What is the theme of Ray Bradbury's story The Pedestrian?? I can't figure it out.

Tink:

The pleasure of simply walking at night is...suspect...and this is the story of a single person who enjoys all that a quiet walk at night in good weather ....means. But everything is so sterile, that even the police that stop him for this "illegal" behavior, is really but a metal voice ...

It's a sort of companion piece to Farenheit 451. It happens in the same universe. Clarisse mentions her uncle being arrested for going for a walk at night.

I think the theme -- at some level -- is alienation.

The streets are described as empty, deserted, tomblike. The people in their houses with the faintest, flickering glimmers of firefly light represent people with only partial lives. Their homes are described as tombstones. As Leonard Mead walks, he imagines them inside their homes, totally focused on the insipid fare that is on their televisions (viewing screens). They are "experiencing" life through the passive viewing of images on a screen.

By contrast, Leonard Mead is outside, walking, experiencing life and reflection. He owns no tv/viewing screen, and so his experience of life is first hand and real.

He observes that for ten years of walking, he has not encountered a single person out walking. People are locked up in their tomblike homes, passively viewing images on a screen. This leads to alienation from other people and from any sense of true life. The fact that he is an unemployed writer (because writing has vanished, as people get information solely through the viewing screens) is an indication of the decline of any reflection and depth in society.

The alienation theme, the loss of intellectual vibrance through an absence of reading and books, the passive existence of observing life and the isolation between individuals, are all themes that are developed in more detail in Farenheit 451.

This is, in my mind, one of Bradbury's great stories. It is very short, but contains an abundance of feeling and puts out a warning.

Mr. Dark the warning is loud, and clear. Ironically I have to use this machine to communicate to a community I would rather meet on a walk around the block. Than stare at a bland screen. Unfortunatly privacy now is a commodity that is rare enough. That a quiet walk to reflect peacefully in some cities now will get you free room, and board for casual loitering. Who knows what may be suspect in our DMV "file" that might find anyone warming a sterile back seat of a police car... Don't blink, too soon we could be the Pedestrian. 1984 has come, and gone or has it. I think I'll go check out the clear Autumn air...

I am presently in the middle of a F451 unit (as commented in another string) and use this s.s. (Pedestrian) as a supplementary to our reading of the novel. I have a copy of the RB Theater episode of this story.

It is right on the mark! The part that always gets me is the sidewalks that have become ramshackle from lack of use and repair. They are over run with weeds, cracked, and heaved from weathering over the years.

Exactly, Uncle! It's autumn! Get out there tonight and kick up some leaves and smell the cool, fresh air!