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The Pedestrian Ray Bradbury Analysis

Decent Essays

In the short story “The Pedestrian” Ray Bradbury tells a story of Mr. Leonard Mead who is alone and isolated in newly innovated world of A.D. 2053. In this futuristic society Mr. Mead is no longer needed as a writer, so he then walks over uneven sidewalks for ten years capturing vivid images of the society he currently lives in which is strongly impacted by technology. Throughout the text, Ray Bradbury uses literary devices such as imagery, foreshadowing, and symbolism to reveal how societies may be strongly influenced by the new advances of technology. Firstly, Ray Bradbury uses imagery to reveal how people may change because of the new technological advances in society all around them. Bradbury also explains how imagery is …show more content…

Once he circled around to end his nightly walk, “ he was within a block of his destination when the lone car turned a corner quite suddenly” then after the lone car “ flashed a fierce white cone of light upon him” (1). This event with Mr. Mead and the the lone car foreshadows that something is about to occur while he was on his way home from his routinely moonlit walk. After a conversation with the lone car,“ he passed the front window of the car he looked in. As he expected, there was no one in the front seat” (2). As the car started to drive down the dark streets only illuminated by the moon, Mr. Mead exclaimed “ that's my house, the car moved down the empty riverbed streets” (2). This foreshadows that even though he said that they passed his house, the self driving police vehicle continued to go down the street foreshadowing that Leonard Mead will not return home. This use of foreshadowing allows the audience to examine and reflect on how how technology has impacted this certain futuristic society with a great magnitude that Mr. Leonard Mead is seen as a completely different person for only being himself. Finally Ray Bradbury uses symbolism to convey how Mr. Leonard Mead is seen differently from the people around him who have been dominated by technology, which is seen to them as a regular routine of their life's. At the end of the story “ they passed one house” which was different “in an entire city of houses”(2). In the whole city “ this one

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