The Veldt

Satire is defined as “the use of irony, sarcasm, or ridicule in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.” (Webster’s College Dictionary). Bradbury makes extensive use of satire to mock the delusions of his characters and the absurdity of their technological addiction. Bradbury describes a chair that responds to a person’s distress by rocking her, a kitchen that spontaneously cooks food, and machines that tie shoes and brushes teeth. The “picture painter,” owned by Peter, is a sign that creativity has been abolished. Characters speak to the machines as if they are people: Peter wails at the ceiling “as if he was talking to the house, the nursery” (251).

Bradbury satirizes the consumerist tendencies in mid-20th-century American society by depicting the Happy-life Home as a coveted status symbol (“Every home should have one” (241). The name of the home itself is satirical, suggesting a complacent and childish self-satisfaction. Bradbury says that the home “was good to them” (239), a phrase that mocks the materialistic tendency to equate goodness with comfort.

In one telling moment, Bradbury highlights the limits of the Hadleys’ technology: “And although their beds tried very hard, the two adults couldn’t be rocked to sleep for another hour” (247).