Short Story (The Pedestrian)

Setting (Time)

2131 AD

Point of View

3rd person limited (into the mind of Leonard Mead)

Leonard Mead

He is completely alone—(not married and seems to interact with nobody; seeks a human connection—speaks to the inhabitants of the houses as he passes, trying to have some semblance of conversation) He is different from those around him because he has been the only one out walking at night for the past ten years. He is taken away to "Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive Tendencies" for walking around at night. He is outdated—a writer in a world where his creative profession has died, replaced by the television in the "tomb-like" houses (Bradbury 34).

Motifs

Insects - "glimmers of firefly light" from the televisions; cars like scarab beetles; LM stands entranced like a night moth (35); the light holds him "fixed like a museum specimen, needle thrust through chest" (35). Light - "flickers" in the houses (34); Christmas tree simile; in Leonard's face from the car; in LM's house. Metal - the leaf smells "rusty" (34); the car's voice is "metallic" (35); the back seat is like a jail cell with metal bars; the car smells of "riveted steel" (36); the police car's voice is described as iron. Death - the street is likened to a "graveyard," the people are "gray phantoms," and the buildings are "tomblike" (34); the leaf that LM bends down to examine has a "skeletal pattern" (34)

External Conflict

Leonard Mead defies the accepted, passive behavior of living a life indoors, deadened by technology and divorced from the natural world. He rebels by walking at night and is arrested. The conflict centers on man's humanity vs. numbing effects of technology.

Characters

Leonard Mead, Police car

Symbol

Mead's house stands in marked contrast to the darkened houses. The bright house symbolizes the undimmed, active mind of the individual. The others are mentally entombed in their houses, enhanced by the television's flickering light. The darkened houses represent the deathlike state of the people of this society, and Leonard Mead's house symbolizes his fight against this state.

Theme

On the surface, this story is about a man who gets arrested by a police car with no policeman inside for doing normal activities. On a deeper level, Bradbury is making the point that people's minds are being dulled by technology (television in particular) to the point that they are losing sight of creativity, appreciation of nature, enjoyment of social activities, and other qualities that show their real humanity. Society's apathy is the real crime.

Setting(Place)

Outside in a nameless city (3 million population) at 8:00 on a chilly November night. Sidewalks are in disrepair, and everything is outside is silent and gray.

"The Pedestrian" was written by...

Ray Bradbury

Climax

The climax occurs when Leonard Mead is interrogated and arrested.

Falling Action

The falling action occurs when Leonard Mead is taken away in the police car and passes his own house on the way to the Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive Tendencies.

Similes

The frost in the air "made the lungs blaze like a Christmas tree inside; you could feel the cold light going on and off, all the branches filled with invisible snow" (34). This extended simile points out that the light is not only inside Mead's house, but inside him as well. It symbolizes his active mind. (ex) "But now these highways too were like streams in a dry season, all stone and bed and moon radiance" (35). This simile points out the dullness and inactivity of the world in which Leonard Mead lives. "He walked like a man suddenly drunk" (36). This simile points out that Mead has given in and given up. He knows that he doesn't stand a chance of continuing to live a full and active life anymore.

Setting

The nameless, silent, frozen, futuristic city which is gray and in disrepair is described in great detail. It could be any city in the future whose inhabitants have given up their humanity for the sedating effects of the overuse of technology.

Resolution

The resolution is implied. He will never return to his "brightly lit" home (36). Instead, he will spend the rest of his life locked up in the psychiatric center.

Rising Action

The rising action occurs when Leonard Mead turns on a side street and is stopped by a "fierce cone of white light" (35).

Exposition

We learn that Leonard Mead regularly walks alone at night for hours on broken sidewalks in a city where others are in their homes watching television. We learn that he is lonely but tries not to be noticed.

Summary

When the story opens, Leonard Mead is walking alone on a buckling sidewalk through a silent city in the year AD 2131. Inside the houses that he passes, people are passively watching television. He has been taking these walks for ten years, and he has never encountered another person out walking in all that time. Suddenly, when he is only a block away from his home, the only police car left in the city flashes a bright light on him and a voice commands, "Your hands up! Or we'll shoot!" (35). The voice interrogates Leonard Mead about activities that the reader considers to be normal but that appear subversive to the police car. In the end, Leonard Mead is ordered into the car and told that he will be taken to the Psychiatric Center for Research of Regressive Tendencies. On the way to the center, the car passes Leonard Mead's house, the only house in the city that is brightly lit.

The police car

contains a disembodied, metallic, dull, repetitive voice. Its words are aggressive and accusatory. Its back seat is likened to a "little black jail with bars" (36).