The Pedestrian Notes
Setting:
21st century futuristic society “AD 2052”
An urban area or city “The city at eight o’clock of a misty evening in November”
America “Sidewalk” “highways” sneakers” “gas stations” etc
The setting is vital as, being in the future; it dictates the acceptability of the events.
Main Character:
Leonard Mead – a writer, although the suggestion is that he is out of work
“He hadn’t written in years. Magazines and books didn’t well any more.”
Writing has become an inferior form of employment as a result. The suggestion being that, as technology has taken over, people no longer read. Thus the police note his occupation as “no profession”.
He is single and unmarried which is also seen as odd – the fact that he does not have a wife means that he has no-one to give him an alibi.
There is no real physical description of him as he represents the lack of individuality of this society. He could also be said to be an Everyman figure there to be representative of humanity rather than one specific person. Thus it is the human race who have been controlled and dehumanised.
He loves walking at night through the silent streets. He enjoys the feelings of cold and silence and the rustle of the leaves as he walks through them.
He is almost cynical about the rest of the city and their nightly dose of television watching or “viewing screen” , asking them what they are watching – knowing that he will not get an answer. Indeed he is aware that it makes no difference to them what they are watching as
“the people sat like the dead, the grey or multi-coloured lights touching their faces, but never really touching them”
He had changed his shoes to quieter “sneakers” to stop the dogs announcing his presence as he walked which suggests he is happy to walk alone and yet he whispers questions to each house as he passes. Also he hesitates at one house when he thinks he hears “a murmur of laughter” from it. Could this be a desire to find someone like himself who is not eerily hypnotised by the viewing screen? Perhaps he would have made contact with the people but, as nothing happens and there is no sign of life, he continues his solitary stroll.
He shows he has a sense of humour and can even make a joke at his own misfortune during a tense moment when he gives the reason for his being unmarried as
“nobody wanted me”
again showing him to be a solitary outcast.
NB it would appear that such individuality as a sense of humour is neither understood nor acceptable in this futuristic society.
He also rebels against the established order by not having a “viewing screen”.
The final vision of his house warmly lit with
“all of its electric lights brilliantly lit”
contrasting with the dark houses can also be seen as symbolic of his rebellion and protest.
Imagery
The unnatural quality of life in this future society is emphasised by the use of natural imagery. Mr Mead’s shadow is likened to that of a
“hawk in mid-country”
Out in a
“Wintry, windless, Arizona desert.”
A lone form of life in a lifeless area. The streets are now “dry river beds” which, during the day, are flowing not with life-giving water but with
“Scarab beetles”
namely the cars which rush to and fro. The cars, like beetles, scuttle about and have a protective shell which can be broken. They are a pest and are symbolically connected with death.
Under the strange cold light of the police car, Leonard Mead is compared to a “night moth” which is attracted to the light even though he realises it is dangerous. This gives the idea of LM’s actions as almost suicidal. They will draw attention and he will be stopped but he cannot help himself from expressing his individuality.
Later he is compared to
“a museum specimen”
Full of beauty and apparent life but dead and immobile – reminding us that this might be a more accurate description of the other citizens. It is also a chilling symbolism of what may happen to LM after he has been arrested. Once he was the living night moth ; soon he will be a specimen in a lab or a literal dead corpse.
The only real evidence of Nature in this city are the Autumn leaves and the grass and weeds growing between the cracks of the pavement. However, these both have the suggestion of neglect and decay as though there is no longer any place for Nature in this mechanised society. The leaves lie about the streets untended and their “rusty smell” and “skeletal pattern” remind us of the damp neglected streets and the deathly silence. It is worth remembering that the Autumn leaves are a symbol of death in themselves. The leaves wither and die as they turn these colours and then drop from the tree. They symbolise the death of summer and the winter period.
However, it is ironic to use such symbolism as Nature is reborn every spring. The trees will blossom again. It is also ironic that nature seems to be taking over from the human laid paving stones, thus suggesting, like LM that not all hope is lost.
Indeed death is the symbol around which the other imagery is centred, in order to emphasise the lack of any real life in this city or indeed the people themselves. LM walks through the city and its silent empty streets were
“not unlike walking through a graveyard”
where the houses are
“tomb-like buildings”
and the people inside them are
“grey phantoms”
who
“sat like the dead”
in front of their viewing screens. The impression of them (and it is only an impression as they make no direct contribution to the story, never actually appear but are only described as if they were some sort of ghostly manifestations unseen by ordinary humans like ourselves) is that of zombies leading a mindless and lifeless existence.
A similar lifelessness is portrayed by comparing the streets to dried up river beds in the desert where life and Nature struggle to survive. An effective idea as it could be seen as lunacy to leave shelters filled with every amenity and convenience to walk in the desert. As the river beds once held water so the streets once had people enjoying the outdoor life of Nature etc.
The use of “skeletal” to describe the leaves also reminds us of death
Atmosphere
Imagery is also used to provide the correct./ appropriate atmosphere: a sense of unease and mystery. The chilling idea of death and phantoms reminds us that life in this society would be lacking in real life and that humans have become shadows or ghosts of their former selves.
The atmosphere is reinforced by the repetition of ideas like silence, darkness and emptiness. It is a “misty” evening with the associations of grey eerie dampness and darkens where objects loom out if the mist like ghostly shadows and there is a sense of isolation and being lost. The darkness of the streets is broken by the moonlight which is, in itself, helping to extend the creepy atmosphere with its associations of lunacy, werewolves and things that go bump in the night.
Everything is grey and silent: the street was
“silent and long and empty”;
the houses were
“grey and silent”;
even the people, unheard in their houses ,were described as
“grey phantoms”.
Their life is grey lacking in colour, emotion and individuality. They are all a monotonous uniform grey.
There is also a sense of menace – of a controlling force behind this society. Perhaps there is something more sinister behind the viewing screens. It may be more than a fanatical obsession of TV watching. Is it the state’s way of controlling the masses? Such an effective method that only one unmanned vehicle is needed to enforce law and order.
The menace is enhance by the presence and description of the police car, even before we are told that there is no-one inside it. Its headlights are described as “fierce”; its voice is “metallic” and the voice of a “phonograph”. It is heard “hissing” and “crackling” all conveying a mechanistic , cold, harsh, unemotional, inhuman atmosphere which is reflected in the society in general. It is as if the machines have taken over or have been used to dehumanise society.
The atmosphere is vividly reinforced by the final paragraph with its repetitions which echo in the reader’s mind.
“The car moved down the empty river-bed streets
and off away, leaving the empty streets with the empty sidewalks,
and no sound and no motion all the rest of the chill November night.”
View of the Future
This is a very pessimistic and frightening view of life in the future where a man can be arrested for merely walking through the streets, an activity which we see as a perfectly acceptable and harmless activity but which, in this future society, is so unusual that he is sent to
“The Psychiatric Centre for research on Regressive Tendencies”
This institution in itself is a chilling prospect with associations of reprogramming, mind probes, brain washing, lobotomies and experimentation. The people in this future world seem almost like machines themselves as they sit in their houses night after night in front of their almost hypnotic
“viewing screens”
regardless of what they are watching.
The streets are lonely, dark and deserted. The pavements are decaying and grass-covered from lack of use and LM has never met another person during 10 years of walking by day and night.
This futuristic society is virtually crime free – partly stemming from the fascination for TV ( no-one is on the streets to commit crime). Thus there is
“in a city of three million ….only on police car left.”
Yet again, this seemingly positive aspect is distorted by the frightening vision of the cell in the back of the car and the fact that it is unmanned, suggesting a nightmarish idea of imprisonment in a solitary and continuous tour of the city.
The vision is of a modern mechanised world where computerised police cars roam the streets, where, during the day, the highways are filled with cars which have a
“faint incense puttering from their exhausts”
as they rush through the city’s complicated intersecting highways.
A city of air-conditioned houses complete with multi channel viewing screens, a seemingly modern clean, advanced civilisation. However, yet again, the impression we receive is that, like the cell in the police car, life is
“too clear and hard and metallic. There was nothing soft there.”
There are still huge amounts of traffic during the day, the pavements are decaying and, above all, there is no sense of freedom, no individuality, no initiative. The only exception seems to LM and his abnormal behaviour is about to be changed. This unnatural feeling of lifelessness is reinforced by the imagery used.
Purpose, Possibility, Moral Lesson
The technology does not really stretch the limits of possibility. Although this short story was written around the 1950s it is just as relevant a warning ( if not more so) to today’s society. If we think of the advances in technology that have occurred in the past 50 years, it is quite possible that future advances could produce a society like LM’s.
The story has taken many current trends, fears and problems and has extended them down the evolutionary line. Already city rush hours are similar to the massive scurrying of insect columns. Various ecology and conservation groups have been researching and producing ways of eliminating exhaust fumes and pollution from vehicles (lead free petrol, hybrid cars). TV s DVDs etc have already become the major factor in in-house entertainment. People are increasingly expressing fears about its influence on the human brain and behaviour especially among the young. Many are concerned that communication and social skills will or are being lost. With the invention of virtual reality, this progresses even further. Advertising already manipulates consumers so it is simply a stage further to influence people’s minds for darker purposes.
Computerisation has developed so much that a robot car or one under a similar process to auto pilot is already in production, a lot more sophisticated then the Knight Rider of the 70 and 80s. Satellite navigation, once a pipe dream, is becoming standard in certain cars.
People are walking less and less, becoming reliant on cars or public transport, even when they have a destination, let alone simply for the pleasure of it. Curfews, tagging etc have been adopted to attempt to deal with juvenile crime so it does not seem out of the question to imagine this being developed further.
The major stumbling block for the reader is the idea of LM being arrested and committed to a sinister kind of mental institution merely for walking the streets. That such a thing could happen seems ludicrous. That society should allow itself to be dehumanised in such a way seems incredible.
However his habit seems perfectly normal to us perhaps because we and others do it. People in this future society DO NOT walk the streets at night. It is NOT normal. Therefore the conclusion is that anyone who does it must be ABNORMAL. To understand the ease with which it can happen, think about reactions to people without a TV, people your own age who never listen to modern music, people who dress or act inappropriately for their age. Think how many times you think a person is strange when you really mean different or unusual.
Remember, it is because we have individuality and freedom of thought and action that we realise that, just because a person is or does something different, it does not mean he is insane or a threat.