Mead, then, is established as the last living soul in a world of empty, lifeless “phantoms” who are wholly consumed by technology. The people inside watching their televisions are motionless and emotionless, metaphorically dead: “the people sat like the dead, the gray or multicolored lights touching their faces, but never really touching them.” The people of 2053 are clearly more concerned with what is happening in the fictional, sensationalized realm of television than they are with their own physical surroundings-though they are superficially “touched” by what they watch, it has no meaningful, tangible impact upon them. Passing one “tomb-like building,” Mead sees “gray phantoms” through open windows, and he hears “whisperings and murmurs” from the people within. The homes Mead passes are described as housing the dead: “tombs, ill-lit by television light.” The houses, too, are devoid of any signs of liveliness, and people’s pacification in front of their televisions inside these deathly structures indicates that modern technology is the cause. Walking through the “silent and long and empty” streets is like “walking through a graveyard.” This establishes the landscape as one that has been robbed of all vitality by the television, which everyone is inside watching. Through this use of morbid language, Bradbury predicts that one of the most exciting technological advances of his time, the television, will eventually deaden its viewers. Through imagery of death, descriptions of humans in cars as insects, and Mead’s interaction with the robotic police car, “The Pedestrian” expresses the pessimistic view that the technological advances of the 1950s (like televisions, automobiles, and computers) will ultimately rob people of their essential humanity and give undue power to machines.Īs Leonard Mead walks through the city, the streets, homes, and people are all described with imagery of death. Bradbury’s short stories and novels frequently explore the social costs of technological progress. He is ultimately arrested merely for walking freely on the street, an absurd event that reveals Bradbury’s grim view of 21st century: it’s a dystopian world where technology has deadened the populace and enabled state power to enforce conformity. For 10 years, Mead has walked the city streets alone, night after night, past homes of other citizens who sit transfixed by their televisions. (Sheila Davis, The Songwriter's Idea Book.Ray Bradbury’s short story “The Pedestrian” narrates the life of Leonard Mead, a resident of an unnamed city in the year 2053. One of the most memorable lyrical compound metonyms is Lennon and McCartney's 'kaleidoscope eyes' those which after taking a hallucinogen, see the world in refracted images ('Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds')." For instance, a Frisbee dog is one that has been trained to catch Frisbees (an attribute). A compound metonym-usually two or three words-can be readily distinguished from a compound metaphor by a definition that always begins one that, one who, those which, and is followed by a significant quality or attribute. While the compound metaphor makes a fanciful figurative comparison between two unlike realms ('snail mail'), a compound metonym, in distinction, characterizes a single domain by using an associated literal attribute as a characterizing adjective, for example, coffee-table book: a (usually expensive) large-format book that is too big to fit on a bookshelf, thus it's displayed on a table-effect for the cause. "Like metaphor, metonymy also comes in a compound-word form. Buy the cigarette and you buy the life-style, or the fantasy of living it.'" establishes a metonymic connection-completely spurious of course, but realistically plausible-between smoking that particular brand and the healthy, heroic, outdoor life of the cowboy. "'It’s just a question of understanding how language works.'. What you didn’t tell me was that drag is a metonymy and cope is a metaphor.' The bottom bit is called the drag because it’s dragged across the floor and the top bit is called the cope because it covers the bottom bit.' "'I don’t understand a word you’re saying.' In metaphor you substitute something like the thing you mean for the thing itself, whereas in metonymy you substitute some attribute or cause or effect of the thing for the thing itself.' "'Metaphor is a figure of speech based on similarity, whereas metonymy is based on contiguity. "'One of the fundamental tools of semiotics is the distinction between metaphor and metonymy.
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