Comparing The Pedestrian And The Flying Machine

The two short stories “The Pedestrian” and the “Flying Machine” both share a common theme which is a society who is dominated by technology leads to lack of individualism. In the story “The Pedestrian,” it is set in a chill November day in 2053. It is centered around Learned Mead a man who is viewed to have regressive tendencies because of him having the determination to walk at night and not own a viewing screen like everyone else. The viewing screen was a way to distract the public and it enrages higher powers that this viewed act of realism could disturb the way everything works. His behavior is viewed as threatening because it could be disturbing the way things work. By walking, forces higher than him seen represented as the cop car
Whereas in “The Flying Machine” it is focused on the disagreement of the Emperor of China and the inventor and is set in China in 400 A.D. While relaxing the Emperor's hand servant shares that he has seen nothing short of a mirchile, a man flying . After much time the inventor and the Emperor meet. The Emperor was then not at all satisfied at the inventors main reason for the flight and explained to him that his invention . He discloses that while his intentions may have been pure, someone out there could make a similar contraption, but they will have an evil face, heart, and the beauty will be gone. Sadly the inventor was executed and his invention was burned. Everyone who witnessed the man flying was silenced or they were to face the same fate as the
It shows the reader only Mr. Meads thoughts and feeling and no one else's. In the quote “ Everything went on in the tomblike houses at night now, he thought, continuing his fancy.” This shows his thoughts towards the houses in the neighborhood which was it was dark and there were no lights on. Moreover, in “The Flying Machine,” the narrative point of view it's third person objective. This is in view of the fact that the narrator knows more than one character by is limited to only sharing external information and not feeling. In the quote “The Emperor, the servant, and the flier paused within the garden. The quote shows how the narrator is just telling us what is going on but not anybody's feeling or thoughts on the situation.
Leonard Mead's point of view was the he found solace in his content to walk every night. While everyone thought what he was doing was uncommon and made no sense to people in this inverted society. The police cars point of view was that his dedication to walk it was regressive and viewed as weird. For example, in the quote “Walking, just walking, walking?” This quote showed that what Mr. Mead was doing was abnormal and useless while he could have been doing what the rest of the neighborhood was