The Highway is a science fiction short story within a series of short stories called The Illustrated Man. Ray Bradbury, the author of these stories, was considered a radical writer in the mid-twentieth century. Many of Bradbury 's stories convey controversial moral or governmental issues within the fictional societies of the text. The Highway portrays various reactions to crisis based upon opposing world views. The story presents characters of an agricultural, rudimentary lifestyle interacting with characters from a more technologically advanced society. Bradbury illustrates the two groups discovering the same detrimental news of atomic warfare, and how they respond to such dire news. Bradbury filters in two immensely different
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Hernando recalls a car wrecked at the bottom of a river close by. A hubcap and a tire from vehicles had barreled into his hut from the highway. The family uses the hubcap "for washing and cooking, but it made a fine bowl" (Bradbury 38). The alternative society in The Highway of course uses a hubcap on the wheel of a vehicle. Also, "he had carved the shoe soles from the tire rubber" (Bradbury 39). Hernando found the car insignificant, going straight for the parts. The citizens of the modern society would cherish the car as a whole, rather than scrapping it for …show more content…
When "down the mountain road in the thin cool rain, fuming up great clouds of steam, came an old Ford" (Bradbury 38), the inhabitants of the trouble car shared the information of the atomic bomb threatening each of their lives. The young male and few females within the vehicle expressed great sorrow and fear about the subject, which inspired Hernando to hustle to help them. The young man explains to Hernando that "It’s come, the atom war, the end of the world!" (Bradbury 39). Hernando becomes confused by this. He contemplates and wonders "What do they mean, ‘the world’?" (Bradbury 40). Hernando cannot fathom how his world and theirs could be affected impartially being so vastly differing in style. He and his family have no access to technology, therefore have no knowledge of the severity of the
Hernando recalls a car wrecked at the bottom of a river close by. A hubcap and a tire from vehicles had barreled into his hut from the highway. The family uses the hubcap "for washing and cooking, but it made a fine bowl" (Bradbury 38). The alternative society in The Highway of course uses a hubcap on the wheel of a vehicle. Also, "he had carved the shoe soles from the tire rubber" (Bradbury 39). Hernando found the car insignificant, going straight for the parts. The citizens of the modern society would cherish the car as a whole, rather than scrapping it for …show more content…
When "down the mountain road in the thin cool rain, fuming up great clouds of steam, came an old Ford" (Bradbury 38), the inhabitants of the trouble car shared the information of the atomic bomb threatening each of their lives. The young male and few females within the vehicle expressed great sorrow and fear about the subject, which inspired Hernando to hustle to help them. The young man explains to Hernando that "It’s come, the atom war, the end of the world!" (Bradbury 39). Hernando becomes confused by this. He contemplates and wonders "What do they mean, ‘the world’?" (Bradbury 40). Hernando cannot fathom how his world and theirs could be affected impartially being so vastly differing in style. He and his family have no access to technology, therefore have no knowledge of the severity of the