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.
Symbols & Motifs
Viewing Screens
Televisions, also known as “viewing screens” in “The Pedestrian,” symbolize the rejection of critical thought and the written word, as well as social control.
Except for the protagonist, everyone in the story stays glued to their television screens at night, watching predictable shows that don’t challenge them intellectually. These include Westerns, quiz shows, slapstick comedy, and programs featuring murders. People watch their televisions like zombies, suggesting that the screens drain the life from their viewers.
The screens are also symbolic of the dangers of technology, since they are tools of conformity that keep people from acting independently. While thinking about the televisions, Mead reflects that no one buys books or magazines anymore, suggesting that screens have replaced print media.
It is important that Mead, who symbolizes free thought, does not have a viewing screen in his home because this differentiates him from the rest of society. In fact, Mead’s admission that he does not have a viewing screen shocks the police car more than anything else he says.
Mead’s Sneakers
Mead’s decision to switch from hard-soled shoes to quiet sneakers symbolizes the government’s desire to repress and silence its citizens.
Mead choosing to wear sneakers shows his awareness of his society’s social norms and the fact that he is violating them with his nightly walks. The narrator notes that he “wisely” chose to switch his shoes to avoid detection a long time ago; his previous shoes made too much noise, and dogs would bark if they heard his footsteps, alerting others to his singular presence outside. This would attract unwanted attention, revealing his deviance from what is considered “normal” behavior.
After 10 years of walking alone at night, Mead never encountered another human soul; even now, no living being follows his footsteps. The government has suppressed individual thought and expression, expecting individuals to do nothing but watch screens in their air-conditioned homes. Mead’s sneakers represent a quiet rebellion against this expectation as he risks his own safety and freedom.
The Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive Tendencies
This is the psychiatric hospital where the police car plans to take Mead for walking through the city at night. The word “regressive” implies that the center is for people who are supposedly reverting to a less developed state. In Mead’s society, a developed state involves lack of individual thought in the presence of advanced technology. Mead choosing not to conform to this standard could potentially threaten its value in the community; in the eyes of the law, it is a situation to be remedied.
Mead being taken to a psychiatric center indicates that his penchant for walking at night is seen as a sign of dangerous mental illness in his society. The fact that it is also described as a research center suggests that he will be studied so that authorities can determine the causes of his deviance.
This center is a type of jail where Mead and others like him can be isolated from the rest of society to keep their dangerous differences from spreading. It is a place that strips freedom, censors ideas, and punishes dissent.
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By Ray Bradbury
