The Challenger Address Speech By Ray Bradbury's The Pedestrian

My study of Robert Gray's poetry, the 'Challenger Address' speech (1986) delivered by President Ronald Reagan and 'The Pedestrian' by Ray Bradbury have all enhanced my understanding of discovery. This is because initially my thoughts on discovery were only the physical aspect, but as I studied these texts, my understanding has grown in the societal and personal aspects. When I first started studying discovery my thoughts were about people like Captain Cook who physically discovered new lands, but after studying 'Flame & Dangling Wire' and 'The Meatworks', two didactic poems by Gray, as well as two other texts, it enhanced my understanding of discovery to have societal and personal aspects. Discoveries to me now are multifaceted and involve physical, intellectual and emotional elements.

The first level of discovery I found when studying these texts was the societal aspect. In 'Flame & Dangling Wire', Gray is making an intellectual comment on society that we are consumeristic and just throw away items when we get newer better thing. When Gray
While it is science fiction, he is exploring the impact of technology on society. When Bradbury symbolically refers to people's houses as "The tombs ill-lit by television light where people sit like the dead" he is, similar to Gray, painting a negative image of the future of our society. Equally, he explores the impact technology has on society when we are all cocooned in our houses, on electronic device, separating us from our family and friends. "Walking through a graveyard as he walks through the street". In both of these quotes he compares people in our society to dead men, giving me pause to consider the intellectual discovery of our society being compared to the likes of the dead. This caused me to discover my now conflicting views on the direction of society; to either a utopia or a