The Veldt: Definitely Not Utopian by Ray Bradbury | Teen Ink

The Veldt: Definitely Not Utopian by Ray Bradbury

September 18, 2014
By Keairra BRONZE, Moncks Corner, South Carolina
Keairra BRONZE, Moncks Corner, South Carolina
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

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"Work hard in silence and let the success make all the noise." -Frank Ocean


The Veldt by Ray Bradbury is about the Hadley’s buying a “magical” nursery, for their spoiled children, so they can see their thinking pattern. Only in the end the kids wish a gruesome death on them. In my opinion this short story is categorized as a dystopian and doesn’t fit into the utopian literature.
             There are a numerous examples explaining how The Veldt would fit into the dystopian literature. For example, a figurehead or concept is worshipped. The children look up to the mechanical technology and Nursery as if it was God himself. They depend on them for every little thing. From tying their shoes to cutting their food the Happy Life Home does everything for them. Another example would be they have a fear of the “real” world. They’ve been so dependent on the different forms of technology that when George begins to turn all of them off saying that they need a vacation from all the technology and begin to live like “real” civilians should live the children throws a terrible fit.
            Although, this short story belongs to the dystopian literature, many may believe that this short story belongs to the utopian category. Reasons for this inference to be wrong is because dystopian novels/short stories begins off as utopians and as you get further and further into you story you realize that this home isn’t as perfect as it seems. The children’s hate for their parents gets the best of them and they think up of a gruesome death for them. At the end of the story, this thought is actually turned into a real life event and the lions of Africa in the nursery eat their parents. Does this worst-case scenario sound like a utopian to you? NOPE!!
            All in all, this short story The Veldt by Ray Bradbury does not belong to the utopian literature but in the dystopian.



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