Post by missmcgrory on Apr 7, 2015 10:30:29 GMT
Mead’s Love of Walking and his Sense of Freedom
Q
‘To enter out into that silence that was the city at eight o’clock of a misty evening in November, to put your feet upon that buckling concrete […] that was what Mr Leonard Mead most dearly loved to do.’
A
Bradbury opens his short story with this long sentence that by its sheer lengthy description that lists all the features of walking that Mead enjoys establishes a tranquil mood. The pleasure of Mead’s walking is further illustrated by use of inverted word order, building up to the words ‘dearly’ and ‘loved’ at the end to stress Mead’s extreme pleasure in the seemingly simple act of walking the streets at night. Bradbury also uses word choice here to make Mead’s walk seem attractive to the reader. The word ‘misty’ has connotations of mystery and magic and contributes to a romantic tone.
“long moonlit avenues” also contributes to this romantic tone.
“he would stride off, sending patterns of frost air before him like the smoke of the cigar” further contributes to a romantic tone, and alludes to the happiness of the occasion as cigars have connotations of celebration.
“The street was silent and long and empty, with only his shadow moving like the shadow of a hawk in mid-country.”
Both sentence structure and imagery are used to great poetic effect by Bradbury here to convey the impression of Mead’s sense of personal freedom. By repeating ‘and’ Bradbury lends emphasis to the scale of Mead’s environment that he is free to explore and also to the fact that he is completely alone within it. Bradbury also compares Mead’s shadow to that of a hawk. This gives the picture of a noble creature soaring in its environment and able to go wherever it pleases. This literally means that Mead is free to roam but it also makes the reader appreciate the individuality of Mead and see him as far more than just a ‘rambler’ but as someone noble.
The Others in Society
Q
‘On his way he would see the cottages and homes with their dark windows, and it was not unequal to walking through a graveyard…’
A
Here a striking contrast is made between Mead and the others in society. Bradbury first contrasts the light of Mead’s world and its sense of mystery and openness with the darkness of the houses. The houses literally have no lights on, but the word choice of ‘dark’ also suggests a sense of being threatening. This is further built on in the simile comparing the houses to a ‘graveyard’. This provides the connotations of lifelessness and death. It suggests that the people in these houses have no quality of life and the reader is persuaded that Mead’s freedom is much to be preferred.
Q
‘He came to a cloverleaf junction which stood silent where two main highways crossed the town. During the day it was a thunderous surge of cars, the gas stations open, a great insect rustling and a ceaseless jockeying for position as the scarab beetles skimmed homeward to the far directions. But now these highways were like streams in a dry season.’
A
The contrast between Mead and his society is further illustrated by the difference between the world of the day, where the others are frantically active and the world of the night that Mead explores. Bradbury uses intimidating onomatopoeia in ‘intimidating’ and ‘rustling’ to give the impression of the great disruptive noise of the cars. He also uses imagery to compare the cars to ‘scarab beetles’. This literally provides the reader with the impression of the shape of the cars, but provides connotations of something disgusting. Whereas, Mead’s world of the night time is made to seam natural and pleasant. The man-made highways are seen by Mead as ‘dry streams’. He is able to pretend that he is in a different world from those rushing about and this has a relaxing effect on him.
Q
‘The tombs, ill-lit by television light, where the people sat like the dead, the gray or multi-coloured lights touching their faces but never really touching them.’
A
Inside their houses, the other inhabitants of the city lead entirely different lives from Mead. Inside of being free and curious as Mead is, they sit still in front of the television. They receive their entertainment instead of being active and finding it for themselves. Bradbury again compares them to the dead to suggest their lack of emotion and activity. He also uses a powerful paradox in describing the television light. Physically it touches the faces of the watchers, but what they are watching does not actually activate their emotions. If their emotions and brains are not engaged by what they are watching, then the reader is forced to question the value of the life in front of the television.
Due to the life of the others’ Society is neglected
Q
‘He stumbled over a particularly uneven section of sidewalk. The cement was vanishing under flowers and grass.’
A
This piece of symbolism is effective in portraying the breakdown in society. A society that does not take care of its environment does not take care of its people. Just as the cement is vanishing, so too are the bonds that link people together. The breakdown in the fabric of the sidewalk mirrors the breakdown in the fabric of community.
The Police Car – Technology Personified
Q
‘A metallic voice called to him:
“Stand still. Stay where you are! Don’t move!”
“Your hands up! Or we’ll shoot!”
A
The police car, we discover, is a machine. It is the personification of technology. Bradbury makes the police car seem threatening and dangerous – just like he sees technology in general. He achieves this through word choice and the style of dialogue he give the police car. The choice of the word ‘metallic’ provides the connotations of something cold and hard. It gives the impression that the police car’s voice lacks emotion and compassion. The dialogue that it has is mostly made up of commands made forceful by the use of exclamation marks. It tells Mead exactly what to do and therefore restricts his freedom, as Bradbury believes our reliance on technology is doing to us. The entire second half of the story is taken over by the dialogue between the car and Mead. It makes a stark contrast to the poetic descriptions of Mead’s walking and sets an anaemic lifeless tone that is sustained to the end of the story.
Q
‘...the back seat was a cell, a little black jail with bars. It smelled of riveted steel. It smelled of harsh antiseptic; it smelled too clean and hard and metallic. There was nothing soft there.’
A
The inside of the police car also serves to provide the reader with the impression of the character of technology. Bradbury builds up through the repetition of ‘smelled’ a range of unpleasant smells. The car smells of ‘antiseptic’ which has sterile, lifeless connotations. It is as though technology sees the rebels like Mead who are unwilling to submit to it as a disease which it needs to cleanse. Therefore, it imprisons Mead and takes him to ‘The Psychiatric Centre for Research on Regressive Tendencies’ in an attempt to find out what is broken inside Mead.
The Final Impression of The Society
Q
‘They passed one house on one street, one house in an entire city of houses that were dark, but this one particular house had all of its electric lights brightly lit, every window a loud yellow illumination, square and warm in the cool darkness.’
A
As Mead is taken away to be ‘treated’ for his condition. Bradbury leaves his reader with a very bleak view of this society. Through repetition of ‘one’ Bradbury highlights Mead’s true individuality in daring to be different from the crowd and be his own person. He emphasises the difference through the contrast of the warmth of Mead’s house vs. the ‘cool’ of the dark and the bright of his house vs. the darkness of the others. These contrasts represent Mead’s emotional liveliness contrasted with the deadness of the others. As Mead leaves, Bradbury makes it clear that no one else will fill his shoes. He is the last individual and there is no hope for the society to recover from the threat posed by technology. The fight has been lost.
Q
‘To enter out into that silence that was the city at eight o’clock of a misty evening in November, to put your feet upon that buckling concrete […] that was what Mr Leonard Mead most dearly loved to do.’
A
Bradbury opens his short story with this long sentence that by its sheer lengthy description that lists all the features of walking that Mead enjoys establishes a tranquil mood. The pleasure of Mead’s walking is further illustrated by use of inverted word order, building up to the words ‘dearly’ and ‘loved’ at the end to stress Mead’s extreme pleasure in the seemingly simple act of walking the streets at night. Bradbury also uses word choice here to make Mead’s walk seem attractive to the reader. The word ‘misty’ has connotations of mystery and magic and contributes to a romantic tone.
“long moonlit avenues” also contributes to this romantic tone.
“he would stride off, sending patterns of frost air before him like the smoke of the cigar” further contributes to a romantic tone, and alludes to the happiness of the occasion as cigars have connotations of celebration.
“The street was silent and long and empty, with only his shadow moving like the shadow of a hawk in mid-country.”
Both sentence structure and imagery are used to great poetic effect by Bradbury here to convey the impression of Mead’s sense of personal freedom. By repeating ‘and’ Bradbury lends emphasis to the scale of Mead’s environment that he is free to explore and also to the fact that he is completely alone within it. Bradbury also compares Mead’s shadow to that of a hawk. This gives the picture of a noble creature soaring in its environment and able to go wherever it pleases. This literally means that Mead is free to roam but it also makes the reader appreciate the individuality of Mead and see him as far more than just a ‘rambler’ but as someone noble.
The Others in Society
Q
‘On his way he would see the cottages and homes with their dark windows, and it was not unequal to walking through a graveyard…’
A
Here a striking contrast is made between Mead and the others in society. Bradbury first contrasts the light of Mead’s world and its sense of mystery and openness with the darkness of the houses. The houses literally have no lights on, but the word choice of ‘dark’ also suggests a sense of being threatening. This is further built on in the simile comparing the houses to a ‘graveyard’. This provides the connotations of lifelessness and death. It suggests that the people in these houses have no quality of life and the reader is persuaded that Mead’s freedom is much to be preferred.
Q
‘He came to a cloverleaf junction which stood silent where two main highways crossed the town. During the day it was a thunderous surge of cars, the gas stations open, a great insect rustling and a ceaseless jockeying for position as the scarab beetles skimmed homeward to the far directions. But now these highways were like streams in a dry season.’
A
The contrast between Mead and his society is further illustrated by the difference between the world of the day, where the others are frantically active and the world of the night that Mead explores. Bradbury uses intimidating onomatopoeia in ‘intimidating’ and ‘rustling’ to give the impression of the great disruptive noise of the cars. He also uses imagery to compare the cars to ‘scarab beetles’. This literally provides the reader with the impression of the shape of the cars, but provides connotations of something disgusting. Whereas, Mead’s world of the night time is made to seam natural and pleasant. The man-made highways are seen by Mead as ‘dry streams’. He is able to pretend that he is in a different world from those rushing about and this has a relaxing effect on him.
Q
‘The tombs, ill-lit by television light, where the people sat like the dead, the gray or multi-coloured lights touching their faces but never really touching them.’
A
Inside their houses, the other inhabitants of the city lead entirely different lives from Mead. Inside of being free and curious as Mead is, they sit still in front of the television. They receive their entertainment instead of being active and finding it for themselves. Bradbury again compares them to the dead to suggest their lack of emotion and activity. He also uses a powerful paradox in describing the television light. Physically it touches the faces of the watchers, but what they are watching does not actually activate their emotions. If their emotions and brains are not engaged by what they are watching, then the reader is forced to question the value of the life in front of the television.
Due to the life of the others’ Society is neglected
Q
‘He stumbled over a particularly uneven section of sidewalk. The cement was vanishing under flowers and grass.’
A
This piece of symbolism is effective in portraying the breakdown in society. A society that does not take care of its environment does not take care of its people. Just as the cement is vanishing, so too are the bonds that link people together. The breakdown in the fabric of the sidewalk mirrors the breakdown in the fabric of community.
The Police Car – Technology Personified
Q
‘A metallic voice called to him:
“Stand still. Stay where you are! Don’t move!”
“Your hands up! Or we’ll shoot!”
A
The police car, we discover, is a machine. It is the personification of technology. Bradbury makes the police car seem threatening and dangerous – just like he sees technology in general. He achieves this through word choice and the style of dialogue he give the police car. The choice of the word ‘metallic’ provides the connotations of something cold and hard. It gives the impression that the police car’s voice lacks emotion and compassion. The dialogue that it has is mostly made up of commands made forceful by the use of exclamation marks. It tells Mead exactly what to do and therefore restricts his freedom, as Bradbury believes our reliance on technology is doing to us. The entire second half of the story is taken over by the dialogue between the car and Mead. It makes a stark contrast to the poetic descriptions of Mead’s walking and sets an anaemic lifeless tone that is sustained to the end of the story.
Q
‘...the back seat was a cell, a little black jail with bars. It smelled of riveted steel. It smelled of harsh antiseptic; it smelled too clean and hard and metallic. There was nothing soft there.’
A
The inside of the police car also serves to provide the reader with the impression of the character of technology. Bradbury builds up through the repetition of ‘smelled’ a range of unpleasant smells. The car smells of ‘antiseptic’ which has sterile, lifeless connotations. It is as though technology sees the rebels like Mead who are unwilling to submit to it as a disease which it needs to cleanse. Therefore, it imprisons Mead and takes him to ‘The Psychiatric Centre for Research on Regressive Tendencies’ in an attempt to find out what is broken inside Mead.
The Final Impression of The Society
Q
‘They passed one house on one street, one house in an entire city of houses that were dark, but this one particular house had all of its electric lights brightly lit, every window a loud yellow illumination, square and warm in the cool darkness.’
A
As Mead is taken away to be ‘treated’ for his condition. Bradbury leaves his reader with a very bleak view of this society. Through repetition of ‘one’ Bradbury highlights Mead’s true individuality in daring to be different from the crowd and be his own person. He emphasises the difference through the contrast of the warmth of Mead’s house vs. the ‘cool’ of the dark and the bright of his house vs. the darkness of the others. These contrasts represent Mead’s emotional liveliness contrasted with the deadness of the others. As Mead leaves, Bradbury makes it clear that no one else will fill his shoes. He is the last individual and there is no hope for the society to recover from the threat posed by technology. The fight has been lost.
