Ray Bradbury's Technological Predictions in Literature

Ray Bradbury’s Technological Advances in Fiction Imagine, a house that took care of you! No longer would you need to clean, cook, or remember agendas and plans, and reading on your own? Nahh, your “smart-house” can do that for you as well! But of course this is all fiction, right? I mean, who has ever heard of a house that can do all of the work and maintenance itself? It’s just not real. Simply impossible; well that is, in today’s world, the society of the 21st century. In Ray Bradbury’s fictional literatures, The Illustrated Man and “There Will Come Soft Rains,” he exemplifies a new world, a world that seems crazy but incredible, amazing yet impossible, a world with wondrous opportunities for advances in engineering and technology. He creates these homes that take care of the families, giving them everything they could ever want and more! These fables were created to show the reader the good and bad, the pro’s and con’s, the admirable and atrocious characteristics of the “smart-house” and its advanced technology. First the reader looks to the commendable assets, the favorable essences of having such a great advance in our world’s technology. In The Illustrated Man, specifically including “The Veldt”, Bradbury portrays a home with a nursery. Now remember, this is in the future and in a “smart-home”, and this nursery is like no other. The nursery in “The Veldt” is made especially for the children Wendy and Peter. When the kids go into the nursery it becomes, literally, their
Curran 2 thoughts. For example, Wendy and Peter thought Africa and the room turned into the Sahara with lions devouring zebras and baby giraffes (Bradbury, “The Veldt” 12). This feature allows the children’s minds and imaginations to wander, grow, and be free. Later on in “The Veldt” we see the interesting way the family communicates with one another. The children were away at a carnival when they decided to “televise home.” This is the futuristic version of the modern day phrase

Cited: Bradbury, Ray. The Illustrated Man. New York: Bantam Books, 1951. Print. ---. “There Will Come Soft Rains.” Prentice Hall Literature. Ed. Kevin Feldman, et al. Boston: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008. 259 – 265. Print.