Comparing Ray Bradbury's The Veldt And Marionettes, Inc.

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Andrew Heinz Ms. Drosdick Honors English, Period 2 10/8/15 Short Stories by Ray Bradbury Evil marionettes, killer lions, and disrespectful children: the basic elements to a Ray Bradbury story. Bradbury, a talented and well respected writer and novelist, is known for his incredibly strange, eerie, and suspenseful stories where the main character(s) often do not live to see the end of the story. In just a few pages, he is able to take the reader on a journey to the future and redefine technology, using interactive, virtual-reality nurseries and look-alike robots to captivate his audience. And though the storylines in each of his writings are very unique and different from each other, there are some similar characteristics that Bradbury is famous…show more content…
In both stories, the point of view is third-person omniscient, meaning that the story is told from third-person but the reader may only get a glimpse into the characters’ minds every once in a while. The importance of using this point of view is that it does not always give the reader the full story, so it leaves the him/her somewhat guessing, and that makes the reader suspicious, which contributes to the alarming tone of Bradbury’s writing. For example, the line “‘go to bed,’ [George] said to the children,” tells the reader what George is doing, but it does not give the reason why George decided to do that action, at least not always. This point of view especially contributes to the theme of misusing technology when the nursery would not listen to George’s commands because it never shows Peter and Wendy’s perspective, which would give some clues as to why the nursery only listens to the children. As George proposes to Lydia, "[Peter] may have got into the machinery and fixed something," so that the parents could not change the nursery. But because the point of view is third-person the reader can only assume that what George said is true. Similarly, Bradbury uses third-person point of view in “Marionettes, Inc” to create the same effect as in “The Veldt”. Because the reader can only see into the characters’ minds occasionally, they can only infer based on context clues what the characters are thinking. Near the end of “Marionettes, Inc”, Bradbury writes, “Braling strolled as casually as he could to the cellar door. ‘You won't mind waiting a moment, will you? I have to make a phone call.’ ‘To whom?’ Braling Two frowned. ‘No one important.’ ‘To Marionettes, Incorporated? To tell them to come get me?”Here the author again does not let the reader see into the characters’ minds, but with the use of dialogue, Bradbury lets them assume what

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