The Veldt | Engelsk

Indledning
When you are young, it is easy to form relationships with different people, and even with things. Technology has now become something that a lot of children happen to form a real connection with.

This problem is the theme of a short story written by Ray Bradbury. A short story that displays the horror of what can happen if you let your children replace you with the newest and greatest technology.

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Uddrag
Bradbury’s short story The Veldt is a portrayal of technology and youth. In the short story the children Peter and Wendy are dangerously dependent on technology, whilst the parents, who also count very much on the happy life home become more skeptical of the technology, especially the nursery.

This can be seen several places throughout the short story, and a clear example would be when Lydia asks George to lock the nursery for a few days in the beginning and he replies with “You know how difficult Peter is about that.

When I punished him a month ago by locking the nursery for even a few hours - the tantrum he threw! And Wendy too.

They live for the nursery.” (p. 18, ll. 12-13) This sets the theme for the short story, the fact that the parents want to lock the nursery and go a few days without technology to help the kids, and it shows that the parents truly want the best for their children, but the damage has already been done.

The children have become addicted to the technology, and like all other kind of addicts, they lash out when they do not get to be in the nursery, and they will do any- and everything they can to get it back.

The children start to lash out and throw tantrums when their parents do not let them have it their own way, so Lydia and George give in so they do not have to deal with their complaints, or as George so nicely puts it, to make them “shut up” (p. 22 l. 26).

Peter and Wendy break into the nursery after their parents have locked the door, and the parents can hear the veldt, yet they decide to do nothing.

The next day Peter approaches his father and asks about the nursery. “”Father?” said Peter. “Yes.” [...] “You aren’t going to lock up the nursery for good, are you?”

“That depends” “On what?” snapped Peter. [...] “I don’t want to do anything but look and listen and smell; what else is there to do?” “Alright go and play in Africa.” (pp. 19-20 ll. 26-5)