On one of his nightly walks, Leonard Mead begins to wonder what is going on in the dark houses he passes each night. He says it is like walking through a graveyard and that the people cast “phantom” shadows on the walls of their home caused by the illumination of the television sets they are watching. He ponders what the people are doing in the following quotes.
“Hello in there”, he whispered to every house...
On one of his nightly walks, Leonard Mead begins to wonder what is going on in the dark houses he passes each night. He says it is like walking through a graveyard and that the people cast “phantom” shadows on the walls of their home caused by the illumination of the television sets they are watching. He ponders what the people are doing in the following quotes.
“Hello in there”, he whispered to every house on every side as he moved. “What’s up tonight on Channel 4, Channel 7, Channel 9? Where are the cowboys rushing and do I see the United States Cavalry over the next hill to the rescue?”
“What is it now?” he asked the houses, noticing on his wrist watch. “Eight-thirty P.M.? Time of a dozen assorted murders? A quiz? A revue? A comedian falling off the stage?”
“In ten years of walking by night or day, for thousands of miles, he had never met another person walking, not once in all that time.”
These quotes suggest that the people in this society are so obsessed with being entertained and watching TV cowboy shows (popular in the 50’s when the book was written), quiz shows, and comedies that they have ceased to live life. They stay in their homes like ghosts watching programs and TV and don’t enjoy life. They don’t even participate in a simple walk at night. Technology has definitely taken over their lives, and it has gotten so out of control that Leonard Mead is considered insane for not conforming to this zombie-like past time of the people in this society.
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