‘The Pedestrian’ Ray Bradbury

1. Describe the setting. Provide as many details/quotes as possible.

2. Describe the society in which Leonard Mead lives.

3. Explain the possible reasons that Leonard Mead does not fit into the
society.

4. What does Mead's “brightly lit” house tell us about him? What
evidence in the rest of the story supports this?

5. Bradbury describes Mead’s walking as being “...not unequal to walking

through a graveyard…” In what ways in this city is a graveyard?
6. How would you describe life in this city in the year 2053? Quote a
specific exam[le of Bradbury’s use of language that enabled you to
arrive at this answer.

7. When did you realise that there was no one driving the police car?
Why is the identity of the voice in the car kept anonymous? Who do
you think is actually controlling the car?

8. Mead is taken to the Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive

Tendencies. What does “regressive” mean? Why would he be taken
there just for walking down the street?

9. What might have happened to this society that there would be no

crime, but that walking would be considered criminal behaviour? What
is Bradbury suggesting about society?

10. What social trends does Bradbury observe and see as potential
problems for society?

11. How do you think television, computers, smartphones, or other modern

technological devices could be used to suppress or control people’s
thinking?

12. What aspects of technology today do you see as isolating people from
each other?