Sweet To The Sweet The Veldt Analysis

Decent Essays
Aldous Huxley once said, “Children are remarkable for their intelligence and ardor, for their curiosity, their intolerance of shams, the clarity and ruthlessness of their vision.” This is no truer than it is for the children of Sweets to the Sweet, The Veldt, and Sredni Vashtar. These short story children are each neglected masters of manipulation which results in catastrophic events for their adults.
Though each child’s manipulation is different, they share a key similarity: The children were raised by less than stellar guardians. Sweet to the Sweet’s Irma Steever is raised by her father who is abusive and neglectful. Readers become aware of Irma’s father’s abuse when her nanny, Miss Pall says “He hates her. He wants her to be bad so he
…show more content…
Their ability to manipulate is what these children share, their manner of manipulation is what makes them individuals. Irma plays innocent when she suddenly begins playing with dolls and her uncle becomes aware of this change. Irma’s manipulation is revealed when she says “Oh Uncle Sam, you’re so silly! Why, this isn’t a real doll…Why, it’s only candy!” (Bloch 33). To keep her uncle from getting a really good look at her doll, she pretends it is something that it’s not, and thus, Irma manipulates her uncle using her innocent appearance. Wendy and Peter turn the veldt that has so terrified their parents into something that they aren’t afraid of: “There was a green, lovely forest, a lonely river, a purple mountain, high voices singing, and Rima, lovely and mysterious, lurking in the trees with the colorful flights of butterflies…” (Bradbury 201). Wendy and Peter manipulate their parents with the very thing that has replaced their parents in their hearts. Finally, Conradin’s manipulation is revealed when he pretends to be oblivious to what has happened to his guardian: “Whoever will break it to the poor child? I couldn't for the life of me!" exclaimed a shrill voice. And while they debated the matter among themselves, Conradin made himself another piece of toast” (Saki n.pg.). Conradin just continues on eating as if he is unaware of what has just …show more content…
Irma has led her uncle to believe that the doll she holds so dear is really candy, now she must prove that the doll is truly just candy, “then, very swiftly, she slipped the tiny head of the image into her mouth. And bit it off. There was a single piercing scream from upstairs…” (Bloch 33). Irma his just literally bitten her father’s head off and is now rid of him for good. Wendy and Peter have not completely changed their parent’s minds about the nursery but have wormed their way back in for some final play time. It becomes clear that Wendy and Peter have taken advantage of this time when George says “Why, they’ve locked it from the outside… Mr. Hadley looked at his wife and they turned and looked back at the beasts edging slowly forward, crouching, tails stiff. Mr. and Mrs. Hadley screamed. And suddenly they realized why those other screams sounded familiar” (Bradbury 207). The nursery and their dangerous thoughts are what Wendy and Peter Hadley used to fully eliminate their parents. Conradin uses the simplest sounding way: “Do one thing for me, Sredni Vashtar…The thing was not specified. As Sredni Vashtar was a god he must be supposed to know… Conradin listened to the noises and silences which fell in quick spasms beyond the dining-room door” (Saki n.pg.). Conradin’s faith in Sredni Vashtar is what finally rid him

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    After the parents became aware of the effect the nursery was having on their children they attempted to take it away. When the children heard the nursery would no longer be their entertainment, they used it to kill their parents. The nursery was meant to be virtual but after years of tweaking the technology, Peter was able to turn virtual into reality. This story is a dystopia of what can happen to children with too much knowledge and too little guidance by authority figures meant to guide…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Veldt Analysis

    • 458 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In The Veldt, the parents, George and Lydia, are to blame for their own deaths because they let the kids get addicted to the technology by surrounding them with technology as children and letting them grow up with it. In the story, George and Lydia Hadley live in this smart-house that is full of technology. They have two kids, Wendy and Peter. Wendy and Peter have a nursery that is like a virtual reality room. Wendy and Peter get addicted to the nursery and George Lydia threaten to shut off the nursery and Wendy and Peter disagree and then lock their parents in the nursery.…

    • 458 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The prose from ‘Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight’ by Alexandra Fuller is full of imagery that makes the reader understand the characters better, as well as the situation that the characters are in. The author uses eloquent language to support the imagery in the text. Her usage of language helps us get a broader view of what the characters are like and how these characters form a family, we also get a perspective of the business that this family is working in and how they are in a way discriminated by looks, a farmer differing from a buyer. And how the tobacco business is hard from the perspective of the farmers. The three major things that I have noticed while reading this prose was that there is a great amount of imagery, the characters…

    • 1102 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Revenge Powered Brats: The American Society “The Veldt”, Ray Bradbury’s work from the 1950’s, offers a particular perspective of parenting that is relevant to today 's society; parents, who so often claim responsibilities for the positive outcomes in their children 's lives are also guilty of raising revenge-powered and spoiled beings. In multiple situations, children may feel powerless against adults and create their own mental fantasies in which they have total control over any adult who does not give them what they want. Bradbury poses that an adult may cause these fantasies to be triggered when they do something like forbid a child from getting something they really want after they spoil them. The children get too accustomed to getting their way and become filled with rage when they do not get their wishes granted,no matter how minute. Eventually this results in a cycle our current society is…

    • 1081 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The modern world is diverse with a vast amount of ethnicities, yet it cannot be described as completely safe. Uncivilized individuals, criminals, rapists, and terrorists walk the same streets civilians do everyday. If one were to pick up a newspaper at their local outdoor newspaper machine, it's highly likely the headlines would advertise a “Black Lives Matter” campaign or convey details about a local school shooting. These preposterous phenomenon are the coping mechanisms of an individual, sometimes a clan. The ability to possess an inclination to harm kind citizens is a characteristic most find strange.…

    • 1339 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Children are pure and endowed with a quality that adults lose throughout their lifetime, innocence. Yet, we would not know if that innocence was ever there. When a group of children attempt to build their own form of government, the tables turn when ambitious boys begin become power hungry, and would do just about anything to achieve it. This book presents itself with a strive for survival with children of various ages attempting to live while preserving their sense of reality. In the Lord of the flies William Golding uses the character Jack to represent temptation, the loss of reality, and humanity.…

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    “When we are children we seldom think of the future. This innocence leaves us free to enjoy ourselves as few adults can. The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind” (Patrick Rothfuss). Most characterize childhood as valuable, precious and peaceful, and in some cases, our childhood may determine whom we will grow to be. However, in the novel “Lullabies for Little Criminals”, Baby’s childhood can be seen as a loss of innocence, as it was corrupted into something unpleasant.…

    • 1401 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this paper we compare and analyze “The Veldt”, a novel written by Ray Bradbury, and “Children's, Parents' and Teachers’ Reactions to Television” a peer reviewed journal paper by Paul witty. The paper published in 1950 in the Elementary English journal and the novel was published in the Saturday Evening Post in 1950, one of the most influential magazines for the American middle class that was published every week from 1897 until 1963. One of the magazine’s sections was stories written by the best writers of the time. Bradbury was an American author that wrote several short fictions and criticized society and culture. The veldt as one of his efforts is a dark story that questions the use of modern technology in a way that separates people…

    • 1463 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The Veldt Thematic Essay

    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In response, Wendy and Peter begin to hate their parents. George and Lydia became concerned about their “HappyLife Home” because it took the role of the parents, they feel as if they're being phased out by their technology. “We've given the children everything they ever wanted. Is this our reward -secrecy, disobedience?” George and Lydia did the right thing because Peter and Wendy needed to stay out of the nursery room because they would make a lot of stuff appear.…

    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Eventually, Wendy and Peter become spoiled and ungrateful towards their parents, and feel as though they are being mistreated.…

    • 449 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Pretty How Town

    • 492 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Everyone cares about you, yet no one cares about you at all. This statement is profound and repetitively felt in the story, “anyone lives in a pretty how town.” There are people all around that have feelings and yet none of them care about anyone but themselves. The obvious theme is lack of emotion towards your own people. The above statement is a glimpse of the attitudes and day to day flawed ways of inhabitants of pretty how towns and all other places in the world.…

    • 492 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Veldt Research Paper

    • 1825 Words
    • 8 Pages

    “You’re really fat!” .. “You’re so ugly!”.. “You’re so stupid!”.. “You’re so worthless!” ..…

    • 1825 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Veldt Research Paper

    • 565 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Flying Cars and “The Veldt” When Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale created the movie Back to the Future, a vision that included advanced technology like flying cars was established. Today, humans are inching closer and closer to those futuristic ideas, whether it is a good thing or not. Technologies such as the flying car, and the fictional innovations in the “The Veldt,” present both benefits and detriments. There are many great inventions that will make the world a better and safer place that come with the advancement of technology. As humans become more intelligent, new more efficient methods for saving the environment, like the flying will continue to be found.…

    • 565 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    People Are The Products of Our Environment Human nature involves the ways of thinking, feelings, and behavioral traits among human kind. The book, Lord of The Flies, by William Golding and the story of a serial killer named Jeffrey Dahmer both share similar traits when you think about how they affect “human nature” or how they affect society. Lord of the Flies and serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer’s story share similarities about human nature because they both show elements of savagery. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is about a group of British schoolboys that got stranded on a deserted island. The main characters of this novel are: Ralph, Piggy, Jack, Simon, and Roger.…

    • 1092 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When George and Lydia hear about this they immediately close the nursery. But turn it back on just one more time for the kids before turning it off indefinitely. This statement from the parents cause the children to fight back. The children lie and rebel against their parents to protect their artificial substitute parents: the nursery. The children project images of the African Veldt on the walls.…

    • 802 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays