Ms. Keenan's 12th Grade English: October 2014

Periods 3, 4, and 7 should read the following story, "The Pedestrian" by Ray Bradbury and respond to the questions that follow.

Ray Bradbury's short story:
The Pedestrian

DIRECTIONS: Read the story and this analysis sheet and then answer the WRITTEN ASSESSMENT questions that follow...

"The Pedestrian" by Ray Bradbury, published in 1951

When Bradbury was writing this story, America's view of cities was already moving away from one where you could walk to all the places you needed to go to one where the automobile was becoming supreme. Streetcar tracks were being torn out and more roads were built to accommodate cars. Mass construction of single-family homes in suburbs had taken off. Bradbury, clearly, had reservations about this trajectory. He saw a future for the city that wasn't as rosy as the advertisements of his day made them out to be. He saw a future in which the automobile would disconnect us from humanity, where walking would be considered a crime.

While strides have been made in cities to become more walkable, pedestrian-friendly, and the like, much of America now lives in a society that treats lonely pedestrians like Leonard Mead. We've seen it in national news when Trayvon Martin was shot and killed after being seen as a threat because he was walking alone through a gated community. Or when Raquel Nelson, a 30-year-old mother, was convicted of vehicular homicide when her four-year-old son was hit by a car and killed during their attempt to cross a busy street. She faced more jail time than the driver who fled the scene.

Bradbury couldn't have known to what extent his vision of the city would play out when he was writing this story in the 1950s, but not surprisingly he was spot on about the consequences of building cities around cars instead of people.

STORY OVERVIEW

Setting: city street at night; 2053; totalitarian, restrictive society; a society in terminal decline

Characters: Mr. Leonard Mead, a writer who 'dearly loves' to walk the streets of the city at night – 'just to walk'; the police car, which has no human drivers and dismisses Mr. Mead's profession and lifestyle before arresting him.

Themes:

• dehumanization of society through over-dependence on technology

• the impact of television (or, indeed, any technology) on the lives in individuals

• the roots and effects of loneliness

WRITTEN ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

TEXT-BASED ANALYSIS: AFTER reading and annotating the text, look for text-based examples to support the following literary elements. Answers should be restated and supported with quotes from the text in blue or black ink on college-ruled loose-leaf paper.

Setting: City Street at Night: Cities are generally imagined to be busy, energetic places, even at night. This expectation is completely contrasted with the reality of the setting in the story, which is portrayed as deserted and, indeed, desolate.
Setting: A society in terminal decline: Several recurring details and examples of imagery add to the impression that the society in which Mr. Mead lives is in decline.
Theme: Dehumanization of society: As people become more and more dependent upon technology, society becomes less and less human.
Theme: The result of such an inhuman society is loneliness: Mr. Mead's actions, and the situation in which he finds himself, repeatedly highlight his loneliness.
Perspective / narration: The text is clearly written in the third person, but it is also written from the point of view of Mr. Leonard Mead - it is his thoughts and feelings that we are constantly exposed to through the story.
Genre: dystopia: FIND TEXT-BASED SUPPORT FOR EACH OF THE FOLLOWING: The use of a futuristic setting, The use of advanced science / technology, The exploration of alternative societies.

RESPONSE QUESTIONS

DIRECTIONS: Answer the following questions based on your understanding of the text. Restate the question in your answers and support with text-based details. All work should be done in blue or black ink on loose-leaf paper. STUDENTS MAY WORK TOGETHER IF THEY STAY ON TASK.

CLOSE READING

1. How would you describe the atmosphere established in the opening paragraphs of the story?

2. What does Mead’s “brightly lit” house tell us about him? What evidence in the story as a whole supports this view?

3. Bradbury describes Mead’s walk as being “...not unequal to walking through a graveyard...” In what ways is the city like a graveyard?

4. How would you describe life in this city in the year 2053? Consider the narrative carefully and identify specific examples of Bradbury’s use of language and stylistic features that have enabled you to reach your conclusion.

5. The voice from the police-car notes: “No profession” in response to the pedestrian’s statement that he is a writer. What does this particular utterance reveal about the society in which the story is set?

6. When did you realize that there was no one driving the police-car? Why is it that the identity of the voice in the car is kept anonymous? Who do you think is actually ‘controlling’ the car?

7. Why is Mead arrested?

8. What is his punishment to be? Why?

9. How is the repetition of the word “empty” particularly ominous at the end of the story?

THINKING DEEPER

1. What social trends does Ray Bradbury observe and see as potential problems for society?

2. What potentially harmful trends might you observe in today's society?

3. What warnings would you give about life in sixty years time?

4. How do you think television could be used to suppress people’s thoughts and ideas?

5. Do you think that Bradbury’s fantasy is set very clearly in the future (sometime after 2052) or does it comment on some features of our present society?

6. What aspects of technology today do you see as isolating people from each other?

SENIORS: Your FINAL draft of Personal Essay #1 is due over EMAIL BY THE END OF THE SCHOOL DAY ON FRIDAY! Some of you have expressed feeling "stuck" about possible topics for your second essay-- which is due next Friday! We will NOT have computer time for the second essay, so please plan your time accordingly.

A great way to get a sense of "good" personal essays is to read lots of examples of "good" personal essays.

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Each one of the following essays is different in its own right. Some are "better" than others, but they're worth examining. Let me know of the links don't work for some reason. It might help to use Google Chrome since they are links to Google Docs.
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THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING RIGHT NOW. I'LL BE CHECKING IN OVER EMAIL AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS.