The short story entitled “The Veldt” is written by Ray Bradbury in 1950. In this short story, the author is trying to warn us of future dangers of technological innovation by creating an image of a family living in an automated house in the futuristic world. This home performs all daily functions for its inhabitants including but not limited to cooking, washing, moving people, and cleaning them. This home also has a nursery which can create a visual world according to the person’s mind. The problem starts with children getting obsessed by the nursery. After some time, due to children’s overdependence on it, the nursery takes the place of their parents.
Since this story was written in 1950, the world has seen a huge development in technology. In this story, Ray Bradbury is trying to say that, in the future, technology might take over humanity if nothing is done about it now. This is what we are seeing today. The invention of robots has changed the world to an enormous extent. Today, robots can do many things humans do in their daily life. They can communicate and take direct orders from humans. This was shown in the story by the house which performed many duties for its residents.
The theme of this short story is that ongoing innovation in technology can have negative effects on our society in the future. This is shown by children’s obsession and dependence on the nursery in the futuristic world. In the contemporary era, technology’s bad effect can be clearly seen in our youth which is the biggest evidence of the author’s ideas. Children can become obsessed by technology. This can influence their psychological health during the time their minds are still developing, and their intelligence is growing. Exposure to blood and violence in video games can heighten these emotions which can lead to emotional problems later in their lives. The lesson that we can learn from this short story is that we need to keep dangerous technology out of the reach of children. They should be given toys instead of access to technology.
The nursery takes the place of parents in children’s minds. When George is turning the nursery off, Peter begs the nursery not to let him do that, depicting that the nursery is Peter calls nursery for help in hard times. This means that in the future if they are not kept away from technology, children might seek its help instead of their parents in times of hardship.
