The Veldt Summary and Analysis is a short story by Ray Bradbury.
George and Lydia are the parents of Wendy and Peter, and they live in a technologically driven house that will do everything for its inhabitants - transport you upstairs, brush your teeth, cook the food and clean the house.Lydia asks George if he's noticed anything wrong with the nursery, the most expensive and exciting room of the house.The landscape and environment of any place can be projected by the glass walls.George and Lydia are in the African countryside.The lions are licking their prey's bones.George and Lydia ran for the door to escape when they saw the hologram lions.
Lydia said that she heard screams from the room earlier in the day, but George tried to calm her down.He wants to believe that the children are healthy and not focused on violence.The selling point of the room was that the children would be able to use it as an outlet for their emotions, and the places they visited would provide information for the adults who were curious about the young minds.Lydia sees something dark in her children's brain.As they sit down to dinner, George suggests shutting down the house and living in a simpler way, something he has suggested before and used as a punishment for his children.Lydia feels like she has been replaced for the house because she is thrilled by the idea.She doesn't feel purposeless because the house is the mother, wife, and homemaker that she once was.
George tries to change the scenery to Aladdin when he visits the room again.He begins to think that his children have control over the environment, furthering his concern that they have an obsession with the veldt.He asked them about the persistence of the savannah, but they tried to deny it.When Wendy went into the room to look at it, she said that it was no longer Africa, but rather woodland.George and Lydia think that Wendy changed the room after they returned from the fair.George believes the room was altered because his wallet was on the floor of the nursery and it smelled of hot grass.
George and Lydia decided to call David McClean to inspect the nursery as they went to bed.Wendy and Peter left their bedrooms and went back to the nursery.Lydia commented, "They sound familiar."They will find out why they sound so familiar at the end of the story.Peter questioned his father about the future of the nursery."You won't lock up the nursery for good, are you?"Peter asked.George explained to Peter that they were thinking of shutting the house down for a while and living in a more traditional way.Peter stomps off his father.
David McClean admits that the room gives him a bad feeling when he inspects it.David can only offer him his intuition, as George presses him for more concrete facts.He told George that this didn't feel good.Trust my instincts and my hunches.I have a bad nose.This is not good.The whole room should be torn down and your children brought to me every day for treatment during the next year.Why are things so bad?The children are angry with their parents for taking the nursery away.McClean tells George that the house is more important than their parents, and that it has replaced him and his wife.George decided to turn it off immediately after McClean said there was "real hatred" in the nursery.McClean picked up Lydia's scarf as they left.It's bloody.
George told his children that the rest of the house would be turned off.They screamed and threw a fit.Lydia suggested that turning it off so suddenly was not a good idea, as they begged for more time in the nursery.George initially resisted the idea of turning it back on, but eventually relented and allowed the children a bit more time.George and Lydia went upstairs to get ready for the vacation while the children played in the nursery.
George and Lydia's children call them from their bedroom.They ran downstairs but didn't see their children.They looked for them in the nursery when they couldn't find them.The door slammed behind the lions as they returned to the nursery.They locked the door from the outside and called for Wendy and Peter.The lions began to surround them after they beat against the door.The screams of Mr. and Mrs. Hadley were familiar to them.David McClean did not see George and Lydia when he arrived.The children sat and ate lunch in the nursery while the lions feasted on the water hole.Where are your parents?Wendy replied, "Oh, they'll be here directly."Wendy asked if they had a cup of tea.The story ends.
Bradbury wrote a cautionary tale about the importance of maintaining communication during technological advances in this dark and troubling story.The house in the Happy-life Home fulfilled all of their needs.The main reason for the desirability of the home was due to this, but it has now become a point of stress rather than happiness.The house has replaced the traditional roles of mother and father in the lives of both parents.Even though it would mean extra work and tasks for them everyday, both parents contemplate going back to a "normal" house.
Bradbury compares the advancement of technology with the decline in communication.Wendy and Peter are both stubborn.They don't communicate with their parents during the story.Many of their interactions end in threats or crying sessions in order to get what they want.The parents are unable to respond appropriately to their children's behavior.They have lost their ability to communicate with their children.The children get what they want in every interaction with their parents.Inter- family communications are important.
George and Lydia attribute their lack of ability to communicate with their children to the house's automation, but this brings to light the idea that parenting is more than simply providing your child with everything he or she would like.The Hadley's believed that this would solve their problems, but it has only caused more problems.Everything has been rendered unnecessary and inconvenient by the house that provides it.The Hadley's have to find a way to give their children a form of support that is not available in the house.
George and Lydia are struggling with their personal identities as they struggle to find their identity as parents.Lydia told George that she would rather turn the house off and give the children baths, cook dinner, and do the laundry.Lydia's concern for finding a purpose highlights a broader human concern to find importance in your daily tasks and the need to think that you are making progress and contributing to society.Bradbury said that this basic need doesn't stop with the advent of automation and technology.
The science of psychology is a major part of the story.The original purpose of the nursery was to study the minds of children, for what they left on the wall would provide a glimpse into the inner workings of their minds.It is not until psychologist David McClean arrives that George and Lydia know for sure that something is seriously wrong.He wants the house to be shut down immediately and the children to start psychological treatment.Bradbury believes psychology can be used to treat the children's dire state.
The question and answer section of Ray Bradbury: Short Stories is a great place to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.