The Veldt

“Let’s get out of the sun. This is a little too real. But I don’t see anything wrong.”

While examining the nursery at the beginning of the story, George is disturbed by the realistic-feeling sun. The quote averts us to the fact that the nursery is a place where reality and fiction are blurred. Yet, George in his complacency does not suspect that anything is wrong with their addictive lifestyle (see “Irony” in Literary Devices).

“The lions were coming. And again George Hadley was filled with admiration for the mechanical genius who had conceived this room. A miracle of efficiency selling for an absurdly low price. Every home should have one.”

George still complacently views the home as a marvel of technical progress and a status symbol in his prosperous society. The phrases “selling for an absurdly low price” and “every home should have one” are Bradbury’s satire of advertising jargon.

“I feel like I don’t belong here. The house is wife and mother now and nursemaid. Can I compete with an African veldt?”

This pivotal quote represents Lydia’s realization that the Happy-life Home is taking over her role and destroying her humanity. This realization will lead her and George to go about shutting the house down, thus setting in motion the tragic denouement of the story.

“But I thought that’s why we bought this house, so we wouldn’t have to do anything?”

Bradbury implies that technology encourages laziness and destroys a key element of the human spirit: the desire to work and be useful. Lydia realizes this truth, and this leads her and George to decide to take a vacation from the Happy-life Home.

“Come on, room! I demand Aladdin!”

George tries to change the setting of the nursery by voice command, but it fails to respond, apparently because the children have rigged it. The quote suggests the instant gratification which has become second nature to the Hadleys.

“They’re insufferable—let’s admit it. They come and go when they like; they treat us as if we were offspring. They’re spoiled and we’re spoiled.”

George and Lydia come to this realization after interviewing their children about the nursery and receiving evasive answers, then finding George’s mangled wallet. They finally realize that, by not disciplining Peter and Wendy, they have created monsters. Further, they realize that technology has spoiled them as well.

“Peter looked at his shoes. He never looked at his father any more, nor at his mother.”

This telling detail emphasizes that the technology has created selfish, depersonalized beings who are disconnected from each other. It has driven a wedge between parents and their children; in effect, the machines have become surrogate adults.

“We were [dead], for a long while. Now we’re going to really start living. Instead of being handled and massaged, we’re going to live.”

George declares this as a response to Peter’s tantrum and exclamation, “I wish you were dead” (251). It signals that George has fully realized the unhealthy nature of their lifestyle and has resolved to take action—albeit too late.

“No wonder there’s hatred here. You can feel it coming out of the sky.”

The words of McClean, arguing that the wildness of the veldt and the Hadley adults’ inconsistent parenting has created an atmosphere of hatred in the home that is festering in the hearts of the children. The reference to the sky has to do with the hotness of the simulated African sun.

“George, you’ll have to change your life. Like too many others, you’ve built it around creature comforts.”

This quote is another part of McClean’s advice to George, going on to imply that the Hadleys have become stupid and weakened from their over-reliance on technology. McClean implies that creature comforts (material goods that contribute to physical ease and well-being) should not be the central organizing principle of life.

“Start new. It’ll take time. But we’ll make good children out of bad in a year, wait and see.”

Another passage from McClean’s speech, in which he presents himself as a scientist engaging in a benign form of conditioning. The potentially disturbing idea of scientific manipulation adds another layer to his character and to the themes of the story, particularly the theme of science as a means for good and evil.

“George, turn on the nursery, just for a few moments. You can’t be so abrupt.”

This quote describes Lydia’s fatal moment of weakness and indulgence toward the children, which leads to the tragic downfall of her and George. Despite her earlier resolve, she has given in to the tantrum thrown by the children.

“The more I see of the mess we’ve put ourselves in, the more it sickens me. We’ve been contemplating our mechanical, electronic navels for too long. My God, how we need a breath of honest air!”

This quote describes George’s final realization of the extent of their family crisis. George has also refused to give in to Lydia’s plea to turn on the nursery just once more; he will go back on this decision a moment later.