Paragraph One: In what ways is Leonard Mead's identity and livelihood impacted because of his society? Find at least two examples of this from the story and for each of your two examples, cite one piece of textual evidence and thoroughly explain how society is impacting who he is. (Follow the formula below for how to write this!

This question refers to “The Pedestrian” written by Ray Bradbury.

Answer and Explanation:

When reading "The Pedestrian" we can see that the identity and livelihood of Leonard Mead, the only character quoted directly in this plot, is very affected by the behavior of the society where he lives.

First, we can see that all members of society, with the exception of Mead, live in hiding in their homes addicted and hypnotized by television programming. Mead, meanwhile, drops from being in contact with the world outside his home, but when he leaves, he finds no one because everyone is watching or walking past like zombies. This makes Mead a very lonely man, unable to establish social connections with anyone, but he is satisfied and happy with the kind of life he leads.

As society only takes up its time with television programming, the consumption of books and reading practice has fallen sharply, which has changed the livelihood of Mead, who is a writer and is no longer able to sell his books, because society has lost interest and believes that reading is an archaic and boring pastime. Even so, Mead is satisfied with the life he lives, but society does not like it and ends up thinking that he is crazy.

the answers are:

1. dolores driscoll - b. first person minor

dolores is a minor character who happens to be driving the bus at the time of the accident. she narrates picking up each of the children and her last memory is the children being thrown around the bus.

2. billy ansel - a. first person major

billy loses his twins in the accident. he tells his own story, how he witnessed the accident and how he tried to the rescuers. he is a major character, as he is at the center of the story.

3. mitchell stephens - c. first person observer

mitchell enters the story after the accident. he is a lawyer who learns about the accident based on other characters observations. though he tells the story from a first person perspective, he is just an observer.

as for matcthing the message or lesson posted with the person who said them:

1."obviously, you can't control everything, but you are obliged to take care of the few things you can. i'm an optimist basically who acts like a pessimist. on principle. just in case." - dolores driscoll

2. "i could no longer believe even in life. . for me now the only reality was death." - billy ansel