"The Veldt" critique

Veja Hamiton
Blog Option #5
The Veldt

When reading “The Veldt”, I found it to be one of the most interesting stories I’ve ever read. Not only because it was my first time reading a story written by Ray Bradbury, but because the type of story he wrote was so different than any of the other genres of reading I had ever experienced.  At the beginning, I was a little confused as to what the nursery was actually doing for the kids. In the way the story starts, it just kind of dove right in without really giving any background as to how the nursery operated. What I did like about the story though, is how he used a really vivid description to put the reader at the scene of the story. At first as I read the story, I didn’t find it to be very scary or suspenseful. But in class, we watched the short film over “The Veldt” and it really frightened me. Peter and Wendy, as portrayed in the book come off as really spoiled, ungrateful brats with bad attitudes. In the movie, it is the same way, except their faces and the way they speak, bring that to life a lot more. What scared me about the movie was how I got to see everything come to life in a realistic way and it made me think about the impact that technology really does have on some people and the effects that it can have on people, psychologically. In one scene, as George is telling the kids that he is going to close down the nursery, Peter screams “Don’t let them do it! Don’t let father kill everything.” It bothered me to think that two kids would kill their own parents just to be able to keep their technology alive. How could anyone love technology more than a living, breathing part of their family?
                Overall, I found “The Veldt” to be one of the best stories I’ve ever read, and it makes me excited to read more of Ray Bradbury’s work. I give it a rating of five because I just felt like it was a story that kept me on my toes the entire time and it is so relevant to how things are in this time period as far as the use of technology goes. It was so well written and the theme of this story was one that will stick with me.

Bradbury, Ray. "The Veldt." American Gothic Tales. Ed. Joyce Carol Oates. New York: Plume, 1996. 264-77. Print