The Pedestrian

Mr. Leonard has been taking walks most nights for years, and he fancies doing it. While
walking, he loves to stop at an intersection and decide which way to go. Mr. Leonard relishes
enjoying the small features of the atmosphere during his walk, like the rustic-smelling leaf he
picked up and the crystal frost feeling of the wind. Mr. Leonard Mead switches his “hard heels”
to his sneakers because he does not want dogs’ attention, and he does not aspire to people being
astonished over a man walking down the street.

Mead asks questions to the houses around the streets. Mr. Mead is all by himself, and no
one would judge him if he said anything out of the blue. Mead finds the television shows
irritating because it damages people and it is useless. Mr. Mead often mocks people who watch
the television. Mr. Mead refers the buildings to tombs and the people to corpses. He says people
watching television are like corpses with multicolored lights touching their faces, but without
touching them.

Mr. Mead has been walking for ten years. He states in the story that he has not met
anyone walking in the past ten years that he has walked. This suggests that society is now
technological and has ignored the wonders of nature. Crime rates have receded, so the
government has decided to decrease police patrol. Mr. Mead probably sees his current society
from a different perspective, and he wants to try to appreciate nature. Mead’s profession is a
writer. Writers probably like to go out for solitary walks to unwind after a long day at the desk.
Walking with no destination is also probably a way that writers gain creativity.

Leonard Mead is arrested for not conforming to the ignorant society where everyone’s
eyes are stuck on their television screen. When Leonard Mead said he was a writer, the police car
responded, “no profession?”. Not having a profession might be considered a norm in this story,
which is why the police car might be programmed to assume that everyone is unemployed
automatically due to the television. Leonard Mead is then taken to a psychiatric center because
he was “abnormal.”

Mead’s profession is revealed to be creative and imaginative but is not acknowledged in

society because no one reads his book anymore. Mr. Mead is distinctive apart from everyone
else, and he does not feel lonely or isolated. He does not bother regarding what society is up to or
what trend his acquaintance is following. Mr. Mead realizes that the police car is wandering
around without a purpose, unlike everyone preoccupied with television. Because he is walking
around and walking around instead of being inside his room watching television, the psychiatric
hospital is considered abnormal. Bradbury is saying that while technology is making our lives
easier, it is also threatening humanity.