Ray Bradbury Forums
Technology or parenting?..or both?

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11 February 2004, 11:44 AM
katieal
Technology or parenting?..or both?
I read The Veldt, by Ray Bradbury for my english class and really enjoyed it. It seemed to me that Bradbury does not want technology to get out of hand. I think this story does show that technology can get out of hand, but then again there were other factors contributing to this disaster that occurred.
The parents did not limit the time the children spent in the nursery until it was too late. The parents also could have tried to do more family oriented chores together. Maybe if they had even just cooked a meal together as a family once a week or went on little vacations like they were about to. These little activities might have prevented the loss of connection between them and their children. Even today when technology is not as advanced as it was in The Veldt, there are still some parents that lose connection with their children. This is due to the fact that parents may not know how to stay connected with their children.
I agree with Bradbury that technology can cause disaster. But I also believe other factors are contributed into technological disaster.
11 February 2004, 02:24 PM
Mr. Dark
See Zoe712, "Technology in the Veldt"
12 February 2007, 07:04 PM
Joe the Magician
They couldn't have done "family oriented chores" because they didn't know how. Their entire life was dominated and controlled by the machines. Did the Matrix brothers read this?

Cool Joe the Magician Cool


Joe the Magician
13 February 2007, 12:09 AM
dandelion
The mother, Lydia, had very good instinct as to what was happening and why it was a bad thing. (If you DON'T read the story in context of late 1960s-early 1970s "women's lib" mentality, and see that it's not about chaining women in the kitchen but about parents having a vital role in family life, and people doing things for themselves.) Her efforts were unfortunately too little, too late, and the father, George's, attempts to take control of the situation proved fatal.