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The Death of the Literate World in “The Pedestrian”

The Death of the Literate World in “The Pedestrian”

Ray Bradbury’s short story, “The Pedestrian,” shows the not-too-distant future in a very unfavorable light. The thinking world has been eaten away by the convenience that is high technology. This decay is represented by the fate that befalls Leonard Mead. Though only an isolated incident, it foreshadows the end of thinking, literate society.

The world in the year 2053 is populated by people who are more dead than alive. Their technology has made them very lazy. Walking has become obsolete, as the title of the story indicates. Leonard Mead is not a pedestrian; he is, in a city of three million people (105), the pedestrian. Walking had become so uncommon, that the sidewalk was “vanishing under flowers and grass” (104-105). Bradbury further illustrates the lack of foot traffic by stating that Mead had walked for ten years without meeting another person on the street (105). If the process of evolution holds true, the ...

Posted by: Carlos Hernandez

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