Saturday, October 3, 2009

Cultural Context: The Veldt

In reading the story The Veldt I noticed that the nursery room was one of the biggest problems, even in the beginning of the story. The nursery room is made of some type of crystal and is very large with a tall ceiling. Not only is the room huge (as described) but it also reacts to the person’s thoughts. This way parents were able to see what was inside the child’s mind because their thoughts remained in the walls. Some examples of what the parents saw were Alice in Wonderland, Aladdin, cows jumping over the moon, and last but not least the African Veldt. The African veldt was described as almost real thing, not only were sights in this room but also smells and temperature.
Throughout the story we find out that this family lives in such a high tech house that the family does not need to do anything for themselves. Even the simplest things a person can do, like bathe themselves or tie their own shoes. The anxiety that I pick up from this story is the fear of the development of the future. The fear of what children have more understanding of the newer developments also seems like another factor. I think the children are a symbol of the future while the parents are of the past. The mother wishes to go back to the simple times, when she was able to do things on her own while the children seem to not be able to live without the developments of the future. The biggest problem of the whole story is that the future interventions can be used negatively even though those thoughts were not put in the fore front of the persons mind when getting something so advanced. This family in particular thought it was something great that the children would be able to grow with because of the visuals.
Putting it simply, the story basically states a few different points. Do not trust things of the future because things can always become “too real” which can always be a bad thing, especially when it was meant to be only an illusion.

4 comments:

  1. Very good paper. I agree with the technology point, it reminds me how 'most' teens are age can't live without their cell phone or laptop, of course I am one of them, but it's easy to relate to.

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  2. I agree with the part in how the we cannot always trust things of the future. This is what destroyed this family. I think that this story also shows that technology has taken the role of a lot of things that we use to do.

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  3. I also agree with you. Just looking at today's world, you see the younger generations wanting all the new technology and the older generations just want things to go back to the way they were. The only see the new technology as a nuisance.

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  4. I think one of the lessons to be learned is also about the technology. As in the story, the family let future technology control their lives and take over the family. Even today, people are becoming too reliable on technology and forgetting how to do the simple things in life.

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