Introduction
Authors often use a variety of literary devices to make stories more interesting and add a sense of suspense for the reader. “The Veldt” is a short story by Ray Bradbury, where the author describes a family that moved to a technologically advanced home. Although technology is meant to make people’s lives easier, in this case, the mother and the father struggle with leveraging these advances. This issue causes conflicts and misunderstandings among the parents and their son and daughter, Peter and Wendy. Bradbury uses foreshadowing from the beginning of this short story to hint that the house is dangerous.
Main body
Foreshadowing is a literary device that authors use to hint to the readers about the events that will happen later in the story. There is no direct explanation of what is going to happen. However, the author leaves cues that can provoke a reader to think that things are not as they seem at first sight. This element allows for building a sense of suspense throughout the story and evokes the reader’s curiosity. An important aspect of foreshadowing is that at the end of the story, the reader can understand how the hint is linked to the ending.
Ray Bradbury wrote, “The Veldt” to express the idea that people often focus on money instead of things that are actually valuable, such as family. In “The Veldt,” Ray Bradbury uses foreshadowing as a primary literary device to hint that focusing on money will bring trouble to the main characters of the story. For example, the nursery in “Happy House” turns out to be dangerous and causes the death of the main characters at the end of this short story. In the beginning, the mother, Lydia, hears a scream from the nursery (Bradbury 10). However, her husband did not notice this, and the reader might have dismissed the event as something unimportant. Still, in a short story, every element of the narration is important, and Lydia hearing this scream indicates that this house is not a safe place for the family. As this story also shows the conflict between the parents and the children, with the latter focusing on money instead of their family, there are hints at the children’s obsession with the nursery.
The nursery is an important element of the narration, and many of the foreshadowing elements are linked to this room. This room has a virtual reality setting, allowing the children to choose any setting they like. However, at one point, Lydia complains to George that the landscape setting is stuck on the African veldt landscape. One can see the lions and their prey, which is another hint at the danger of this room. Moreover, the parents also see some of their personal belongings on the veldt, which is another strange element that hints at the potential danger. When viewing this episode as foreshadowing, one can assume that the landscape hints at the danger that is linked to the nursery since, at the end of the story, Lydia and George die because of the nursery.
Summary
In summary, “The Veldt” by Red Bradbury is a short story that showcases the issues of parenting, technology, and family values. The author uses foreshadowing as a primary element of literary devices. The parents notice strange things about the nursery, such as screams or an unchanging landscape with lions. In the end, they die in this nursery, haunted by the lions, after their children lure them inside.
Work Cited
Bradbury, Ray. The Veldt. Creative Education, 1987.