The Pedestrian story
A man who takes night time walks is seen as engaging in deviant behavior, as he seeks his friend to accompany him. Directed by: Alun Bollinger. Story by: Ray Bradbury.
9 total · 1 choice · 5 major · 3 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| dystopia | choice | The point of the story is to feature a dystopia in which people are so accustomed by, to Bradbury, modern luxuries like air conditioning and television that they no longer go outside or read books. As a consequence, driver-less vehicles patrolled the streets and arrested any daring "prowlers" as likely being up-to-no-good. |
| AI risk to civilization | major | The details are left vague but Leonard was surprised to find the flying police drone uninhabited. The viewer must ponder the possibility that intelligent machines have somehow come to enforce a dystopia in which people must stay inside all the time. |
| friendship | major | The two friends Leonard and Donald dared to venture out on a clandestine nighttime stroll through their driverless vehicle patrolled neighborhood. |
| machine regulated society | major | The story featured a supposed utopian society in which it seemed that machines took care of public affairs and people were left to sit in their air-conditioned homes watching reruns on their TVs. Other hints were dropped that the society was run by machines. For instance, it was said that they same on TV content was replayed again and again, and that voice recordings were used to answer questions posed over the telephone. |
| pleasure in nature | major | Leonard and his friend took pleasure in things of nature that they were surprisingly unaccustomed to. In particular, they tasted grass, blew on dandelions with unmitigated delight, and even dared to behold the Moon. |
| television as a control mechanism | major | The story is set in a future where people are accustomed to remain indoors in their air-conditioned homes and watch television. Although the reason was never spelled out, one must consider whether this was a strategy used by the rules (who may have been machines) to keep the public dumbed-down. |
| creative writing | minor | In the introduction, Ray Bradbury shared with the viewer the wellsprings of creativity that inspire his writing. |
| human childhood | minor | In his introduction, Ray Bradbury recounted a childhood memory of being stopped by the police while out walking alone late at night. |
| the nature of creativity | minor | In his introduction, Ray Bradbury gave his viewers an intimate window into his writing room, and some of the self-professed sources of creativity that lay about within it. |