the pedestrian literary analysis essay

A Summary and Analysis of Ray Bradbury’s ‘The Pedestrian’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Pedestrian’ is a 1951 short story by Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), which is included in his 1953 collection The Golden Apples of the Sun . In some ways a precursor to Bradbury’s more famous novel Fahrenheit 451 , ‘The Pedestrian’ is set in a future world in which people sit mindlessly and passively in front of their television sets every evening.

The ‘pedestrian’ of the story’s title is the one man in the city who refuses to do so, and doesn’t even own a television.

‘The Pedestrian’: plot summary

The story takes place on one night in November 2053. A man named Leonard Mead, who later identifies himself as a writer, is walking the deserted streets of a city. He is the only person out on the street at night, because everyone else is indoors, watching their television sets all night. We learn that it is his habit to do this every night, sometimes staying out until midnight before he returns home.

As the story progresses, it emerges that this sort of behaviour – staying in all night, every night, and consuming hours of television without ever venturing out – has become not only common, or normalised, but, in effect, the law . A police car stops to ask Leonard who he is and what he does for a living.

We are told that this is one of only two police cars in the whole city of three million people; there had been three police cars until an election the year before, when it had been decided that there was no need for so many as three. Crime, it turns out, has been largely eradicated, because everyone remains indoors all night, glued to their television sets.

After a brief interview with him by the side of the road, in which we learn that Leonard is unmarried and is a writer, the police car tells him to get in the back.

Leonard learns that the car is empty: the voice speaking to him was automated, presumably some sort of robotic machine programmed to detect suspicious persons at large on the streets at night and stop and interrogate them about what their business was being out.

Once Leonard is inside the back of the police car, he is told he is to be taken to a psychiatric centre which researches ‘Regressive Tendencies’. As the car drives him to this place, he notices he is being driven past his home, but the police car refuses to stop.

‘The Pedestrian’: analysis

Reading and studying ‘The Pedestrian’ more than seventy years after Bradbury first wrote the story, especially in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and the implementation of lockdowns throughout many countries, we are likely to be struck by how prophetic Bradbury was.

Certainly many western countries have stories of police stopping people who were simply out walking when they had been instructed to be at home, with ‘the law’ and ‘guidance’ becoming confused so that nobody was quite sure when a law had technically been broken.

This is the case in Bradbury’s story, where Mead doesn’t appear to have committed a crime, but his unusual behaviour leads the police to take him off for what is, we assume, a course of psychological reprogramming, to turn him into a mindless drone like the city’s three million other inhabitants.

But every prophetic work of science fiction (or speculative fiction) tends to reflect the present as much as the future, and clearly Bradbury is reflecting the time at which he was writing as much as he is projecting a world from a century hence. His 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451 is often misread as a book about censorship, because books are burned in the dystopian world Bradbury describes.

But all books are burned in the novel, rather than just the ‘wrong’ books, because the police state of Fahrenheit 451 wishes to keep the populace docile and passive, and the best way to do this is to discourage original or critical thinking and instead get everyone addicted to television, which they would then passively consume (including any government propaganda).

This is the world of both ‘The Pedestrian’ and Fahrenheit 451 : a police state in which governments wish to keep everyone pliant as well as compliant by using television (the ‘idiot box’ of common parlance) to turn people into unthinking zombies.

The more cynical commentator might observe that this is the world born at the beginning of the 2020s, if we broaden out ‘television’ to include other media such as ‘the internet’ in the pantheon of ways-of-keeping-a-population-passive-and-easy-to-control. (Of course, the internet can be a way to encourage critical thinking by being a two-way medium, so it’s not quite this simple.)

Leonard Mead is a danger not because he might commit a crime while he is out on one of his evening walks, but because he is a reminder of the free-thinking (and free-moving) spirit which others have lost: a spirit he might reawaken in them if others see him outside. His only ‘crime’ is in refusing to plug himself into the electronic brain-drainer that has done for his fellow citizens.

Of course, even before he is arrested, it is clear that everyone else in the city has willingly embraced their chains.

When he reveals himself to be a writer (again, aligning himself with the creative, imaginative, and independently minded), we also learn that he hasn’t sold anything for years because nobody buys books or magazines any more. Mead must be sent away to be ‘cured’ of his unorthodox thinking so he can fall in line with the rest of the population.

Of course, crime has all but disappeared, so we can see how this new world would appear to be some sort of utopia. But like most utopias it is only achieved by destroying the natural instincts of humans, both the bad and the good together.

Mead himself is depicted as something of a romantic type: his very surname suggests the open spaces of the ‘meads’ (i.e., meadows) of the countryside rather than the modern city, while his habit of walking around the city at night recalls the French idea of the flaneur: a writer or artist who would wander around the city, garnering inspiration for his writing and engaging in people-watching.

The irony is that, for Mead, there are no people to watch, apart from the phantom or ghostly shapes he sees moving inside the houses of the city.

As in many Ray Bradbury stories, technology has tried to recreate nature at home: the police car which arrests him makes it clear that, if he wants to take the air, he can do so at home by having some air-conditioning system installed. Fear of technology and the ways in which it robs us of what it is that makes us human is a recurring theme of Bradbury’s fiction.

Indeed, if we had to identify the main theme of Ray Bradbury’s writing, it would be the threat that technological advancements pose to human life. And by ‘life’ here we should include not only survival (as in, for instance, ‘There Will Come Soft Rains’, where everyone is wiped out by nuclear war) but living : the quality of life which gives our existence meaning.

Observe how Bradbury repeatedly highlights not only the ghostly qualities to the shadowy figures in their homes, but also the ‘tomblike’ aspect of those houses: these people, Bradbury is implying, are already dead, and now merely waiting for their bodies to catch up with their minds.

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Ray Bradbury: Short Stories

By ray bradbury, ray bradbury: short stories summary and analysis of "the pedestrian".

"The Pedestrian" offers a glance into the future, where a man, Leonard Mead , goes for long walks every evening by himself. The year is 2053, and Mr. Mead is the only pedestrian near his home. He has never seen another person out walking during the many hours that he has strolled. He lives by himself - he has no wife, and so it is a tradition for him to walk every evening. It is never said explicitly in the story, but it can be understood that he is the only, or one of the only, walker in society.

On this particular evening, a police car stops him and orders him to put his hands up. He answers a series of questions about his life and family, and his answers are unsatisfactory to the police. This car is the only remaining police car in the area. After the election last year, the force was reduced from three cars to one because crime was ebbing and they were seen as unnecessary. When Mr. Mead answers the question of employment by saying he is a writer, the police interpret his answer as "unemployed." They order him to enter the car despite his protests, and as he approaches he realizes there is no driver at all - the car is automated.

Mr. Mead is filled with fear as he sits down in the cell-like backseat. The car informs him that he is being taken to a psychiatric center because of his regressive tendencies. His behavior is not acceptable in society - no one walks anymore and it is queer that he continues to do so as his primary hobby. En route, they pass his house, which is the only house that is lit up and inviting to the outside eye. Mr. Mead's behavior is completely atypical of the society in which he lives.

Once again, Bradbury shows his skepticism of technology and "progress" in "The Pedestrian." In this story, a popular pastime is viewed as regressive, outdated, and abnormal. Mr. Mead's behavior is deemed threatening even though it is not hurting anyone - the powers in charge believe that his determination to walk every night could upset their social stability. He does not have a viewing screen in his house, which is expected of the members of this society. His behavior proposes an alternative activity that the government does not approve of, and this threatens their monopoly on control.

The act of ostracizing someone who is different than the rest of the group appears again, which is a common theme in Bradbury's stories. The police car, a representative of the powers in control, disapprove of his behavior, but the entire society disapproves as well. Ostracizing him is another form of censorship. His lit up house is symbolic of his difference from the rest of society. He is very easily identified as someone who is different.

The story calls into question the idea of progress for the sake of progress. An automated police car is programmed to stop Mr. Mead, even though he has not committed an offense. There is no room for human discretion and judgment in a world that is fully automated. Additionally, the viewing screen is considered a way to distract the public and keep them under the watchful eye of the government. A roaming public that is out walking is much harder to control than one that is stationed in front of its television set. Thus Bradbury's story raises the question of, "What does progress really mean? Is advancement, regardless of the consequences, a positive step in the right direction?"

Additionally, this story highlights the dangers and "slippery slope" of a government determining what is best for a group of people without their input. What exactly does "regressive tendencies" mean, and who has decided that walking means being regressive? Does our society resemble that of the pedestrian's, and if it does, is that a good or bad thing? Once again, Bradbury's stories prompt us to reflect on our surroundings and continue to be relevant despite a different temporal age.

Ray Bradbury: Short Stories Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Ray Bradbury: Short Stories is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

The Flying Machine

The Emperor explains to the flier that he fears that an evil man will manipulate the technology and destroy its beauty - for instance using the flying machine to throw rocks down upon the Great Wall of China. The Emperor says to the inventor,...

From the story There Will Come Soft Rains- In what way does the information you learned shed light on an aspect of the story?

Check out the story analysis in GradeSaver's study guide for Bradbury's short stories. I think you will find what you are looking for there. If you need additional information, feel free to ask. Pay close attention to the section talking about...

What rules are referred to as silly rules and why

I'm sorry, which of Bradbury's short stories are you referring to?

Study Guide for Ray Bradbury: Short Stories

Ray Bradbury: Short Stories study guide contains a biography of Ray Bradbury, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis of select short stories.

• About Ray Bradbury: Short Stories
• Ray Bradbury: Short Stories Summary
• Character List

Essays for Ray Bradbury: Short Stories

Ray Bradbury: Short Stories essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of select short stories by Ray Bradbury.

• Ray Bradbury Hates Technology: Analyzing "The Pedestrian"
• "There Will Come Soft Rains": From Poem to Story
• Contextual Study of Science Fiction Texts, and Intertextual Ideas that Transcend Time: "The Pedestrian," "Harrison Bergeron," and Equilibrium
• The Power of Technology: Comparing "Rocket Summer," "There Will Come Soft Rains," and Fahrenheit 451
• “…The house shuddered, oak bone on bone, its bared skeleton …”:A Postmodern Reading of Ray Bradbury’s “The Will Come Soft Rains”

Lesson Plan for Ray Bradbury: Short Stories

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Ray Bradbury: Short Stories
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Ray Bradbury: Short Stories Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Ray Bradbury: Short Stories

• Introduction

The Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury Analysis

This essay will analyze Ray Bradbury’s short story “The Pedestrian.” It will explore the themes of conformity, isolation, and the impact of technology on society as depicted in the story. The piece will discuss the character of Leonard Mead and his solitary walks as a form of resistance in a dystopian world dominated by television and a lack of human interaction. The analysis will also consider Bradbury’s commentary on the potential future of society. More free essay examples are accessible at PapersOwl about American Literature.

How it works

In 2016, technology will become a part of our daily life, but in the future technology will become much more advanced and powerful, and not always beneficial. Ray Bradbury’s story “The Pedestrian” refers to the year 2053 AD. E., And technology is taking over the world. The main character, Mr. Leonard Mead, has a daily routine that includes walking through the quiet city for hours and miles until he returns to his home at midnight. Throughout the story, Bradbury shows through symbolism, setting and dialogue that technology can rob nature and the beauty of life itself.

Mr. Leonard Mead would like to walk for a long time through the streets of the “abandoned” city. Powerful symbolism helps the reader understand how strongly the author relates to this topic. The first glimpse of human life, apart from Mr. Mead, is that “Now everything took place in tomb-like houses at night. The graves, poorly lit by television light, where people sat as if they were dead, gray or colored lights touched their faces, but never touched them ”(58). The reader explores the author’s point of view when houses are described as resembling tombs, where people sit motionless like the dead. It is also implied that residents living in houses rarely have contact with other people, other than people transmitted by television light, which never physically touches them. Another example is how Mr. Mead “put his hand on the door and looked into the back seat, which was a small cell, a small black prison with bars. It smelled of riveted steel. It smelled like a harsh antiseptic; smelled too clean, hard and metallic. There was nothing soft there ”(59). The use of the word “prison” symbolizes the close connection between technology and the dark, sad life of a prisoner. The use of words such as “harsh,” “antiseptic,” and “metallic,” which do not refer to smell or touch, also indicates a disillusionment with technology.

A detailed description of the setting in Bradbury helps the reader to imagine a dark and gloomy world, bombarded with technology. Through the eyes of Mr. Leonard Mead, we see that: “On the way he saw cottages with their dark windows, and it was not uncommon to walk through the cemetery, where only the faintest glimpses of fireflies appeared in the flickering outside the windows.” Sudden gray ghosts seemed to manifest on the interior walls of a room where the curtain had not yet been removed at night, or there were whispers and noises when the window in the tomb-like building was still open (56). This description of the city helps the reader to imagine the eerie and dark environment of the “abandoned” city, although it is inhabited. It also points to a bustling life inside eerie houses, as opposed to empty streets where only whispers and eerie shadows are used to show signs of any life at all. As Mr. Mead kept walking, he indicated that “The cement had disappeared under the flowers and grass. In ten years of walking at night or during the day for thousands of miles, he never met another walking person, not one in all this time ”(57). No cement means no people who actually walk and use the sidewalk. The quote also states that for ten years, Mr. Mead has never met a single soul going outside that leaves unnecessary pavement to disappear under the grass and mud.

Today newspapers and magazines are still popular and are sold in almost every supermarket, restaurant and pharmacy. Through the dialogue between the police car and Mr. Leonard Mead, the reader is informed about the future and how technology has radically changed the world. Through Mr. Mead, the reader will know that he is a writer, but “he hasn’t written in years. Magazines and books are no longer for sale. Everything happened at night in houses that look like tombs (58). ” The context of the sentence helps to understand that tomb-like houses are televisions. All the information that every person should know is broadcast on television, and books, newspapers or magazines are no longer needed. From the dialogue between the police car, the reader learns that a letter written in 2053 classifies the police car as “Business or profession? I think you could call me a writer. No profession, said the police car, as if talking to itself ”(58). Because technology is so widespread, writing is no longer considered a profession. The police car devalued his profession, as if it no longer mattered. Besides the fact that the letter is insignificant, the police car finds it strange that Mr. Mead “Just walking, Mr. Mead. Yes. But you did not explain for what purpose I explained: for air and in order to see and just walk ”(59). The police car cannot grasp the fact that Mr. Meade walks for air when there is air conditioning, and that he goes to watch when there is TV, that he can watch whatever he wants from the comfort of his home.

Bradbury’s story implies that too much technology can isolate humans from nature and the world. At the end of the story, we learn that Mr. Leonard Mead was taken to a mental health center for issue of regressive tendencies in a police car. The irony is that technology, which should give someone more freedom and opportunity, is robbing what Leonard Mead cherished and is eagerly awaiting every day.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Ray Bradbury — The Pedestrian analysis

The Pedestrian Analysis

• Categories: Ray Bradbury Short Story

About this sample

Words: 338 |

Published: Mar 1, 2019

Words: 338 | Page: 1 | 2 min read

Works Cited

• Bradbury, R. (1951). The Pedestrian. The Reporter, 27(5), 25-27.
• Karunanayake, R. (2019). Dystopian Literature: A Critical Study. International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Research, 7(1), 114-124.
• Taylor, M. J. (2015). The Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury: Summary, Analysis & Theme. Study.com. Retrieved from https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-pedestrian-by-ray-bradbury-summary-analysis-theme.html
• Yan, M., & Soltan, M. M. (2020). Technology and dystopia: An analysis of dystopian literature. Social Science Research Network. Retrieved from https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3568605
• Eaton, N. (2019). Ray Bradbury and the Dystopian Novel. Heterotopian Studies, 2(2), 139-147.
• Campbell, R. (2019). Ray Bradbury’s “The Pedestrian”: A Dystopian Vision of the Future. Owlcation.
• Moggach, D. (2020). Why dystopian fiction is so popular in 2020. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jul/24/why-dystopian-fiction-is-so-popular-in-2020
• Mahapatra, S. K. (2020). Ray Bradbury's The Pedestrian: A Critique of the Future Society. Quest: An International Journal of Research in English, 34(1), 65-74.
• Aguirre, J. L. (2019). From utopia to dystopia: A study of the evolution of utopian literature. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Research, 7(2), 1-8.
• McAlister, M. (2021). Dystopian Literature: A Genre Overview. eBookIt.com.

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The Pedestrian

28 pages • 56 minutes read

The Pedestrian: A Fantasy in One Act

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Conflict is the problem or opposition that creates drama in a narrative . It is often divided into categories such as internal or external conflict. External conflict is further divided into categories such as person versus person, person versus nature, person versus technology, and person versus society.

In “The Pedestrian,” the protagonist confronts an external conflict that could fit into the person versus technology and person versus society categories.

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The protagonist, Leonard Mead, is enjoying his routine walk when he is stopped by a police car charged with patrolling his futuristic city. The car interrogates Mead, but the reader later learns that there is no one inside, and that the car’s decisions are guided by punch-cards and electric eyes. Based on the unusual nature of Mead’s decision to walk, the car takes him to a psychiatric hospital. This represents a direct conflict with a technological object and contributes to Bradbury’s theme about The Dangers of Technological Advancement .

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The Pedestrian

Ray bradbury, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

To enter out into that silence that was the city at eight o'clock of a misty evening in November, to put your feet upon that buckling concrete walk, to step over grassy seams and make your way, hands in pockets, through the silences, that was what Mr. Leonard Mead most dearly loved to do.

[O]n his way he would see the cottages and homes with their dark windows, and it was not unequal to walking through a graveyard where only the faintest glimmers of firefly light appeared in flickers behind the windows. Sudden gray phantoms seemed to manifest upon inner room walls… or there were whisperings and murmurs where a window in a tomb-like building was still open.

If he closed his eyes and stood very still, frozen, he could imagine himself upon the center of a plain, a wintry, windless Arizona desert with no house in a thousand miles, and only dry river beds, the streets, for company.

“What's up tonight on Channel 4, Channel 7, Channel 9? Where are the cowboys rushing, and do I see the United States Cavalry over the next hill to the rescue?...What is it now?” he asked the houses… “Eight-thirty P.M.? Time for a dozen assorted murders? A quiz? A revue? A comedian falling off the stage?”

“What are you doing out?”

“Walking,” said Leonard Mead. “Walking!”

“Just walking,” he said simply, but his face felt cold.

“Walking, just walking, walking?” “Yes, sir.”

“Walking where? For what?”

“Walking for air. Walking to see.”

“Your address!”

“Where are you taking me?”

The car hesitated, or rather gave a faint whirring click, as if information, somewhere, was dropping card by punch-slotted card under electric eyes. “To the Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive Tendencies.”

The car moved down the empty river-bed streets and off away, leaving the empty streets with the empty side-walks, and no sound and no motion all the rest of the chill November night.