Literary Analysis of “The Pedestrian”

Literary Analysis of “The Pedestrian” Literature can come in many forms, from poems to novels to even short story, each one has a specific purpose, composed and thought out by the author, to por tray a certain theme. Specifically, short stories work to express a theme in a couple pages of text in way that reader understands and can relate to. Ray Bradbury writes a short story titled, “The Pedestrian,” where he portrays a man walking the streets of a town in the year 2053, where virtually everyone is consumed by technology. Bradbury also includes parts of the story that depict different ramifications that can follow a world revolved by technology, for instance dehumanization. Overall, Ray Bradbury’s short story “The Pedestrian” is a thought-provoking literary work underlying the possible dangers that a world consumed by technology will one day amount to, through the use of specific imagery, metaphors, and a provided exposition. There are several instances where the author uses familiar images to further extract the story’s theme, and ultimately allow readers to ponder on the realities brought to light in the story. Imagery is a popular literary device used by many authors to make the readers feel as if they are in the shoes of the main characters and allows a mood and theme to be more understood. Bradbury begins his story by characterizing a man walking down the street, “He would stand upon the corner of an intersection and peer down long moonlit avenues of pavement in four directions, deciding which way to go, but it really made no difference” (pg. 97). This act of one allows readers to put themselves in the man’s shoes of walking down a sidewalk during the night, and two intrigues them to continue reading to wonder what will happen to this man as the story progresses.