The Veldt
Ray Bradbury
CONTEXT
• Written in 1950’s
• Around the time that T.V. was being introduced and
becoming popular in homes
• Originally called ‘The World the Children Made’
• Taken from the collection ‘The Illustrated Man’
• Sci-fi Genre – effect?
How might people have viewed the
introduction of the television into family
homes?
What might the concerns of a text written at
this time be?
Title
• What is a Veldt?
• What would you associate with a veldt?
• What atmosphere might it create?
Section 1
• What do you find surprising/interesting about the wife
asking for a psychologist to come and look at the nursery?
• What does the ‘Happylife Home’ do for them? Is this an
appropriate name? Why/why not? What assumption does
the name make?
• What are your initial impressions of the nursery? What is
the atmosphere created during the initial encounter with the
nursery and how is it created? What is the intended
purpose of the nursery?
• Explain the contrast between the wife and husband’s
demeanour at the start of the story. How do they each feel
about the nursery? Give evidence.
• Why do you think Bradbury’s descriptions are so detailed
and why do they rely on the senses? Explain the
significance of George’s comment ‘This is a little too real’
Section 2
• How are the lions described in this section an what
atmosphere does this build up?
• When the lions start running, Lydia runs away.
What is significant about the line ‘Instinctively,
George sprung after her’?
• Explain fully why Lydia and George are both
‘appalled at the other’s reaction’.
• Why does Lydia want the children not to read any
more on Africa? How do the children feel about
the nursery and what is the evidence of this?
• What is unusual about Lydia’s idea of a vacation?
What effect does she feel the house is having on
her and her husband?
Section 3
• What is unusual or surprising about the fact that George
and Lydia are having dinner alone?
• How is George’s attitude towards the nursery seen to be
changing in this section? Give evidence of this change.
• What are he and Lydia worried about with regards to the
nursery and the children?
• What is significant about the line, ‘The only flaw to the
illusion…like a framed picture, eating her dinner
abstractedly’?
• Look at the word choice and similes used in the initial
description of Wendy and Peter. Analyse what these
suggest about the children and explain why you think
Bradbury does this. What is the relationship between
Wendy and Peter like and how can you tell?
Section 4,5,6
• Why is the nursery changed from the Veldt to Rima
when they return? What does this suggest about
the relationship between the children and their
parents?
• What is the significance of George finding his
wallet?
• What are the parents beginning to realise about
their relationship with their children in section 5?
• What is significant about the ‘screams’ they hear in
the night and what is surprising about the parents’
reaction?
• How would you describe Peter and his attitude
towards the house being switched off in section 6?
Section 7
• How does the comment ‘I want facts, not feelings’
sum up George’s character and approach towards
parenthood?
• What does the psychologist, David McClean, mean
when he says ‘they had a Santa Claus now they
have a Scrooge’? What has he recognised about
the role the nursery plays in the children’s lives?
• What signs are there that the nursery could be
becoming real?
• What is significant about the scarf? What does it
remind you of from earlier in the story?
• What is the impact of using the word ‘killed’ at the
end of this section? What does it imply the nursery
has become?
Section 8 and 9
• How have Lydia and George switched in terms of their
attitudes at the end?
• How would you describe the children’s reaction to the news
of the nursery and house being switched off? Why does
Peter wail at the ceiling? How would you describe the
children’s behaviour and actions at the end of the story?
• What has George recognised about their reliance on
technology? What does he want to achieve by switching off
the machines? How effective is the imagery: ‘full of dead
bodies, it seemed’ and ‘a mechanical cemetery’?
• What is ironic about Lydia’s statement ‘it can’t hurt’? Why
do you think Bradbury ends the story with this gruesome
twist? What is he trying to show us?
• The final section describes Mr McClean’s arrival. We are
not told what happens to him. What do you think will
happen? Justify your answer. What is the atmosphere in
this final section and how is it created?
Themes
• Consumerism – Over reliance on
Technology/dangers of technology
• Responsibility/Abandonment
• Family Relationships – the effect of
technology on the family unit
• What makes us human
Techniques: Characterisation
• The Children
Names – Wendy and Peter
Age – 10 but our perception changes – sometimes seem very young
(tantrums) at others seem much older (televising home) – ‘He’s a wise
one for ten’
Descriptions/Appearance – ‘cheeks like peppermint candy, eyes like
bright agate marbles, a smell of ozone on their jumpers’
Relationship with each other – ‘holding hands’ close/conspiratorial,
Peter’s control over Wendy = she obeys
Techniques: Characterisation
• The Children
Relationship with parents – independent of parents, ‘they treat us like we
are the offspring’ – Peter doesn’t look at father, sense of hiding things,
speaks coldly and threatens ‘I don’t think you better consider it anymore,
father.’ Sense of hatred – wishing death on them
Relationship with house/nursery - tantrum thrown at idea of being locked,
seem to have control over it (beyond adult knowledge), embrace
technology, don’t want to live without it, like how it does everything for
them, rely on it – obsessed/addicted, more important than parents
Behaviour/Attitudes – Independent of parents (televising home, saying to
go on with tea without them), are detached/distant/sinister/conspiratorial,
throw tantrums when don’t get own way, don’t want to do things for
themselves ‘I don’t want to do anything but look and listen and smell;
what else is there to do?’
Techniques: Characterisation
• The Parents
Method of parenting – Wanted to give everything to children ‘“But
nothing’s too good for our children,” George had said’, expensive
gadgets BUT in doing so have become detached, no longer care
givers = abandoned
George’s Personality – Practical and rational ‘I want facts not feelings’,
the one who makes the rules ‘disciplines’, preoccupied ‘But, being busy,
he had paid it no attention’
Lydia’s personality – More emotional, anxious, worried – feels she has no
purpose anymore ‘Maybe I don’t have enough to do. Maybe I have time
to think too much’. Gives into children’s tantrum at end.
Techniques: Characterisation
• The Parents
Attitudes towards nursery (start) – GEORGE – Laidback and
unconcerned, thinks it’s beneficial, dismisses Lydia’s concerns;
patronises her. LYDIA – anxious and worried, wants psychologist to
look at it, is less understanding of technology, acts instinctively ‘Lydia
bolted and ran. Instinctively George sprang after her. Outside in the
hall he was laughing and she was crying, and both stood appalled at
the other’s reaction.’
Attitudes towards nursery (end) – GEORGE – after investigating and
witnessing behaviour of children he becomes more wary – come round to
locking nursery/shutting down house as a precaution. LYDIA – still
doesn’t like but is affected by children’s distress, ignores instincts and
ironically says ‘it can’t hurt’, suggests naivety – doesn’t foresee
seriousness
Techniques: Characterisation
• David McClean
Job – Psychiatrist: deals with feelings and the mind, psychological
issues. Suggests potentially serious nature of the effects of nursery
Attitudes towards Nursery (before & now) – initially nothing unusual ‘the
usual violences [...] because they feel persecuted by parents constantly’;
now doesn’t ‘feel good’ – instinctive sense of negative effects (crept up)
Observations about parents – Sensed spoiled children, now letting them
down (Santa/Scrooge analogy); room has replaced them – hatred
directed at them in nursery; life built around creature comforts
Advice given – Tear down room and take children for treatment (a year);
room become a channel for ‘destructive thoughts’ – feels persecuted
himself; reference to paranoia being ‘thick’
Position at end – Sense he is in danger; invited/lured into Veldt by
children; image of shadows and vultures
Techniques: Setting
• The House
‘Happylife Home’
Cutting edge – expensive – Technical Terms (‘soundproofed’, ‘soft
automaticity’, ‘televised’
Does everything for them – ‘this house which clothed and fed and
rocked them to sleep and played and sang’
Made to seem alive – senses their presence, reacts to their requests,
Peter wails at ceiling ‘as if he was talking to the house, the nursery’ –
refers to killing it at end ‘cemetery’
Techniques: Setting
• The Nursery
Technologically advanced, expensive: ‘it’s all dimensional,
superreactionary, supersensitive colour film and mental tape film…It’s
all odorophonics and sonics’ – designed to occupy children (virtual
reality)
Atmosphere – ‘so real, so feverishly and startlingly real you could feel
the prickling fur on your hand’, ‘your mouth was stuffed with the dusty
upholstery smell of their heated pelts’, ‘terrible green-yellow eyes’ =
oppressive, threatening
Stuck in a repetitive pattern – Africa, Veldt, lions feeding – No longer
the fairy-tale like scenes
Sensory presence of nursery - ‘a smell of cats in the night air’, ‘ It
seemed that, at a distance, for the past month, he had heard lions
roaring, and smelled their strong odor seeping as far away as his
study’ – taking over, invading the house (children’s reliance)
Techniques: Imagery
• Similes
‘The only flaw to the illusion was the open door through which he
could see his wife, far down the dark hall, like a framed picture, eating
her dinner abstractedly.’
‘the smell of dust like a red paprika in the hot air.’
‘That sun. He could feel it on his neck still, like a hot paw.’
Techniques: Imagery
• Metaphors
‘this yellow hot Africa, this bake oven with murder in the heat’
• Personification
‘They went to the fuse box together and threw the switch that killed
the nursery’
Techniques: Symbolism
• The Veldt
• The Lions
• The Vultures
• The Shadows
• The Screams
Techniques
• Repetition of ideas and phrases
- ‘a little too real’
- The Screams
- Description of senses – sights and smells of the
Veldt seeping into and invading the wider house
(lose control/as if alive)
- The Veldt itself is caught in a repetitive cycle
(paranoia, neurosis, obsession)
- Children fixated on one idea – death (destructive
thoughts
Suggests how reliant we could become/stuck in a loop –
warning = we ignore the signs, technology begins to take
over
Techniques
• Foreshadowing
- Screams
- Wallet
- Scarf
Suggest inevitability – leaving end open adds to sense of
inevitability – know what will happen to Mr McClean. Timing is
always just too late.
Suggests Bradbury’s warning – parents don’t see it coming – like we
don’t see the dangers of technology although signs are there
Techniques
• Irony
- ‘Happylife Home’ – What assumption
does this make? Is it a correct
assumption? What is the irony?
- ‘it won’t hurt’
Bradbury is pointing out how blind we can be to
our own humanity and the dangers we create for
ourselves
Techniques: Ending
• Parents locked in nursery – presumably eaten by lions (realisation of
why screams so familiar = too late)
• Psychologist returns – children in ‘open glade’ having a picnic –
Wendy invites in for tea saying parents will be ‘here directly’
• Backdrop of lions ‘fighting and clawing and then quieting down to
feed in silence under the shady trees’
• Ominous atmosphere reinforced – reminded of ‘the hot sun’ which
makes David ‘perspire’.
• ‘A shadow flickered over Mr McClean’s hot face. Many shadows
flickered. The vultures were dropping down the blazing sun.’’.
• Highlights an over-reliance on technology at the expense
of actually living
• Children have been spoiled but in doing so the parents
have also ‘abandoned’ them. So much so that
technology has replaced the parents and the children
have more of an attachment with it.
• Underestimating the ‘power’ of technology. Don’t
understand the potential so become careless.
Technology one step ahead.
• Sci-fi genre – exaggerates to highlight the dangers and
make more aware. Plays on natural fear of technology –
becoming alive and taking over!
• Generation gap – old v young. Young seem to have
better understanding and are more at ease, have more
control. Got to communicate and try to understand each
other’s worlds.
• Reality V unreality – not able to recognise the difference,
merging and distinction being blurred. Unreal seems
more real than reality – living through it but not really
living.
Critical Essay Task (2015 Q4)
For ‘The Veldt’ you must choose
from PROSE Qs (Q3 or Q4)
Gives you a reminder of the sorts of
things you can discuss for prose texts –
could help to organise paragraphs
Answers to questions on Prose should refer to the text and to such
relevant features as characterisation, setting, language, key
incident(s), climax, turning point, plot, structure, narrative technique,
theme, ideas, description…
Allows you to choose appropriate Q – gives focus of
argument in essay. Pay attention to anything in bold.
4. Choose a novel or short story or work of non-fiction which
explores a theme which you find interesting.
By referring to appropriate techniques, show how the writer
explores this theme.
Tells you what to do – how to organise your paragraphs/what
to cover – reminds of what you are setting out to prove.
Planning Decisions
• Does ‘The Veldt’ explore a theme you find
interesting?
• What is the theme?
• Why is it interesting (e.g. what is being
said about it =
impact/message/relevance)?
• How is this theme explored = analysis of
techniques which reveal theme
(paragraphs)?
Line of Argument
• Introduction should assert/outline what essay will prove –
this is your argument and this should be linked to task:
‘The Veldt’ explores the theme of… in order to
deliver an important/interesting message
about…
• Your topic sentences, analysis, sub-conclusions and
overall conclusion should keep referring back to this =
prove the theme is explored and that it is ‘interesting’
Key Techniques
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Similes and Description (word choice)
Personification – nursery and house
Foreshadowing and repetition of ideas/phrases
Irony
Characterisation – Children, George, Lydia,
David McClean
Setting
Mood and Atmosphere – use of sci-fi genre
Symbolism - Title
Ending
Introduction
• Introduce text and line of argument
• Demonstrate understanding/knowledge of text and
engagement with it
MUST INCLUDE:
IMPROVED BY:
•
•
•
•
•
Title – in inverted
commas (remember
capitals)
Writer’s full name
Refer to it as a short
story
Focus of
task/argument e.g.
‘explores theme of…’
which delivers an
important message
about…’
•
•
•
Showing brief
knowledge of context
and relevance of this
Mention (without listing)
the key techniques used
Making clear the impact
of the story on the
reader (message)
Using evaluative
language (effectively,
disturbing, successfully,
delivers a potent
message…
MUST NOT INCLUDE:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Use of ‘I’ or ‘you’ (use
‘the reader’ or ‘we’
Reference to the essay
itself
Reference to writing the
essay
Reference to reading
the story in class
A blow by blow account
of the plot
Irrelevant context e.g.
Bradbury’s life
Analytical Paragraphs
• Should be 4 or 5 – each one focusing on a new point
(technique) – something Bradbury does to explore theme
• Topic Sentence – focus on writer (Bradbury), task (exploration of
theme) and technique (identify), linkage
Bradbury further explores the damaging effects of an over-reliance on
technology through the effective contrast between the children and their parents
• Make analytical points – fully explore and analyse how effectively
technique is used
• Use evidence to support – integrate quotations into point – and
always analyse what quotation shows and how effect is created
• Sub conclude by linking back to overall message at end of
paragraph
Integrating Quotations
• Introduce quotation by making a point
• Try to work shorter quotations into the sentence (remember
quotation marks)
Bradbury describes how ‘the smell of dust’ was ‘like a red paprika in the hot air’
in order to…
• For longer quotations you can use a colon and drop down a line –
separating the quotation from main essay
When George is outside of the nursery, the description of what he sees makes
us question what is real:
‘The only flaw to the illusion was the … eating her dinner abstractedly’
Here, Bradbury suggests that George’s perception of reality has been distorted
because…
• Always follow the quotation with a comment (analysing its effect).
Try to vary use of ‘This shows’ and use evaluative language.
Conclusion
• Is the end of your argument and must always be there – even if it is
brief
• Does much the same as an introduction but in a rounding off,
concluding way
REMEMBER TO:
- Restate title, author’s full name and mention it is a short story
- Refocus on the task = reassert your line of argument now that
you have proved it
- Explain the overall message/impact of story
- Show engagement using evaluative language
- No ‘I think’
- Sum up main points
Discussion Points
• Is Bradbury right?
• Has he predicted the future from 50 years
ago?
• Are we over reliant on technology?
• Does technology impact on our family,
relationships and day to day living?
• Is any of this story close to reality in any
way?