like the last person on earth, and sometimes, you start to believe it.
We can see this in two different ways, to start with, it is explicitly told in the story using words such as silence, but on the other hand, this can be infer by little details such as the time, nowadays the streets are always full of live, if everything is empty at 8:00 pm, there is something odd going on, and that is exactly what the reader concludes.
Describe the setting that is introduced to us in the first paragraph.
The first thing we know about the setting is that it is completely silent, which helps the
reader to get in the mood of the story, and then more details are introduced, like the fact that it is a cold night of November, full of mist. There were no cars, no people and he could decide to walk in any direction, since everything was the same, there was no difference or whatsoever.
What do you think the purpose of the text is?
This short story is a clear call on attention on society, in order to prevent us from a dystopian future such as the one presented in the story, that shows a world in which communication ceased to exist, there was no need to leave the house, no need to interact, no need nor the desire to have friends! This call on attention is crucial nowadays, that we live in a society that is supposed to be the most connected ever, but at the same time, we are also more disconnected from each other than ever.
Describe the society in which Leonard Mead lives. Use evidence from the text to support your answer.
He lives in a society that should not be even called a “society”, since it lacks the main characteristic that forms one, interaction. In this world humans are glued to a screen all day long, locked inside a house receiving no visits ever, with no human interaction aside from the family. Leaving the house was no longer necessary, so no one did.
We can see all of this reflected in the story in many abstracts, for instance, this one explains the depth of the world’s solitude:
In ten years
of walking by night or day, for thousands of miles, he
had never met another person walking, not once in all
that time.
Or this one, that reflects both how life in that world spins around a screen and the solitude that Mr. Meads feels, since his only form of human interactions is imagining that he is talking to someone:
"Hello, in there," he whispered to every
house on every side as he moved. "What's up tonight
on Channel 4, Channel 7, Channel 9? Where are the
cowboys rushing, and do I see the United States
Cavalry over the next hill to the rescue?"
Explain the possible reasons that Leonard Mead does not fit into this society.
We believe that the main reason why he does not fit in this society is because he remembers how life used to be and he misses it, due to this he was never trapped in the changes presented by society. This can be reflected in his everyday life, which separates him from the reality that society lives in, for example he does not own a TV, he is not married and he even goes on walks, besides, he dares to criticize things, no one else would be able to do that.
Why does he keep all of his lights on?
It is probably another way to defy this new system of society, while the other houses are dark and cold, this one is bright, lights open and ready to receive guests. Besides this, Mr. Mead refers to the house with melancholy in this voice, which is why it also represents the warmth of being home, since the house is probably an old friend of Mr. Mead.
All this can be reflected in this paragraph:
They passed one house on one street a
moment later, one house in an entire city of houses
that were dark, but this one particular house had all of
its electric lights brightly lit, every window a loud
yellow illumination, square and warm in the cool
darkness.
"That's my house," said Leonard Mead.
No one answered him.
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.
Bradbury’s tone towards technology and society is this short story is pretty radical, we could say that the tone is cold, detached and lonely, with a hint of uneasiness and a clear discomfort.
In order to build the tone, Bradbury resorted to different images and a very particular resource, the repetition of words, we identified, for example, the police car as an image that represents the loss of humanity in society by giving him a robotic voice; or the repetition of words in a particular scene in order to show the dynamics of this new reality, and how lonely it can be. Some of this words are specifically found in the paragraph when he is interrogated by the police car:
"Walking," said Leonard Mead.
"Walking!"
"Just walking," he said simply, but his face felt cold.
"Walking, just walking, walking?"
"Yes, sir." "
Walking where? For what?"
"Walking for air. Walking to see.
"Just walking, Mr. Mead?"
"Yes."
"But you haven't explained for what purpose."
"I explained; for air, and to see, and just to walk."
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 is introduced as the main character of the story, that develops at night on a street in 2053 in november, surrounded by cold and silence in a disconnected world.
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 that buckling concrete walk, to
step over grassy seams and make your way, hands in
pockets, through the silences, that was what Mr.
Leonard Mead most dearly loved to do.
Rising Action: He goes out for a walk and as always, the streets are completely empty, he is out while the rest of the world is inside their homes obsessed with the TV. While taking his walk he is stopped by the police, that starts asking him questions about his suspicious activity, walking.
Sometimes he would walk for hours and
miles and return only at midnight to his house.
"What is it now?" he asked the houses, noticing his wrist watch.
"Eight-thirty P.M.? Time for a dozen assorted murders? A quiz? A revue?
A comedian falling off the stage?"
A metallic voice called to him:
"Stand still. Stay where you are! Don't
move!"
Climax: He is “arrested” by the police car when he is told to enter the car, and suddenly he loses control of his actions and gets in.
"I protest!"
"Mr. Mead."
He walked like a man suddenly drunk. As he
passed the front window of the car he looked in. As
he had expected, there was no one in the front seat, no
one in the car at all.
"Get in."
Falling Action: He is informed by the police that he is being taken to the Psychiatric Centre for Research on Regressive Tendencies, while going there he passes by his house, which looked warm next to the others, with all the lights on.
They passed one house on one street a
moment later, one house in an entire city of houses
that were dark, but this one particular house had all of
its electric lights brightly lit, every window a loud
yellow illumination, square and warm in the cool
darkness.
"That's my house," said Leonard Mead.
Resolution: Since there was no one to help him, we can infer that he was effectively taken to the Psychiatric Centre for Research on Regressive Tendencies
No one answered him.
The car moved down the empty river-bed
streets and off away, leaving the empty streets with
the empty side-walks, and no sound and no motion all
the rest of the chill November night.
Video Notes
In less than 40 years human beings are going to be a totally different species and that there is a major evolutionary transition happening right now and that humans will be merging with machines and become cyborgs or else they won't be able to keep up or understand this complex world.
The transhumanist Illuminati agenda where at some points the Royal secret will be revealed (they've solved the problem of death allowing human beings who accept the cybernetic enhancements to live forever as they were supposed to in the Garden of Eden) but the transhumanist agenda which was once largely just considered a fringe science fiction fantasy is gaining much momentum and has billions of dollars behind it.
People are devolving their brains and becoming dumber. Social media has a lot to do with that, because it is suspected that social media is destroying people's brains, destroying people's social lives, ruining the ability for human minds to commit information, destroying people's attention spans, etc.
We depend a lot on machines, for example, you need your Apple watch to tell you when you need to stand up or if you need to run faster if you need to walk faster, you need that Apple watch heart rate monitor to tell you how much you need to exercise
Scientologists believe that humans would evolve into a god they call “homo novis” meaning a new type of a human, a transhuman. Some scientists have said that the human species may split into two (the idea of evolving into a god or going back to be a monkey)
Ray Kurzweil, the face of transhumanism, says in his book, that he says that at some point they're gonna have two classes of society; one class who has resisted this technology and other all-knowing all-powerful immortal cybernetic gods.
The Pedestrian: Our essay.
Time changes many things, and the advancement of technology is the same as time, unstoppable. These advances have managed to fulfill human tasks, causing them to be replaced by machines. Companies prefer to make an investment in a machine than to invest in the salaries of several employees for the same work. If this is already seen today, in the future this will be even more evident.
Nowadays, in countries like Korea or Japan there is intelligent technology that works as waiters in stores or in markets. But a few years ago, this was only science fiction, for instance, this type of technology can be seen in the novel, where the policemen have been replaced by a robot that fulfills the same function and more importantly, it has its decisions programmed, with this there is no longer that of corrupt police allies of criminals (of criminals who are in the streets at least, we will not say the same of those dressed in suits and ties).
Another thing that we can appreciate in the story is that feeling of loneliness that the character possesses, the streets are empty, the simple act of going out and walking is considered something old, no one does it anymore. With the theme of the pandemic and social media, people have drifted apart, they live in their own worlds separated from others, and each day there are new circumstances that move us further away, and if the circumstances do not change, achieving that old normality will be complicated.
Nowadays we only have the people that we already know, and are really important in our lives, but the possibility of socializing, knowing, and connecting with new people has been taken away from us, and will continue to change in the future. People will adapt, in any case, the human is recognized for being a sociable being, because that is what humans do, adapt.
This short story gives us a sample of what a future society could be, some things we can already appreciate today, to a lesser extent but not far from reality.
By Camila Orozco, Susana Rengifo,
and María Camila Pinzón, Step 11.
