essay questions the veldt

The Veldt Questions

Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer..

• Do you think this story would work the same if it were literally about TV in the 1950s instead of the virtual reality nursery? What would be different about that version of this story? Is this story really about TV or is it about some larger issue? 
• Super Big Question: Why do the kids hang out in Africa, on the veldt? And why do they hang out with lions? (We offer some ideas in " Setting " and " Symbols ," but we're not sure.)
• How much do we learn about the Hadley family and their house? Where do you think they live and what do you think George does for work (if he works at all)? Or do those questions not matter since what's important happens inside the house? How would you feel about these people if we read a scene outside of the house?
• George and Lydia Hadley say it will be like a "vacation" to turn off all their tech. Is it ever a vacation for you to get away from your technology? Is it relaxing when the power goes out, for example? Why do you think the Hadleys call it a vacation?
• The story says that adults could use the nursery (28), but they don't in this story. Why is the nursery only used by Peter and Wendy? Is there something childish about the idea of a virtual reality room?
• The virtual reality room is important, but what about the rest of the technology? How does the house interact with the family? What other gadgets does Bradbury mention? Is there a pattern to what gadgets the Hadleys have in their house?
• What do you think happens at the end of the story? ( The ending is a little open, so there might be a few different versions.)
• Do you feel like you're really there in Africa when Bradbury describes the scene? How does Bradbury describe it? We think he describes a lot of smells (possibly just because the word "odorophonic" is funny and starts with "odor"). But maybe you noticed other senses he uses. How do his descriptions affect your reading?
• Should we consider the house a character? How is it characterized? What about the other automatic equipment, especially when George turns it off? Do they seem like living characters when he "kills" them? What do you think about McClean's comment that "Nothing ever likes to die—even a room" (217)?
• What would this story look like from Peter and Wendy's point of view?

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Ray Bradbury

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Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Ray Bradbury's The Veldt . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

The Veldt: Introduction

The veldt: plot summary, the veldt: detailed summary & analysis, the veldt: themes, the veldt: quotes, the veldt: characters, the veldt: symbols, the veldt: theme wheel, brief biography of ray bradbury.

Historical Context of The Veldt

Other books related to the veldt.

• Full Title: The Veldt
• When Written: 1950
• Where Written: Los Angeles
• When Published: 1950, published originally under the title “The World the Children Made”
• Literary Period: Science fiction/Fantasy
• Genre: Short story/Science fiction/Fantasy
• Setting: The Happylife Home, a futuristic suburban house
• Climax: Wendy and Peter murder their parents
• Antagonist: The “nursery”; Wendy and Peter
• Point of View: Omniscient narrator

Extra Credit for The Veldt

Old-fashioned. Bradbury never owned a computer in his life, preferring instead to write and correspond via typewriter. When asked what invention he would eliminate from the last 100 years, he responded that he would get rid of the automobile.

Bradbury Theater. Bradbury’s talents and interests extended beyond the literary field. He adapted many of his stories for “The Ray Bradbury Theater,” a television series that aired from 1985-92. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his animated film, Icarus Montgolfier Wright , and won an Emmy Award for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree .

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The Veldt Essay Topics & Writing Assignments

Essay Topic 1

The story begins with Lydia’s concern regarding the nursery due to the African veldt, the lions and the reoccurring screams. The nursery reflects the children’s psyche.

What seems to be the problem with the nursery? Why is it concerning to George and Lydia? What does it suggest that the children are thinking about?

Essay Topic 2

Bradbury’s work is commentary on his prediction of society projected forward from 1950.

Based on the central conflict of man versus machine and loss of human connection, describe the values of this society. Why must they live in a Happylife home? Why do George and Lydia believe that nothing is good enough for their children? What is suggested by the fact that they take sedatives to go to sleep at night?

Essay Topic 3

George reflects on the magnificence and cost of the nursery. What is the nursery’s purpose...

(read more Essay Topics)

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Ray Bradbury: Short Stories

By ray bradbury, ray bradbury: short stories summary and analysis of "the veldt".

In "The Veldt," George and Lydia Hadley are the parents of Wendy and Peter Hadley , and they live in a technologically driven house that will do everything for its inhabitants - transport you upstairs, brush your teeth, cook the food, and clean the house. The story begins when Lydia asks George if he's noticed anything wrong with the nursery, the most expensive and exciting room of the house. The glass walls have the ability to project the landscape and environment of any place that the mind of the visitor wishes. During this particular visit, George and Lydia are surrounded by the African countryside. In the distance, lions are licking the bones of their prey clean. The images are so startlingly lifelike that when the holographic lions begin to charge, George and Lydia run for the door to escape.

Outside of the nursery, Lydia comments that she heard screams coming from the room earlier in the day, but George tries to ease her worries. He wants to believe that the children are psychologically healthy, not that they are fixated on blood and violence. After all, one of the selling points of the room was that the children would be able to use the room as an outlet for their emotions, and the places that the room visited would provide information for the adults who were curious about the young minds. Lydia senses that something dark is brooding in her children's brain. As they sit down to dinner, which is all provided through the house's technology, George suggests shutting down the house and living in a simpler manner, something he has suggested before and used as a punishment for his children. Lydia is thrilled by the idea because she feels as if she has been replaced for the house. The house is the mother, wife, and homemaker that she once was, and she feels purposeless.

George visits the room again for further observation, and he attempts to change the scenery to Aladdin. Alas, nothing changes, and he begins to think that his children have maintained control over the environment, furthering his concern that his children have an unhealthy obsession with the veldt. When they arrived home from a carnival, he decided to ask them about the persistence of the savannah, but they tried to deny it. Wendy goes into the room to inspect it, and when she returns she reports that it is no longer Africa, but rather woodland. George and Lydia are highly skeptical, and they believe that Wendy entered the room and changed it after they returned from the fair. One of the clues that make George believe the room was altered was his wallet on the floor of the nursery, smelling of hot grass and showing teeth marks.

As George and Lydia go to bed, they decide to call David McClean and have him come over to inspect the nursery. The sounds of screams travel from downstairs - Wendy and Peter have left their bedrooms and gone back to the nursery. Lydia comments, "Those screams - they sound familiar." At the end of the story, they will find out why they sound so familiar. The next morning, Peter questions his father about the future of the nursery. "You aren't going to lock up the nursery for good, are you?" asked Peter. George explains that they were thinking of shutting the house down for a while and living in a more traditional manner, and Peter responds poorly. Peter vaguely threatens his father and stomps off.

When David McClean inspects the room, he admits that it gives him a bad feeling. George presses him for more concrete facts, but David can only offer him his intuition. He says to George, "This doesn't feel good, I tell you. Trust my hunches and my instincts. I have a nose for something bad. This is very bad. My advice to you is to have the whole damn room torn down and your children brought to me every day during the next year for treatment." Why, exactly, are things so dire? The children are furious with their parents and the idea of the nursery being taken away. McClean tells George that the house has replaced him and his wife, and now the house is far more important than their biological parents. McClean believes that there is "real hatred" in the scenes of the nursery, and George decides to turn it off instantly. As they leave, McClean picks something up on the ground - Lydia's scarf. It's bloody.

George told his children that the nursery would be turned off, as well as the rest of the house. They began screaming and throwing a hysterical fit. They begged for more time in the nursery, and Lydia suggested that turning it off so suddenly was not a good idea. At first George resisted the idea of turning it back on, but eventually he relented and allowed the children a little bit more time. George and Lydia went upstairs to get ready for the vacation while the children played in the nursery one final time.

From their bedroom, George and Lydia’s children call them to quickly come downstairs. They ran downstairs but didn't see their children anywhere. When they couldn't find them, they looked for them in the nursery. The savannah and the lions had returned to the nursery, and the door slammed behind them. They called for Wendy and Peter, but they had locked the door from the outside. They beat against the door but no one opened them, and the lions began to surround them and move closer. Mr. and Mrs. Hadley screamed, and suddenly they realized why the screams sounded so familiar. David McClean arrived shortly after to greet everyone, but he did not see George and Lydia. The children sat and ate lunch in the nursery, looking out on the water hole and the lions feasting in the distance. "Where are your father and mother?" asked David, and Wendy simply responded, "Oh, they'll be here directly." As they watch the vultures swoop down, Wendy asks, "A cup of tea?" and the story ends.

In this dark and troubling story, Bradbury writes a precautionary tale of the advance of technology and the importance of maintaining communication during these technological advances. In the Hadley's "Happy-life Home," the house fulfills all of their needs and desires. While at first this was a major advantage to the Hadley's and a primary reason for the desirability of the home, it has now become a point of stress rather than happiness. Both parents struggle to find fulfillment in their everyday life because the house has replaced their traditional roles as mother and father. At different points in the story, both parents contemplate going back to a "normal" house even though it would mean extra work and tasks for them everyday.

Bradbury juxtaposes the advance of technology with the decline in interpersonal communication. The Hadley children, Wendy and Peter, are both manipulative and stubborn. They fail to have any positive communications with their parents during the story. Many of their interactions end in a thinly veiled threat or a strategically placed crying session in order to secure what they want. While this may not be entirely uncommon behavior of children, the parents are unable to respond appropriately to their children. Stripped of their parenting duties, they have forgotten how to communicate with their children. In every interaction between parents and children, the children receive what they want. These negative interactions emphasize the importance of inter-family communications.

George and Lydia attribute their lack of an ability to communicate with their children to the house's automation, but this brings to light the idea that parenting is more than simply providing your child with everything he or she would like. The Hadley's believed that this would solve their problems, but it has only caused more problems. The house that provides everything has rendered them unnecessary and inconvenient. Somehow, the Hadley's must find a way to reassert themselves in their children's eyes and provide them with a form of support that is not possible to receive from the house.

As George and Lydia struggle to find their identity as parents, they are simultaneously struggling with their personal identities. Lydia confesses to George that she would much rather turn the house "off" and go back to giving the children baths, cooking dinner, and doing the laundry. Lydia's concern for finding a purpose highlights a broader human concern to find importance in your daily tasks and the need to think that you are making progress and contributing to society. This basic need does not cease with the advent of automation and technology, according to Bradbury.

Finally, the science of psychology plays a major role in the story. It is revealed that the original purpose of the nursery was to study the minds of children, for what they left on the wall would provide a glimpse into the inner workings of their minds. Even though George and Lydia have hunches that something is wrong with the never changing African veldt, it is not until psychologist David McClean arrives that they know for sure that something is seriously wrong. He insists that the house be shut down immediately and the children start psychological treatment as soon as possible. Bradbury positions psychology as a possible treatment for the children's dire state.

Ray Bradbury: Short Stories Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Ray Bradbury: Short Stories is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

The Flying Machine

The Emperor explains to the flier that he fears that an evil man will manipulate the technology and destroy its beauty - for instance using the flying machine to throw rocks down upon the Great Wall of China. The Emperor says to the inventor,...

From the story There Will Come Soft Rains- In what way does the information you learned shed light on an aspect of the story?

Check out the story analysis in GradeSaver's study guide for Bradbury's short stories. I think you will find what you are looking for there. If you need additional information, feel free to ask. Pay close attention to the section talking about...

What rules are referred to as silly rules and why

I'm sorry, which of Bradbury's short stories are you referring to?

Study Guide for Ray Bradbury: Short Stories

Ray Bradbury: Short Stories study guide contains a biography of Ray Bradbury, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis of select short stories.

• About Ray Bradbury: Short Stories
• Ray Bradbury: Short Stories Summary
• Character List

Essays for Ray Bradbury: Short Stories

Ray Bradbury: Short Stories essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of select short stories by Ray Bradbury.

• Ray Bradbury Hates Technology: Analyzing "The Pedestrian"
• "There Will Come Soft Rains": From Poem to Story
• Contextual Study of Science Fiction Texts, and Intertextual Ideas that Transcend Time: "The Pedestrian," "Harrison Bergeron," and Equilibrium
• The Power of Technology: Comparing "Rocket Summer," "There Will Come Soft Rains," and Fahrenheit 451
• “…The house shuddered, oak bone on bone, its bared skeleton …”:A Postmodern Reading of Ray Bradbury’s “The Will Come Soft Rains”

Lesson Plan for Ray Bradbury: Short Stories

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Ray Bradbury: Short Stories
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Ray Bradbury: Short Stories Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Ray Bradbury: Short Stories

• Introduction

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Dystopia — The Veldt Theme Essay

The Veldt Theme Essay

• Categories: Dystopia

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Published: Mar 5, 2024

Words: 1123 | Pages: 2 | 6 min read

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• Israel-Hamas War

The Heartache of Calling Israel Home

I knew that as soon as we came home to Israel, I’d ask myself why we’d been so eager to get back. I’d disconnected for a few days in New York with my family, even stopped wearing the hostage necklace I wore every day, and I knew it would be hard to return.

What I didn’t know was that the day we got back I’d hear that the bodies of six young hostages had been found , shot by Hamas shortly before the Israel Defense Force (IDF) got to them.

In the weeks following Oct. 7, I couldn’t hear anything about the atrocities without breaking down. I was a new mother , only beginning to understand my role protecting the world’s most precious person, and it all felt too raw, too horrifying, too close. I walked out of rooms when people started talking. I watched no TV and avoided unnecessary news and shut down social media. I even averted my eyes in the street when I caught sight of the red letters on the hostage posters, name and age at the top, and “BRING HIM/HER HOME NOW!” printed beneath a smiling photograph.

After some weeks had passed, and the radio started playing regular songs and not only sad ones, I let myself look up at one of the posters, into the eyes of a hostage. Alex Lobanov. He wore an apron and stood next to a lemonade dispenser and smiled back at me. The simplicity of the scene, contrasted with where I knew he was now, twisted my stomach. I thought of his mother.

Read More: Scenes From Israel, Where Protesters Blame Netanyahu for the Deaths of Hostages

At an intersection by my house hung a huge poster of Hersh Goldberg-Polin in a floral printed shirt. Having grown up near my office, in the Baka neighborhood of Jerusalem, in an American family like mine, he felt just one degree away from me. Many people I know knew him. Along with thousands of others, I walked with a flag to meet his funeral procession.

I’d held a poster with Carmel Gat’s face on it – smile and curls – at one of the weekly protests for the return of the hostages a few months ago. She reportedly taught meditation and yoga to the other hostages to help them survive. Almog Sarusi was from Ra’anana, where I grew up. His father runs an electric store in my parents’ neighborhood and had a table outside his store with prayer cards and a picture of his son. I’d paused several times at Eden Yerushalmi’s poster and wondered who her friends were. I’d read about Ori Danino, who fled the tragic party on October 7 and then went back to save people.

All dead. Abandoned.

The night we were supposed to fly home from the States turned out to be the night (or morning, Israel time) of Hezbollah’s planned massive missile attack and Israel’s preemptive strike. At the gate, we received news alerts about the Tel Aviv airport shutting down, power outages up North, and Israel’s Defense Minister and IDF spokesperson warning civilians about the situation. For a few minutes – which coincided with the plane’s boarding – it looked like this might be the beginning of a much bigger war we’ve all been dreading. With little information and no time, my husband and I decided not to board. We didn’t want to take our toddler into a war zone.

Shortly after the plane took off, it became clear that this was not a regional war – just another crazy day in Israel. But now we were stuck. Almost all airlines had stopped flying to Israel, and the remaining flights were fully booked. We spent 15 hours at JFK with a 20-month-old Imri, who shouted “up-up” at every airplane he saw, but we did not go up.

At the end of another futile day at the airport that week, I walked straight up to the pilots. “Please,” I begged them. “Is there anything you can do? I want to get my family home.”

What were we so anxious to get back to? Nothing, really. Work. Daycare. Our own washing machine. Buying overpriced cottage cheese at the minimarket down the road. Being home. We had Central Park, but I missed the little playground by our house where Imri rides his baby bike and eats other kids’ Bamba.  

Finally, we made the very expensive decision to buy tickets from a different airline, with a nine-hour layover in Athens, and a 3:30 a.m. arrival in Israel. In the check-in line, an older Israeli couple smiled at Imri and told us their story of getting stuck without a flight. We met them again near the gate, looking for a smoking lounge. As soon as they found it, the woman sent her husband inside and then whispered to me, “He’s driving me crazy. If I don’t get some time away from him, I’m going to get divorced after 42 years.”

That particular blend of humor and honesty, immediate closeness and hot-blooded temper -- I’d never met her, but I knew her.

As the plane neared Ben Gurion Airport, I heard a woman behind me mutter, “Dear, fascist country.” Her words were pained and loving, like a disappointed mother.

When we awoke the next morning, the names of the dead hostages they’d found were made public. It was like reading the news in those first few weeks, checking one outlet after the other to make sure I’d gotten it right. The kind of news you can’t get out of bed from. The kind of news that devastates, nauseates, doesn’t leave you. Shock that they’d survived this whole time, and disbelief that they were shot just before we rescued them.

They should have been home. They should have hugged their parents and children and brothers and sisters so long ago. They should have been alive.

Before we left for our trip, I’d started entertaining thoughts of relocation, like many people I know. Our liberal friends, many of whom are parents, are all wondering what we’re still doing here, with one war after the other, Jewish extremism on the rise, an economy that may soon fall apart, and a government seemingly more focused on resettling the Gaza Strip than on saving lives.

“Why are we here?” I asked my husband Yoav on the night of the Iranian missile attack a few months ago. I had actually gone to sleepknowing there would be missiles a few hours later. We woke up at 2 a.m. to go to our neighbors’ bomb shelter, where Imri pet their dog as we waited for the sirens to cease. Then we walked back to our building and put him back to sleep. “How is this a normal place to raise a child?”

At Monday night’s protest, a man held a poster in Hebrew that read, “I no longer recognize my country.” I looked at it for a long time.

Here we are, in the place we were so desperate to come back to – feeling crushed, confused, and hopeless since we landed. Dreading tomorrow’s news.    

But also feeling like we’re home.      

And so with a tight chest and heavy legs, I drag myself outside with an Israeli flag week after week. To protest, fight, and try to protect everything good that still exists here. And to save the lives we still can.

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Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for story review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Who is Mr. McClean?

A) A psychologist

B) A technician

C) A neighbor

D) A teacher

2. What kind of birds fly overhead on the veldt?

A) Eagles

B) Sparrows

C) Vultures

D) Falcons

3. How does Lydia feel about being replaced by the Happylife Home?

A) Relieved

B) Bored

C) Free

D) Useless

4. Which technique is used in these sentences: “That sun. He could feel it on his neck, still, like a hot paw”?

A) Metaphor

B) Amplification

C) Simile

D) Hyperbole

5. How old are Peter and Wendy?

A) 6 years old

B) 8 years old

C) 10 years old

D) 12 years old

6. When Wendy checks the nursery after returning from the plastic carnival, what setting does she tell her father she sees?

A) The African veldt

B) A green forest

C) A desert oasis

D) A coral reef

7. What does Lydia believe to be the cause of the children’s resentment?

A) George did not allow them to take a rocket to New York several months ago.

B) Lydia originally refused to let them attend the plastic carnival.

C) George took away the children’s picture painter for a time.

D) Lydia locked the nursery for three days when the children brought home failing report cards.

8. What does Mr. McClean advise the Hadleys to do?

A) Move to a different house

B) Send the children to boarding school

C) Monitor the children’s time in the nursery

D) Tear the nursery down

9. What technique does Mr. McClean employ when he tells George that the children once saw him as Santa but now see him as Scrooge?

A) Personification

B) Allusion

C) Imagery

D) Irony

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