Patel 2
Ricky Patel
Ms. Ghosh
ENG4U0
19 September 2018
Questions: “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury
1. What aspects of contemporary family life do the “Happy Life Home” and the nursery satirize? What exactly have the Hadley’s “purchased” for their $30,000 (plus $15,000 extra for the nursery)? What do the amenities of the “Happy Life Home” offer them?
· The aspects of contemporary family life that the “Happy Life Home” and the nursery satirize is that In Bradbury's "The Veldt," the Happy Home and the nursery satirize modern society's tendency of using technology at people’s advantage to equate happiness for the comfort and personal desires as well as the value that people place on material objects and technology. The Happy Home is a technological marvel that does everything for you, to the extent that Mrs. Hadley, a housewife, feels useless. It can clean, cook, do the laundry, use for entertainment, raise children, and do much more. What the Hadley’s purchased was a house and a nursery that can do anything. Their every need and want in the house are catered to. The house can feed you, wash you, do duties, clean, and do anything you can imagine. Even take care of your personal hygiene. That is what the Hadley’s purchased.
2. In what ways has the house infantilized the Hadley’s? How does Bradbury depict this as dangerous?
· The house has infantilized the Hadley’s by doing anything for them and doing it better than they could ever do. Their needs and wants are catered to them in everyway. Their satisfaction is catered to them in anyway. As the house does everything for the Hadley’s, it went to the point that Mrs. Hadley, a housewife, feels useless. Bradbury depicts this as a dangerous thing as it took away the parent’s control of authority over their kids as well as it started to break relations within their own family. The kids we’re not respecting their parents nor look to them as true authorities. Bradbury shows us how uncontrollable people can get, especially young ones, to the house causing dangerous situations to arise.
3. In addition to not having anything to do, why else does Lydia say that she feels like she doesn’t belong in the house?
· The reason to why Lydia says that she feels like she doesn’t belong in the house anymore is because she meant that her motherhood towards the children was even take away the nursery as it takes care of the kids and entertains them. She means that she lost her kids cause of the nursery and she basically has no need in the house cause she doesn’t even need to take care of her own kids as the nursery can do it for her.
4. This story is in many ways also a classic Gothic Horror story. What clues are readers given throughout the story that something “very bad” is going on in the nursery?
· The clues and hints that approach to the means of something horrific is happening in the nursery can be shown throughout the story. A hint that was shown this was when the actions of the two children and their violent acts against the lions in the nursery are clues that something in there was ominous. Another example to this is when the parents we’re hearing screams coming from the nursery at given times. These are couple of hints that brings clues to the reader that something “very bad” is going on in the nursery.
5. How is childhood represented in this story? What are the effects of the house and nursery on the children? In what ways does Bradbury depict these effects as dangerous?
· Throughout the story, childhood was represented as a demeanor of treating everyone in the house as a child. Children had the nursery which took care of them at all costs. It would do anything for you. Anything that is imagined, they can get. As the people get more dependent on the house, they become increasingly obsessed with the idea of being spoiled. Bradbury does not approve of this because there is a fear that kids would try to kill their parents if they didn’t get everything they wanted.
6. What does the story suggest as the source of the children’s murderous hatred for their parents? How are George and Lydia shown to have failed their children?
· As we see, the story suggests that the house and the nursery are made for the children possessed because they are directing their imaginations to anything they want, and they’ll get it. The parents, George, and Lydia failed their children as they lost their authority over the technology. Instead of taking care of their children, the technology would end up doing it.
7. How is this story’s depiction of imagination, and the “uses” of fantasy/imagination by children different than (or like) earlier texts we’ve read or seen?
· This story’s depiction of imagination, and the “uses” of fantasy/imagination reveals the direct clever thoughts and imagery of a person because the children we’re capable of changing things with their minds. The thought and idea of using your own imagination to let things come true shows fantasies.
