The+Veldt



==﻿__**// Summary: //**__ Sometime in the future, the Hadley family purchases a product called a HappyLife home. It features every imaginable aspect of a home, only automated: lights, meals, bathing, rocking beds, and a room for children's play called the nursery. The nursery allows children to conjure up an adventure to its walls, complete with sights, sounds, smells, and temperature using only using their thoughts. One night, Mr. George Hadley decides to find out why he has been hearing lions' roars coming from his children's nursery. He enters the nursery and is horrified by the violent African veldt his children have created. George tries to use his thoughts to create a different scene. However, he cannot change the setting of the African veldt. George and Lydia Hadley worry deeply about their children's play. They confront Peter and Wendy, who deny dabbling in such a harsh environment in the nursery. The local psychologist fears the Hadley children may have replaced their parents with the nursery. George, wanting his children back, plans a vacation away from his automated home. Something more sinister than George or Lydia could have imagined lurks in the African veldt, though they don't realize it until George Hadley makes the fatal mistake of letting his children use the nursery one last time.==

==﻿ The two parents, George and Lydia Hadley, trying to keep themselves and their children, Peter and Wendy, safe or at least sane, while accommodating their children's wishes at the same time. ==

== Up for interpretation, the antagonists of the story could be Peter and Wendy, because they are shown as dark and malicious children who imagine a harsh African safari-land. However, it could also be said that the nursery is the enemy, because it molds the children into the monsters they behave like to their parents. ==



Depending on your views, the main conflict could either be the children versus their parents (character vs. character) or their parents versus technology.
== This story has a rather undefined setting, the only known information the reader is given is under the assumption that the story takes place in the future. This is most likely intentional on his part. George and Lydia Hadley are a normal couple with two kids; what happened to them could easily happen to you. == ==

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==The nursery in The Veldt was a type of sensory technology that used the thoughts of the user to create a three-dimensional display of a location or idea on the screens that spanned every wall. For example, when the children were angry at their parents, they created an African prairie appeared with menacing lions. The original purpose of the invention of this room was for psychologists to observe children using it. ==

Discussion Questions:
1. What is the significance of Peter and Wendy's names? Why Did Ray Bradbury choose them? 2. Do you think that the the effect the nursery had on Peter and Wendy caused them to act the way they did or would they have behaved similarly no matter what ammount of technology they lived with? 3. Do you believe that you would like the nursery in your home? If you had children? Why or why not?

Links:
Jame's W. Harris's take on the Veldt- An Allegory for Television [|Technology: Its Effects On Children]

Content Equally Contributed to by Ariel Weisman, Brandon Paikoff, and Michael Flynn. Michael is responsible for the customization of this webpage. Reader discussion is advised.