The Veldt

With the opening line of dialogue, “George, I wish you’d look at the nursery” (239), Bradbury puts the children’s nursery at the center of the plot. After more dialogue establishing the relationship between George and Lydia, Bradbury switches to description of their modernistic house. The name of the house, the “soundproofed Happy-life Home,” satirizes advertising language and its pretenses of creating happiness through material convenience.

Bradbury describes the conveniences and wonders of the home, which “clothed and fed and rocked [the Hadleys] to sleep and played and sang and was good to them” (239). It is a place where lights automatically turn on at a person’s approach and where the kitchen cooks food by itself. The author paints a picture of a pampered and enervated existence, in which every action is automated, and the push of a button takes care of every human need.

The nursery is a luxury feature that costs half as much as the rest of the house. Here is another evocative description, this time of the simulated world of the African veldt. George’s line, “This is a little too real,” points to the danger that the nursery portends. Lydia hears a scream in the distance, which her husband does not notice.