The Veldt by Ray Bradbury tells the story of the Hadley family living in a futuristic world where technology and the home are deeply intertwined. Despite the story being written and published in the early 1950’s, the technology is neither outdated or beyond belief for today’s audience. What is really interesting about the story is the light it shines on the correlation between technology and interfamilial relationships. A negative affect is shown with both a husband-wife relationship and parent-child relationship, but this post will focus on the latter.
When George and Lydia (the parents) first enter into the nursery that their children (Peter and Wendy) continuously transform into the veldt, they are chased out by vicious lions. Lydia, being much more upset over the subject tells George that they need to keep their children out of the nursery so that they no longer go into the dangerous, and in her opinion, scary African veldt. George goes on to say, “You know how difficult Peter is about that. When I punished him a month ago by locking it for even a few hours — the way he lost his temper! And Wendy too. They live for the nursery.” The abnormal parent-child relationship between the Haldey’s is first made evident in the story during this quote. Not many parents would consider their children’s unhappiness due to a punishment, but in this instance, George does.
Bradbury expands on the abnormal parent-child relationship in the next scene when he says “Wendy and Peter were at a special plastic fair across town. They had called home earlier to say they’d be late.” It is later revealed that after the two 10-year-old children arrive home via their helicopter, they have already eaten a dinner of strawberry ice-cream and hot dogs. Again, this expands on the idea that the children are running the family in this future, not the parents.
The interesting thing about this story is the similarities it shares to current parent-child relationships with the addition of new technologies in our lives. A quote in the Journal of Family Relations says that, “parent’s roles have diminished because children… are more adept at using communicative technologies than adults… As a result, parents may not be aware of the websites their children are visiting… Parents have to walk a line between trusting the blocking software and addressing the issue directly with their children.” This quote can easily be transformed into making sense in the context of The Veldt:
George and Lydia’s roles as parents have diminished because their children are content with living off of the various technologies in the home… As a result, their relationship with their children has become so insubstantial that they have no idea why their children keep imagining the veldt inside of the nursery, or why they treat them with such little respect… However, George and Lydia have to be careful because turning off the nursery completely and taking away the thing that their children love so dearly could have dire consequences.
Knowing what happens at the end of the story really puts the last part of the quote and matching transformation into context. George and Lydia tried to talk to their children directly throughout the middle of the story, but when nothing changed, they ultimately decided to lock the nursery, essentially using a “blocking software” to get their kids to stop returning to the veldt. Little did they know that kids, especially technologically savvy kids like Peter and Wendy, will always find away around a block, even if it involves arranging the murder of their own parents…
Works Cited
Hertlein, Katherine M. "Digital Dwelling: Technology in Couple and Family Relationships." Family Relations, vol. 61, no. 3, 2012, pp. 374-387.
