28 pages • 56 minutes read
Ray BradburyThe Pedestrian: A Fantasy in One Act
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1951A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Conflict
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.
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.
As an enforcer of the law, the police car also represents Mead’s society. Someone with power had to program it to arrest people exhibiting unusual behavior. It is clear from the way that the car responds to Mead’s explanations that the society demands conformity. For example, the car apparently can’t understand why Mead might want to walk “for air, and to see, and just to walk“ because people in this society are expected to be home watching television at night (22). Mead is punished for his nonconformity, which connects this conflict to The Pressure to Conform to Social Norms as well as The Horrors of Repressive Government.
Diction
Diction is a literary device that relates to the specific vocabulary that an author chooses and the impact of those words.
Along with metaphors and similes, Bradbury’s word choice contributes to the poetic and thoughtful tone of the first half of the story. He describes the frost as “crystal” to help the reader imagine the sharpness and brittle feeling of the cold. Later, he uses the word “thunderous” to illustrate the roar of traffic on the road during the daylight and recalls the cars “jockeying” for position like horses in a race.
The sensory detail in Bradbury’s description gives the protagonist’s reflections a dreamy quality that brings the reader into Mead’s meditative state; this heightens the reader’s emotion when that state is shattered by the police car’s harsh interrogation.
Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which the author gives the reader a hint or warning about something that will happen later.
In “The Pedestrian,” Bradbury foreshadows the fact that the police car has no human inside by describing its voice as “metallic” and “phonograph,” and later referencing its “radio throat” (22).
Another example is the moment in which the police car’s light hits Mead like a needle stabbing a moth in a museum display. This suggests that the protagonist is in danger of having his freedom taken away, which is exactly what happens at the end of the story.
These examples build suspense and contribute to the ominous mood of the second half of the text, which contrasts with the lighter, poetic feeling of the first half that precedes Mead’s encounter with the police car.
Metaphor
A metaphor is a direct comparison without the use of words such as “like” or “as” that describes one thing as something else. Bradbury uses many metaphors in this story (in addition to similes) to create the poetic, thoughtful mood at the beginning of the story.
Bradbury describes the illumination inside homes as “firefly light,” people’s shadows as “gray phantoms,” and rushing cars as “scarab beetles” (19). These descriptions show that the protagonist is an imaginative person who carefully observes his world and is connected to nature. The images also give the first half of the story a pleasant, dreamlike quality. This technique enhances the shock that the reader feels when Mead’s peaceful walk is shattered by the police car’s spotlight and the subsequent interrogation.
Repetition
Repetition is a device often used in poetry in which a word or phrase is repeated multiple times for emphasis. In “The Pedestrian,” Bradbury uses this device to call attention to key points in the story.
For example, when the police car questions the protagonist about what he is doing, Bradbury repeats the word “walking” nine times. This highlights the police car’s incredulity and the fact that being a pedestrian is unheard of in Mead’s world.
Another example of repetition is when Bradbury uses the phrase “it smelled” three times when describing the back seat cell of the police car: “It smelled of riveted steel. It smelled of harsh antiseptic; it smelled too clean and hard and metallic” (22). This repetition of the phrase at the beginning of subsequent clauses, also known as anaphora, places emphasis on Mead’s human sense of smell and draws an additional contrast with the cold, hard, inhuman nature of the police car.
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