The Veldt: Main Ideas

It is unhealthy for people to become passive rather than active participants in life.

If there is one lesson that is front and center in the story, it is that active participation in life is essential to human health. Since the purchase of the Happylife Home, George has become an anxious person but is not even aware of it. Lydia points it out to him and attributes it to the fact that the house does everything for them, showing that the effects of technology on the human psyche can be insidious. Lydia’s critique implies that human beings need to be active and accomplish real life tasks in order to feel good about themselves. Without this active participation, people’s minds search for something to do, and when they don’t find it, the energy becomes pent up and creates uneasiness and anxiety.

The nursery itself also represents the insidious effect of technology, especially entertainment technology. The nursery’s ability to create a totally immersive experience for all five senses is addictive, and the children are like addicts. Their hysterical reaction when George shuts off the nursery underscores just how hopelessly dependent on it the children have become. The most revealing moment comes when Peter tells his father how much he disliked it when George shut off the picture painter. Peter is completely shocked and cannot understand why anyone would want to do anything for themselves. When Peter says all he wants to do is look and listen and smell, it reveals just how passive Peter’s participation in real life has become. Even more disturbing, though, is George’s reaction. Instead of pushing back and explaining why there is more to life, George simply tells Peter to go play in the nursery. Technology has corrupted Peter, but it has also cultivated a passivity in George, who is unable or unwilling to correct his child’s behavior.

People create wondrous things they often cannot control.

When “The Veldt” was published in 1950, the idea that human ingenuity might produce a technology that spins out of control was a common fear. In particular, the invention of nuclear weapons in the 1940s showed that human ingenuity could be extremely dangerous and difficult to control. Humans, and especially Americans and Russians during the Cold War, feared nuclear war and total annihilation. This grim prospect inspired writers like Bradbury to consider other ways in which seemingly amazing technology might prove destructive.

Bradbury’s nursery in “The Veldt” is a representation of this idea. Just like nuclear fission, the nursery was invented to help people solve a problem, but it spins out of control and destroys people instead. Indeed, the nursery is a particularly terrifying concept because it is a technology that amplifies human ingenuity. In effect, the nursery creates whatever the children can imagine. Initially, these creations, even if unpleasant, are limited to illusions produced by screens and speakers and “odorphonics.” At some point there is a shift in its ability to manifest tangible reality, and the lions and danger become real. The cause of this shift is not explicitly stated, although it’s implied that the clever Peter has tinkered with the parameters of the house. The implication that the possibilities for the technology of the nursery is as endless as human imagination and thus human cruelty is a terrifying prospect.

Doing what is easy is not always what is best.

Time and again, George and his family make poor decisions based on what is easiest rather than what is best, and this complacency results in tragedy. George’s decision to purchase the Happylife Home is partly driven by his desire to live an easier life, but the supposed comforts only cause George and Lydia to feel useless and anxious. Likewise, George’s decision to add the nursery to the house is also the easier choice. After all, it means that anytime he and Lydia don’t have the patience to look after their own children, they can just put them in the nursery. This decision winds up causing untold damage to the children’s psyches. Even when George finally confronts Peter, George’s laziness and lack of conviction are on display as he gives in to the child easily.

David McClean’s diagnosis of the situation is harsh and reveals just how badly George’s lazy decisions have damaged his children. McClean prescribes an intense regimen which demonstrates that the road back to health will be a difficult one. Uncharacteristically, George seems to relish the opportunity to dig in and do the work required. But at the final moment, just before the family is going to leave, George gives in to weakness and allows the children to play in the nursery one last time. This final act of passivity, in which George chooses to do what is easiest instead of what is best, is the family’s ultimate undoing.

Next section Themes