The Pedestrian Ray Bradbury Analysis

When “The Pedestrian” by Ray Bradbury was written, mankind had made great progress with inventions such as the television. However, with these amazing technological advances, children become more prone to be in front of a screen rather than playing outside. In the story, Bradbury wrote about the effects of these improvements. Through imagery, he created the illusion of isolation through lonely, unhappy, and descriptive language. This leaves readers shocked with the realism of the story. Bradbury uses Mr. Mead, the main character, to reflect the humanity of mankind. He associates Mr. Mead with warm, bright light and his house beams "loud yellow illumination", creating the embodiment of humanity. In the midst of technological-crazed people, Mr. Mead's shadow is …show more content…
The car doesn’t understand Mr. Mead's desire to walk through nature just "to see". It cannot figure out why Mr. Mead has no interest to sit in front of a "viewing screen”. When the car assigns Mr. Mead "no profession," it then denies the existence of humanity. The car makes no effort to relate to Mr. Mead and takes him away in “black jail” of its backseat. Throughout the story, Bradbury stresses death in his imagery to show isolation and what life would be like in a world that has let advancements drive humanity away. He also writes about the dead leaves scattered on the ground are etched with a "skeletal pattern". The streets are labeled as "dry river beds", implying there is no life in them. Bradbury’s world without mankind ceases to exist all thanks to progress. Bradbury using imagery helps show the isolation Mr. Mead’s faces and that technology limits freedom. This warns about the reliance mankind has on technology suggesting if we advance our technology further, we could end up in the same society as