LET ME WALK YOU THROUGH THE PEDESTRIAN!

                       Beyond Just a Stroll Down the Street 

       GPS. We all are familiar with this device. Imagine you have just purchased a new one for your car. ow, it worked perfectly the first few months but, it started to show some defects over. As you would end up miles away from your preferred destination. Frustrated, youdecide to turn return back home. But, the route given in miles and miles away from your house. Any normal person would throw out this system right? It's a huge distraction and inconvenience from what is important. Although, you threw out this device. You still are distracted and held back from opportunities everyday. Phones. Computers. Televisions. Tablets. These are just a few technological devices that have seemed to absorb the attention of society today.
       This ideology is explored in Ray Bradbury's short story, The Pedestrian, published in the 1950's. This short story was inspired by Bradbury's experience of being stop by the police simply or walking. Walking down the street. As a result, the author went home and wrote a story that expressed his feelings towards humanity, technology, authority. In terms of technology, Bradbury believes humanity is being sucked away by technology absorbing all of people's' attention. Therefore, the author feels the world is distracted or blinded by technology that they fail to see how authority is impacting the world. The author was able to successfully create this sense of opinion with ease.
       The plot was the most clear contributor to the feelings displayed by the author mentioned above. As the plots beings with the protagonist embarking on one of his daily night walks, it begins with a strongly descriptive setting. In the city , one cool November night. Then, the main character, Leonard Mead is broken out of his walking routine. The man is disrupted by a futuristic "police" car, as the story takes place in 2053 A.D.. Next, Mead is simply picked up by the car and driven away from the sidewalk he was standing on before.Then, the story concludes. Without a considerable amount of analysis, the story seems to be confusing and or hard take in. But, the plot serves as a significant contributor was looked into deeper. Such as, the opening seen the streets were empty isolated, it was only eight o' clock. And in a city? There is an obvious change in this time period. This change is explained where the plot reveals the only "light" in the dark dim street were the bluish blurs coming from people's home windows. Televisions. This shows how how the  t.v., technology  is capturing/absorbing the people's utmost attention keeping them away from the outside world. Therefore, as Mead is stopped by the police car no one is there to see it and or hear it. So, it is revealed or proven that know one is there to see authority at upon an individual.
There are several other examples that reveal the author's opinion however, these are the main points.
       Now, there is Bradbury's tone. Throughout the story, there a couple of different tones here and there but the main one of all is the tone of loneliness. The sense of this tone is clearly shown once again the introduction of the story the author uses words like "silence" and "empty"to describe the city on Mead's walk. This is revealing ow Mead is lonesome individual who is expressed to be different from all the others in his own little lonesome world. In addition, there is the author's word choice of "metallic voice" when describing the police officer. Although, this is more like diction the tone of annoyance almost frustration is revealed when the voice of the "policeman" is revealed. Now, I say "policeman" because the there is no human in the police car at all it is simply an program in the vehicle which furthers the idea that technology is replacing and or taking human interaction, taking away humanity.
Overall, the tone helped to understand the author's feelings towards technology.
       Character, or more specifically Leonard Mead. The protagonist is described to be the outcast in the city. For the reason, that he does not give in to this new wave of technology that ha come over his generation. The character's distinction from the current society is seen many times that was significant representing the author's emotions/opinions. Like, when Mead was stopped by the police he is asked what his profession was. He replied, I guess you can I'm a writer. To which the policeman replies no profession at all. This reveals how writers and authors were wiped away/forgotten about as the years have gone by with new modes of technology. In other words, technology took over the old traditional human creativity and or humanity in jobs. Next, Mead is asked another question. This time it is if he is married. Leonard replies with ano, further saying that no one wants to be with him. This is showing how Mead's preference to not in touch with technology made his isolated from society and people as they only care to put their attention towards technology. Also, it is shown that Mead's house is the only house that is bright in contrast to the blue gloomy homes and as Mead is driven away from his he sees his house slowly disappear. This component of the character is expressing how Mead is the last bit of humanity in the technology consumed society but, as he is driven away it is signifying that the last bit of humanity has left the dreadful city. Overall, the character played a key role is displaying Bradbury's opinions.
       As this story was resulted from an experience with an interaction between the author and the police or I would say authority figure. I envision Bradbury annoyed, frustrated, and simply ticked off. However, Bradbury was able to put his opinions/perspectives into a words creating this influential story in a creative way using tone, character, and plot is his writing. Also, we just must acknowledge how it is crazy to think the author predicted the outcome of technology that is seen today. And let's be clear was pretty spot on in his prediction.  All in all, it is evident that Ray believes technology to be an enemy to human connection and interaction. So, the you might want to consider placing your phone down every once in a while, you may see things you never knew were there before.