The Story its Themes and Futuristic Setting-Samples for Students

Question: Write a research Essay on one of the Fiction or Non-fiction texts. Answer: The portrayal and progression of a storys settings within the narrative world contribute most significantly in establishing the storys themes. The society in which Hadleys inhabit is a futuristic society where technology is omnipresent and omniscient. The themes of consumerism, dystopia and the fight between men versus machines have been represented metaphorically by utilizing the futuristic setting. In The Veldt, the author has imagined a society where the consumerism runs the life by controlling and fulfilling every human need (Bradbury). The dependency on consumer goods has transformed humans into inactive organism. The society is being represented by the automated house, where George, Lydia, Wendy and Peter live. The most luxurious room of the house has the glass walls which can project the inhabitants wish to see any landscape or scenery. They also use the nursery to express their emotions. After realizing childrens obsession with the room the father wishes to shut the room and live a simpler life is a manifestation of a storys theme. The author wrote the story in the post World War era (1950), the moment when consumerisms dominance over human life started to become more visible. In the fictional and futuristic setting of the world does not seem so dystopian in this initial phase of twenty first century. The over dependency of human upon technology is already making human li fe so easier that at times the systematic, organized and robotic life craves for a little chaos, a sudden escape. The automated house has almost replaced Lydia from the responsibility and joy of a mother. She is excited by the idea of living a simpler life as she wishes to find purpose for her life. The father of the house purchases the best things available in the market for the familys pleasure and happiness. In this futuristic society love is expressed though the material exchange and Georges action proves that. Direct interpersonal communication is absent, the rooms, the gifts and the services demonstrated the parents love to the children. The nursery is one such service. However, in reality the over dependency on consumerism turns out to be the Godzilla which indirectly kills them (G?ownia). Near the end George asks what influenced them to buy such nightmare, Lydia answers Pride, money, foolishness. Just in Fahrenheit 451, Montag feels satisfied by burning the books, as the aut hor writes Montag grinned the fierce grin of all men singed and driven by black flame. (Bradbury) Technology brings the world at the home but distanced the human from each other. The author criticized the lack of interpersonal communication among humans. George and Lydias have provided the children with everything but they fail to communicate with them effectively. The futuristic world has led a society where the living humans are forgetting their role or responsibility to the machines. Here it is the evil technology (Winner). This advanced technology has made the lions which lure and eat the parents at the end. This virtual beings turn into the real animals and start affecting the childrens lives. The technology can become overpowering and start controlling life. The world of the Wendy and Peter has more value for the nursery than their parents. The ending is tragic, is not the fate of human life in a society like this bound to be so? The dystopian society is undesirable but humans are constantly working on developing one. The over dependency, misuse and manipulation of power and technology create this dystopian world (de Jong). In The Veldt, the happy life home is represented as the dystopian world. The inhabitants of the house turn to be dehumanized beings and prove to be evil destroyer of the parents. The nightmare hides under the superficial surface does not take much time to haunt and control the lives. In Fahrenheit 451, by burning the books and houses the author builds a dystopian society where censorship dominates the society (Moffat). This society is harmful for all humans. The darkness of illiteracy, decision making power leads the civilization in ultimate destruction. This is a society where books are banned and burnt. Imagine a society without books, is not is somewhere we are headed to? The digital revolution has made life easy for us, but how greatly it had affected the simple lives of humans (Scott, Bart and Brooke). The mind of a child is a sensitive yet complicated place. Whatever surrounds them in the most sensitive time of a human life has immense impact on their minds. It has great negative impact on child psychology. Nothing is simple anymore, nothing will ever be. The first world is represented as the Veldt, which offers all the luxuries and entertainment and in return they take away the freedom. The fear of the unknown has also been expressed by the author. The parents xenophobia towards the Veldt can be read as the contemporary societys treatment towards the African citizens. This theme acts as the authors protest against the common practice of slavery. The difference between illusion and reality must be understood. The characters fail to distinguish the illusion and reality and the resulted confusion turn in something dangerous. So much accessibility to the virtual world weakens the humans ability to differentiate the two worlds (Lau, Lau and Kan). Most of the time people ignore the threat of the other world. That is what George did. He failed to realize the power of the virtual lions. He felt that the veldt can never be real but at the end it entered into the real world. The progression of the narrative comes to the climax as the setting finally changes. The happy life home is no more acts as the primary setting, now it is the nursery and the veldt. The men are threatened by the machine. The nursery threatens and controls the parents lives at the end of the story. The story rejects to give a clear solution, so does the novel. The conscious ambiguous ending lets the readers decide what actually happened. The readers are expected to be engaged with the story and the characters. They should analyze the setting in relationship with the themes to understand the ultimate purpose of the story. References Bradbury, Ray.Fahrenheit 451. Ballantine Books, 1953. Print. Bradbury, Ray.Ray Bradbury's The Veldt. Woodstock, Ill.: The Saturday Evening Post, 1950. Print. de Jong, H. J.Constructing the 21st Century Dystopia: Technology as a conduit for control. BS thesis. 2017. G?ownia, Dawid. "Socio-Political Aspects of Kaij? Eiga Genre: A Case Study of the Original Godzilla." (2013). Lau, Hiu-fai, Kung-wong Lau, and Chi-wai Kan. "The future of virtual environments: the development of virtual technology."Computer Science and Information Technology1.1 (2013): 41-50. Moffat, Kirstine. "Something rich and strange [Book Review]."Landfall231 (2016): 177. Scott, David A., Bart Valley, and Brooke A. Simecka. "Mental health concerns in the digital age."International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction15.3 (2017): 604-613. Winner, Langdon. "Technologies as forms of life."Ethics and Emerging Technologies. Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2014. 48-60.