Download Ray Bradbury's 'The Pedestrian' & 'August 2026': Warning on Technology's Impact and more Lecture notes Material Science and Technology in PDF only on Docsity! Matthew Suyer Ms. Small Humanities 8 October 2019 Analysis of Ray Bradbury’s “The Pedestrian” and “August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains” Technology has been rapidly advancing over the last century and has become prominent in today’s society. Life without technology seems unfathomable, as pocket-sized supercomputers and instant access to information have ingrained themselves into everyday life to the point of becoming necessary for society to function. When American author Ray Bradbury wrote both “The Pedestrian” and “August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains” in the 1950’s, technology was just beginning to revolutionize daily life worldwide. With so many changes in society resulting from the new adoption of technology, Bradbury feared what could happen if the use and development of technology was taken too far. He illustrates a pessimistic prediction of the end of humanity in both of his works. In "The Pedestrian," Bradbury 's portrayal of a corrupt and lifeless society more effectively warns that technology is a gateway to humanity's downfall when abused than does his depiction of the nuclear devastation in "August 2026." In “The Pedestrian,” Bradbury’s portrayal of a society controlled by apathetic technology shown through the perspective of a personable human character effectively shows humanity’s downfall due to technology. Through a third-person limited perspective of a human character named Leonard Mead, the story becomes much more relatable to the reader. Bradbury illustrates Leonard’s loneliness by introducing him as “alone in this world of A.D. 2053, or as good as alone…” (1) The reader can relate to the loneliness Leonard feels, which lends to the strength of the overall theme. By thrusting an engaging character with developed emotions into the confrontation with the police car, the overall message is amplified by how attached the reader becomes to that character. By giving the police car such dialogue as "Your hands up! Or we'll Shoot!" and "Don't speak unless you're spoken to!" (1) Bradbury clearly establishes how technology will lack empathy for humanity in the future should it be pushed too far. Because Leonard is outside the norm of the mindless drones that inhabit this society, the police car sees him as a threat. The arrest of a mere pedestrian is instantly seen as unjust by the reader, which leaves their blame to be squarely placed on both technology itself and society for letting it devolve to such a cruel and apathetic point. In “August 2026,” Bradbury’s portrayal of a society completely run by emotionless technology presented without a human character ineffectively shows humanity’s downfall due to technology. The lack of emotions as well as the third-person omniscient narrator both dilute Bradbury’s theme, as the story is presented as a chronological description of events that occur rather than a following of a character to whom the reader can relate. Bradbury writes “In the kitchen the breakfast stove gave a hissing sigh and ejected from its warm interior eight pieces of perfectly browned toast, eight eggs sunny side up, sixteen slices of bacon, two coffees, and two cool glasses of milk,” (1) which is just one example of a recounting of the actions the robots took with no real relevance behind them. Should they have been included in the story, human characters would give these actions meaning and drive the plot forward through the use of emotion. However, the story Bradbury presents lacks a focused plot. Because the story focuses
