Introducing the Story

Literary Focus: Setting and Mood

Reading Skills: Writer’s Purpose

The Pedestrianby Ray Bradbury

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The Pedestrianby Ray Bradbury

Technology . . . the knack of so arranging the world that we don’t have to experience it.

Max Frisch, 1957

The PedestrianIntroducing the Story

“The Pedestrian” is a chilling portrayal of a society in which people are so isolated in their homes that a lone pedestrian is seen as a threat to the social order.

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The PedestrianIntroducing the Story

Setting and Mood

• Setting establishes the time and place of the action in the story.

The time is an evening in the future—November 2053. The place is a silent city.

The PedestrianLiterary Focus: Setting and Mood

While "tone" is the writer's attitude, "mood" is the feeling the reader gets from the writing.  While tone often describes the writing overall, the mood of a piece of writing can change throughout it.  For example, at the death of a character the mood could be depressed or sad, but at the discovery of a long lost friend, the mood could be upbeat and joyful

• Setting can create a mood, or atmosphere—a subtle emotional overtone that can strongly affect our feelings.

On a dark, cold night in November 2053, the pedestrian—Leonard Mead—walks alone through the city. The streets and freeways are deserted. Dark, tomblike homes line the streets.

• What mood does this setting create?

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The PedestrianLiterary Focus: Setting and Mood

aggravatedannoyedanxiousapatheticapprehensivebarrenbroodingcoldconfiningconfusedcrankycrushedcynicaldepresseddesolatedisappointed

discontenteddistresseddraineddrearyembarrassedenragedenviousexhaustedfatalisticforebodingfrustratedfutilegloomygrumpyhauntingheartbrokenhopeless

hostileindifferentinfuriatedinsidiousintimidatedirateirritatedjealouslethargiclonelymelancholicmercilessmoodymorosenauseatednervousnightmarishnumboverwhelmed

painfulpensivepessimisticpredatoryrejectedrestlessscaredserioussicksomberstressedsuspensefultenseterrifyingthreateninguncomfortablevengefulviolentworried

• re-create a world of the writer’s own making

When you finish the story, pause to consider the writer’s purpose. It may be to

The PedestrianReading Skills: Writer’s Purpose

• share a feeling or experience

• persuade the reader to accept the writer’s view on some issue

Bradbury’s purpose is to persuade readers to accept his views on the isolating effect of technology.

• Look for key passages that directly express opinions.

• Watch for loaded words—words that carry emotional overtones and go beyond their literal meanings.

The PedestrianReading Skills: Writer’s Purpose

brightly

Note the words Bradbury uses to describe the main character’s house.

The words suggest warmth, hope, and solidarity. This is how Bradbury wants you to see Mead, the man who lives in the house.

illumination square warm

The PedestrianReading Skills: Writer’s Purpose

Take note of how Bradbury uses setting to express his opinions.

Mead walks through a landscape in which the houses are compared to dark tombs. The people sit like the dead. The light from their TVs flickers over the viewers’ gray and untouchable faces.

Bradbury’s setting suggests a mood of death and despair. This is the way he wants the reader to see a future in which people have no interests beyond their TVs.

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The PedestrianReading Skills: Writer’s Purpose