The Illustrated Man

From “The Veldt” to “The Rocket Man” to “Marionettes, Inc.,” technology rarely represents a positive force in family life. Notably, Bradbury’s depictions of familial strife do not stem from their futuristic setting. Many of his character’s problems are as familiar to readers today as they were to Bradbury’s audience in the 1950s. In “The Rocket Man,” a boy longs to be close to his distant, work-obsessed father. In “The Veldt,” children who are neglected by their parents turn to technology to fill the gap—and quickly become addicted. For Bradbury, technology does not create familial problems—it simply reveals and accelerates them.

Bradbury is especially interested in the frightening power of children. They have a potentially deadly combination of an active imagination and an underdeveloped sense of mortality. The latter is especially dangerous in conjunction with unlimited technological use. In both “The Veldt” and “Zero Hour,” parental disinterest allows children to interact with technology unsupervised—with deadly results. In “The Veldt,” George and Lydia Hadley hand over their responsibilities to a virtual reality nursery. The children come to view the nursery as a kind of pseudo-parent, as Lydia recognizes too late: “The house is wife and mother now and nursemaid.