Introduction
The Veldt is a short story by American writer Ray Bradbury, which takes a reader to the distant future, where people model reality at their discretion. The African Veldt in this work is an innovative room bought by the Hadley couple for their children. At some point, the adults realize that youngsters’ play ceases to be such. Hence, this paper analyzes one of the story’s main characters — George Hadley, the head of the family. Hadley is one of Veldt’s most complex, multifaceted, bright, and interesting characters who should be viewed individually and through other characters’ lenses (Mays 219). Via Hadley, Bradbury attempts to illustrate the downside of contemporary societal tendencies of limitless consumption and creature comfort.
Opinion About the Character
At the story’s beginning, the character sees himself as a happy person with everything necessary to enjoy a full and decent life. George Hadley is a wonderful husband, an exemplary father, and a wealthy man: he has a wife, two children, and a lovely house that saves its owners from needing the slightest work. The protagonist especially loves his family and is ready to work hard for it, saying that “we’ve given the children everything they ever wanted” (Bradbury 304). Nonetheless, as the plot develops, his self-perception gradually changes, transforms, and reincarnates. His wife says: “you’re beginning to feel unnecessary too” (Bradbury 299). Hence, over time, George begins to understand and perceive the growing sense of anxiety, irritability, and worthlessness in the children’s eyes.
One must recognize that George Hadley is a calm, intelligent and balanced person with a cold and calculating mind that allows him to compare facts, draw clear conclusions and make objective decisions. Before taking essential steps and determining his concerns, he additionally talked to his friend David McClean. Moreover, he is hardworking and persistent in achieving goals, ready to do anything for the happiness of his wife and children, and, as a result, often makes concessions.
He says: “but nothing’s too good for our children” (Bradbury 296). George generally demonstrates weaknesses such as irreverence, ruthlessness, commercialism, and inability to insist on his own and prove his case. Indulging the last whim of the children, as well as “pride, money, foolishness,” eventually led him to adverse consequences (Bradbury 309). Thereby, George additionally demonstrates himself as a cowardly and insecure person in his decisions.
George Hadley in the Eyes of Other Characters
Peter and Wendy, both ten years old, are the main antagonists of the story. It is shown from the story’s very beginning that the siblings are entitled and spoiled. The entitlement as such is a direct result of parents’ passivity and overindulgence (Ibabe). Wendy and Peter are a close match, with even their thought process proving to be very similar due to the uniformity of the veldt’s vision.
Nevertheless, the siblings do demonstrate some individuality – it is apparent from their communication that Peter directs Wendy. For example, he instructs her to check the nursery, implying changing the setting before the parents see it again. Wendy immediately complies with Peter while ignoring George, her father. Therefore, it is Peter instead of George who is the parental figure for Wendy. Apart from that, Peter also tends to be more threatening and violent than his sister. For instance, to George’s announcement that he wants to turn off the nursery, Peter replies, “I don’t think you’d better consider it any more, Father” (Bradbury #).
It is vital to understand that despite Wendy and Peter being the antagonists in the story, Bradbury does not imply they are innately villainous. The confusion of children’s thoughts and feelings occurred due to a lack of adult supervision. They have been raised in overstimulation and comfort to the extent that they value it above empathy and love. Moreover, it is their parents who introduced them to such a life.
George’s wife and Peter and Wendy’s mother, Lydia is intuitive and observant. It is she who first realizes the changes in the nursery and warns George of them. Lydia is also the first to perceive the flaws in the family’s lifestyle, noting much earlier than McClean that the lack of engagement makes her and George dispirited and passive. She wishes to return to regular life since their Home makes her feel “unnecessary” (Bradbury #). Her fears of the nursery foreshadow the tragic fate that she and George suffer at the story’s end.
Interaction with Lydia Hadley, his wife, allows George to see himself from the outside, taking into account individual negative aspects and opening his eyes to the actual picture of reality. Over time, he understands that a rich house equipped with modern inventions is an illusion of happiness, the reverse side of the American dream, and nothing more than a ‘beautiful wrapper from bitter candy.’
Furthermore, he is convinced of the truthfulness of this circumstance when communicating with children who are capricious and act arbitrarily, regardless of parental guidance. Consequently, external conflicts, mainly associated with the children’s room, form ideas about how George sees himself as an outsider to his children and perceives them as selfish and greedy. He understands that the technologies and automation of the processes he sought to achieve led to the devaluation of his wife’s work, disobedience of children, and a life devoid of love, mutual understanding, and family harmony. In a way, modern American culture is one of the primary mechanisms for forming such a way of life and the identity of George’s personality.
The Veldt demonstrates the culture of “consumption” when people lose their human face in their desire for comfort. They need everything at once, as much and better as possible, and they are ready to kill for this. The author uses the character to demonstrate the loss of ego-identity, the eternal conflict of generations, and the problem of personality education in current conditions. George is a specialist in his field and a workaholic who takes care of his family members. Even though money improves the quality of life, he realizes too late that it is impossible to buy the love of children and a sense of belonging.
In this case, George loses faith in his social role as a father. In addition, Ray Bradbury focuses on the emergence of disagreements between a parent and a child based on different worldviews and values. George, at some point, realizes his mistake and tries to fix it, while his children do not see a point in life without technology. Furthermore, it is noteworthy that George’s passivity, lack of initiative, and insufficient attention to Peter and Wendy led to the sad outcome.
The dreadful and tragic end of the story is closely connected to the persistence of inadequate parenting patterns. As McClean notes, the children resent the parents for attempts to replace the wish-granting nursery with their strict parenting. George has prioritized a life of convenience until recently and now wishes to change course drastically. Therefore, the message he is conveying is mixed. To actually improve things, he will have to change himself (Warshak 649).
David astutely comments, “George, you’ll have to change your life. Like too many others, you’ve built it around creature comforts. Why, you’d starve tomorrow if something went wrong in your kitchen. You wouldn’t know how to tap an egg” (Bradbury #). However, as the story comes toward its climax, it becomes apparent that George is too set in his own patterns to change. Despite David’s recommendations to the contrary, Lydia asks George to unlock the nursery in order to soothe Wendy and Peter’s tempers, and George does so to buy the family more time. Again, George decides to take a shortcut rather than deal with his children directly, which turns out to be a fatal error.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it should be stated that George Hadley is a relatively positive character in the Veldt, showing diligence, kindness, and condescension to family members. Nevertheless, his obsession with innovation and thirst for money led to the fact that his children began to hate him and show cruelty. Accordingly, through this character, the author tries to show the underside of modern society concerning consumption. People have become more fixated on money and objects. In such a society, strengthened by a lack of appropriate parental supervision, children also began to treat people as ‘things’: they are used and ‘thrown away’ as unnecessary, as Peter and Wendy did with their father.
Work Cited
Bradbury, Ray. The Stories of Ray Bradbury. RosettaBooks, 1980.
Ibabe, Izaskun. “A Systematic Review of Youth-to-Parent Aggression: Conceptualization, Typologies, and Instruments.” Frontiers in psychology, vol. 11, 2020. Web.
Mays, K. J. The Norton Introduction to Literature. W. W. Norton, 2019.
Warshak, Richard A. “Reclaiming Parent–child relationships: Outcomes of Family Bridges with Alienated Children.” Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, vol. 60, no. 8, 2019, pp. 645-667. Web.