“The Veldt,” by Ray Bradbury, is a futuristic short story about the Hadleys, a family that is heavily reliant on the advanced technology in their home. The story was written in 1950, and Bradbury incorporates descriptions of many gadgets that have yet to be invented to this day. The appliances in their house prepare dinner for them, bathe them, tie their shoes, and even rock them to sleep. Naturally, both the parents and children are spoiled by their surroundings and feel a sense of attachment to the technology in their home. The combination of poor parenting and reliance upon extremely advanced technology has a major effect on the behavior of the children in the story. 

The children, Wendy and Peter, are particularly infatuated by one room in the house: the nursery. In the nursery their wildest imaginations become reality. When their parents would visit the room, they would usually find Alice in Wonderland, Aladdin and his Magical Lamp, a cow jumping over a moon, or some other fictional, childlike scene. However, one day, George and Lydia enter the nursery to find an African veldt with hungry lions feeding in the distance. 

When George and Lydia become frightened by the lions in the nursery, they seek the help of psychologist David McClean. McClean visits the room and says, “I have a hunch for something bad. This is very bad. My advice to you is to have the whole damn room torn down and your children brought to me every day for treatment” (Bradbury 7). McClean also suggests that George and Lydia must have let their children down in some way. George reflects back on the time when Wendy and Peter begged to take a rocket to New York City, and he and Lydia refused. He then takes McClean’s advice and switches the nursery off. Lydia accuses him of being too abrupt, and instead of standing his ground and defending his actions, George gives in and turns the nursery on once more. 

The link between parenting and child behavior can be described by this quote: “The interpretation of linkages between parenting and child outcomes are often guided by an understanding of what parents do for the child, by way of parenting practices” (Evans). In the case of “The Veldt,” George shutting down the nursery was the perfect opportunity for the parents to take charge of the situation they had allowed to continue for so long. But even when he was adamant about taking a break from technology, Lydia convinced him to give the children a few more minutes in the nursery. Had they come to an agreement and stood firm in their decision to stray away from their technology-filled lifestyles, George and Lydia would have hindered the children’s violent thoughts rather than prolonging them. 

The relationship between technology use and child behavior is commonly studied in today’s society. “Digital technology has the potential to seduce young children with color, movement, sound, and interaction” (Cooper). In the case of “The Veldt,” Wendy and Peter are enamored by the interaction of their thoughts with the technology in the room. When the room displays an African veldt, Bradbury describes “the yellows of lions and summer grass, and the sound of the matted lion lungs exhaling on the silent noontide, and the smell of meat from the panting, dripping mouths” (Bradbury 2). The colors, movements, sounds, and even smells in the nursery are appealing to the children and give them a more vibrant, realistic experience in the room.

The source also says, “given the ubiquitous nature of digital information and its significance in our culture as a means of communication, information getting, entertainment, and creative expression, it is important that children receive sufficient opportunities and appropriate experiences in its use” (Cooper). Wendy and Peter in “The Veldt” are prime examples of children that have misused technology and have had an inappropriate experience. David McClean describes the original use of this kind of room as a tool used to “study the patterns left on the walls by the child’s mind…and help the child” (Bradbury 7). However, in the case of the Hadley children, “the room has become a channel toward – destructive thoughts” (Bradbury 7). Instead of using the room to express their imagination in a healthy way, the room ultimately becomes a way for them to channel the hatred they feel toward their parents and seek revenge against them for disapproving of their trip to New York and threatening to shut the nursery down.

The feelings of hatred Wendy and Peter have for their parents are proven when George and Lydia allow the children a few more minutes in the nursery before shutting it down completely. Wendy and Peter know this is their chance to retaliate against their parents. When called upon, the children do not respond, and George and Lydia begin frantically searching for them. When they step inside the nursery, the door slams behind them and the hungry lions attack them. The article on the effects of technology use on child behavior goes on to state “an appropriate digital environment provides a vehicle that can take a child further than he or she might travel unassisted” (Cooper). One could argue the validity of this quote because assisting in the murder of two people would make this room an inappropriate form of technology. However, this quote obviously holds some value because as ten-year-olds, Wendy and Peter would not have the means to murder their own parents without the assistance of the room. 

Another key aspect of such an advanced form of technology is “it responds to a child's input in a most immediate and satisfying way. It empowers the child to make things happen instantaneously” (Cooper). Obviously, Wendy and Peter strategically planned the murder of their parents. To the children, the lions killing and eating their parents is a satisfying form of retaliation. Their emotional attachment to the room itself is derived from the instantaneous results they witness. These instantaneous results are first displayed when George and Lydia question the children about the African veldt early in the story, and they deny the thought altogether. The room is immediately transformed from the veldt to a beautiful jungle scene with Rima “singing a song so beautiful that it brought tears to your eyes” before the parents can even get to the nursery to prove what they have witnessed (Bradbury 5). The ability to transform the room instantaneously allows the children to escape having to justify the appearance of the veldt and the gnawed wallet and bloody scarf the parents later find inside.

Any child that would plan and carry out such the senseless act of murdering his or her own mother and father is clearly troubled. However, mindful readers could not accurately place the blame entirely on the ten-year-old children in “The Veldt.” The poor parenting displayed by George and Lydia contributes to the behavioral issues of the children. They were warned of the possible negative outcomes of allowing them to spend time in the nursery yet disregarded the warnings and granted the children exactly what they desired: more time to carry out their plan for murder. The advanced technology of the house was also an aid for the children to devise and execute the act of murdering their own parents. Child behavior in “The Veldt” and in general can accurately be contributed to parenting practices and the early use of advanced, inappropriate technology.
