The Veldt Response

The Veldt by Ray Bradbury is a wonderful short story and I believe that some of the morals from the story can be applied to today’s society. In the book, the Hadley family has a house that does everyday tasks for them such as, cook, clean, brush their teeth, and even tie their shoes. Although an average person doesn’t have a technologically advanced house like in the book, almost everyone nowadays uses things like smartphones. Smartphones allow people to do things like surf the web, take pictures, talk to friends, play games, and so much more. I use a smartphone as well. If I want to read a book, I can download an eBook. If I want to know the meaning of a specific word I can look it up on my phone instead of grabbing a dictionary. I can even text or call a friend when I want to talk to them instead of physically seeing them. Smartphones have made tasks easier for humans. Technology has its pros and the book displays that as well. However, Ray Bradbury also shows the cons and that is also relatable to the real world. The nursery was supposed to be a room that let the kids be creative and imaginative. However, the kids went too far and killed their parents. In the real world, we see that kids have easy access to the internet and can get exposed to things inappropriate for their age such as violent or sexual videos.

One of the main issues in the book was how the kids lacked discipline. Their parent spoiled them to the point where the kids valued their material possessions over their parents. Had George and Lydia disciplined the kids, the kids wouldn’t have killed their parents. Peter and Wendy went to the nursery whenever they wished. They weren’t given time limits. When the parents finally started to notice that their kids were obsessive, they tried stopping it only to give in to their desires a bit later. Different people have different philosophies for parenting. I believe parents should enforce a good behavior reward system. In other words, parents shouldn’t always buy the kids whatever they want. Instead, kids should get rewarded when they display good behavior. My parents used to do this when I was a kid. They told me that whenever I got good grades they would get me something I wanted. When kids misbehave, the parent should take away their things and only give it back to them hen they should good behavior. This is where George and Lydia failed in the book. They gave in to the kids desires too early.

George and Lydia weren’t as involved in their kids’ lives as they should be. They gave them very little guidance and let them be too independent. The kids thought of the nursery and the home as their real parents. The house fed them, gave them baths, and put them to bed. The house did things that George and Lydia should have done for the kids. The kids wanted to kill their parents because they took the nursery away from them. They felt that George and Lydia took away something they viewed as their parents. People are busy with their lives at work and don’t have that much time to give their kids the full attention. However, things like reading a book to them, taking them outdoors, tucking them in bed, are little things that go a long way. That could have been the case for George and Lydia had they done theses things.