The Pedestrian

The Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury Utopia an ideal place (fictional) This picayune story is an example of dystopian fiction dealing with a lodge that embodies a flawed n one(a) such achieved at a cost. In the story, Ray Bradbury attacks a society which is, in effect, a practice of law state a totalitarian regime. The sole vox of the regime is, appropriately, the police car. Mead is a non-conformist whose crime is to whirl for pleasure a most simple and natural military action.The oppressive nature of the regime is accentuate by the point that such a basic human activity is prohibited and has been eradicated as indicated by the disused sidewalks. The nature of this soulless society is emphasised again and again by numerous images connected with close dark windows not unlike walking through a burial ground tomb-like buildings and gray-haired phantomsBy contrast the vivid sensory description of Meads walk is conveyed through crisp natural images which evoke the senses and s how his savor in simple pleasures and sensations breathing in the cold November air and its quartz frost makes his lungs blaze like a Christmas tree inside the branches fill with invisible snow. This is a society which (it is implied) is kept docile and unknowledgeable by a diet of poor quality TV programmes (which, we become a bun in the oven from the natural law Cars incredulity when Mead explains that he has no TV, ar controlled by the State).The minds of the universe of discourse have been dulled by the TV they ar incessantly and acceptingly fed. Only Mead can see through the banality and predictability of the programmes W here ar the cowboys rushing? A dozen assorted murders A comedian move off the stage There is nothing to stimulate the intellect of the population here. Despite the (large) number of channels, there is a complete absence of any(prenominal) political programme which might challenge the government. Possibly suggesting brain-washing.If not, it is clea r from the look that the population is described that they be not capable intellectually of repugn the government they atomic number 18 portrayed as automatons unthinking, unchallenging, uninformed. The suggestion is that the minds of this population are chained and dulled by the governments actions. Informed, intelligent, alert bulk would pose a threat and ask awkward questions. Mead is the last of such people and his nightly covert walks are, we presume a way to palpate like-minded people.His rebellion, if we can call it that, is hardly the most active he seems to have accepted or resigned himself to the fact that he can no longer pursue his career and seems a broken man at the end of the story. Setting In contrast to the rest of the population, the individuality and rationalism nature of Meads mind is emphasised by natural images. The parable only his shadow moving like the shadow of a slope conveys both an impression of a hunter and an image of soaring freedom.The fac t that he could imagine himself upon the centre of a plain, a wintry, windless azimuth desert high at large(p)s his individuality and the sense of emptiness that he feels in a society that is, effectively, dead. The rest of the population and the city itself are portrayed as cosmos dead. The buildings and city are architecturally dead the buckling concrete walk suggesting decay and tomb-like buildings suggesting that those inside are dead. Even Nature itself seemed outraged by the setting and tried, it seemed, to bury it like cement was vanishing under flowers and grassThe Police Car The imagery associated with the police car is harsh, cold, threatening, oppressive, that of hunter and its paralysed prey flashed a fierce white cone of light upon him It smelled of riveted steel. It smelled of harsh antiseptic Images which reverberate the nature of the regime which is personified and represented by the car. Frequent use of word-choice conjugate to metallic, robotic, mechanical ide as. The portion of the police car also sounds robotic suddenly, sharp compulsive commands contrast with Meads fuller more warm and personal replies.The clearest indication of the nature of the regime comes in the interrogation The lack of recognition of Meads profession and the incredulity that he does not have a TV set hint strongly at state control. In this dystopian society, anything connected with the arts creativity, beauty, the senses is not recognised. Only that which is manufactured is recognised. Books and writing have no place in this regime. In a similar manner, the police car is unable to comprehend that Mead was simply walking for its own acceptable sake. Walking, just walking, walking? The repetition of walking gives the impression of the cars brain malfunction. It cannot grasp that anyone would do something simply for the pleasure of it, not without a reason. Only Mead is capable of wry humour (a human quality) Are you married, Mr Mead No Nobody wanted me, said L eonard Mead with a Smile. Irony Mead is to be interpreted to an refuge To the Psychiatric Centre for Research on Regressive Tendencies. discover the use of official sounding language a euphemism designed to get over the true purpose of such a place echoing SovietAsylums in which those who actively opposed the states political ideals were sent to an asylum to be re-educated brain-washed until they did accept what the state wanted them to believe. The great irony here is that Mead the only sane man in this insane society is being sent to an asylum. Symbolism. On their way to the asylum through, they pass Meads house. It is aflame with lights in contrast to the dark city. electric light brilliantly lit, each window a loud yellow illumination. It is a symbol of fancy of vibrant life light is a universal symbol of hope, only when the car is swallowed up once more into the darkness (literally and figuratively). The car go down the empty river-bed streets natural images of de cay and life-lessness. Structure Meads pay back is represented in stages. Contrast the positive, empowering image of him as a slope conveying a sense of freedom with his reaction to the car not unlike a night moth, stunned by the illumination The short story remains fairly uneventful throughout, therefore the social system reflects this.However, the featurelessness of structure (which in turn reflects the bleakness of the landscape) is broken by the tension created by the interrogation of the police car. The apparent tedium of the walk through the grey town is transformed into a gripping tense episode. Near the end, the short story bursts into another high point of hope with the wonderful climactic symbol of the house ablaze with light a symbol of hope. Nevertheless, we are again plunged into dark anti-climax as we realise that the house is only one lone point of hope, soon to be submerged within the mantle of darkness everywhere.Themes 1. The distrust and ultimate destruction of the individual in a totalitarian state 2. Bradbury considers such a police state to be alien to the natural laws of Mankind man should be free to voice his feelings. 3. He points to the dangers of state-controlled media which can brainwash a nation, State-controlled TV programmes being, effectively, propaganda. 4. He points to the dangers of a docile, unquestioning society. 5. Glancing euphemistic references to psychiatric hospitals. 6. Pessimistic the light in the darkness is extinguished.