#THE PEDESTRIAN THEME TV#
#THE PEDESTRIAN THEME FREE#

As mead gets in the car, “The door shut with a soft thud” This is a very odd sentence because of the contradiction at the end, where it says ‘a soft thud’. The last human being as we know steps into the police car submitting to the power of the state. In the third part of the short story, the pedestrian is finally defeated.

#THE PEDESTRIAN THEME TV#

This compares to the rest of the citizens in the city because they all sit at home and watch TV all night whereas the pedestrian would go out, but now the pedestrian is being held by the power of the state just like everyone else. While the pedestrian is being interrogated the writer writes, “The light held him fixed like a museum specimen, needle thrust through the chest” It is as if the pedestrian is being controlled by the police cars light and is just like a museum piece that has lost all control and ability to act independently. During the interrogation, we are made aware of just how cold and adamant the voice of authority is.

#THE PEDESTRIAN THEME FREE#

This relates back to the theme of the story and how technology has taken over every other civilian in the city and now it is about to get the last free pedestrian and soon he will be just like every other helpless person sat like the dead in their homes.Īs the story continues, we see how vulnerable the pedestrian is when he is confronted by the power of the state. Here, it seems as if the pedestrian is helpless and can’t do anything but obey that police cars instructions. The fact that he alone is being confronted by the one remaining police car increases a growing sense of the pedestrian’s isolation.Įvidence to show this is what the police car orders the pedestrian to do, “Stand still, stay where you are! Don’t move! ” In this quote, the pedestrian has been commanded to stop and obey the police car.

In the second section of the story the silence of the streets is dramatically broken by the introduction of the police car and in the way it stop Mead and calls him into account. But now he’s gotten over his fears and he will do what he wants and doesn’t care who sees. This quote makes me think that the pedestrian used to be scared to be seen out at night and wouldn’t want to get noticed. In the short story the writer writes, “For long ago he had wisely changed his to sneakers” At the start of the short story the writer sets the scene for the reader, both in time and place but also by describing the kind of society that exists in the future world. The theme of the short story is all about technology in which it deals with the dangers living in a society which is not only reliant on technology, but uses technology to control its citizens and to destroy those individuals who dare to exercise freedom of expression. The Pedestrian The Pedestrian is a short story by Ray Bradbury.

What are the two meanings of the word “pedestrian”? Describe the irony in the double meaning as it pertains to the story.Theme of Technology in “The Pedestrian” Analysis.

(One clue is embedded in question #7.) Review the details of the story and write your own description of how our current society could evolve into the one Bradbury describes in this story.

Ray Bradbury avoids giving details about how this society came into being.

What response does the police automan give when Mead says he is a writer? What does this say about this society?.

What “regressive tendencies” does Mead exhibit?

At the end of the story, Mead is being taken to the Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive Tendencies.

Who or what seems to be in charge of this society?

Leonard Mead is the only human character we encounter in this story and clearly he has no power.

What passage reveals that there are indeed other people who live in this city?.

List three sentences or phrases that make the reader think Leonard Mead is the only person still alive in this story.

How are the sidewalks in the story described? What does this description imply, or suggest, about this future society?.

What do you think the narrator means by saying that Leonard Mead is “as good as alone”?.

What atmosphere, or mood, do you sense? What words seem to emphasize this feeling?

Read the very first paragraph of Bradbury’s story again.

If you come across unfamiliar words, be sure to look them up in the dictionary. Be sure to write in complete sentences and provide answers that show both an understanding of the story and reflection on what it means. After reading “The Pedestrian,” answer the following questions with a partner.

The pedestrian theme