The setting of “The Pedestrian” by Ray Bradbury takes place in a large city of three million people in the year 2053. Leonard Mead, the protagonist, is alone walking the streets of the deserted town to “get some air” and just to enjoy the exercise and sites. There are no other pedestrians because, in this society, everyone spends their time watching TV in their homes. Bradbury sets up an atmosphere of loneliness and isolation for Meade as he walks the streets. It is nighttime, and all the houses and buildings are dark because people are like zombies watching TV. When Mead is arrested for being a pedestrian and not having a job or wife (that would explain why he is walking), the only police car in the city drives by his house that is brightly illuminated, a symbol that he is different from other residents.
Bradbury sets up the mood and environment with his use of descriptions and words like “dark”, “lonely”, and “silent” to convey the message of how this society has regressed into isolation and is controlled by its need for constant entertainment. He describes the streets and homes as a “graveyard” with “phantoms” in their homes. This theme of mindless existence by a society who has forgotten how to live life runs through many of Bradbury’s stories.
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