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Use the following extract from 'Feed' as inspiration for a short story (200 words).
You MUST include:
First person
Dystopian setting
Colloquial language
You will be asked to write for 25 minutes!
Choose ONE of the writing tasks below to complete and submit for feedback (800-1,000 words).
For your chosen writing task, you should focus on one or more of the following:
A theme or key idea from the text:
1. Influence of technology on society
2. Alienation
3. Loneliness
4. Individuality
5. Conformity and non-conformity
6. Human relationships and connection
The natural world vs. the artificial world
Literary techniques employed by Bradbury:
- imagery
- symbolism
- tone
- characterisation
- point-of-view
- setting
A significant quote from the text:
"To enter out into that silence that was the city at eight
o'clock of a misty evening in November, to put your feet
upon that buckling concrete walk, to step over grassy
seams and make your way, hands in pockets, through
the silences, that was what Mr. Leonard Mead most
dearly loved to do."
"[O]n his way he would see the cottages and homes with
their dark windows, and it was not unequal to walking
through a graveyard where only the faintest glimmers of
firefly light appeared in flickers behind the windows.
Sudden gray phantoms seemed to manifest upon inner
room walls… or there were whisperings and murmurs
where a window in a tomb-like building was still open."
"If he closed his eyes and stood very still, frozen, he
could imagine himself upon the center of a plain, a
wintry, windless Arizona desert with no house in a
thousand miles, and only dry river beds, the streets, for
company."
"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… “Eight-thirty P.M.? Time
for a dozen assorted murders? A quiz? A revue? A
comedian falling off the stage?”
“What are you doing out?”
“Walking,” said Leonard Mead. “Walking!”
“Just walking,” he said simply, but his face felt cold.
“Walking, just walking, walking?” “Yes, sir.”
“Walking where? For what?”
“Walking for air. Walking to see.”
“Your address!”
“Where are you taking me?”
The car hesitated, or rather gave a faint whirring click,
as if information, somewhere, was dropping card by
punch-slotted card under electric eyes. “To the
Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive
Tendencies.”
"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."
Imaginative:
Compose an imaginative piece of writing inspired by Bradbury's "The Pedestrian". Choose one (or more) of the following prompts:
Place the protagonist you created during our Crafty Friday lessons into the setting of the narrative. Have them interact with the setting in response to one of the text's themes from the list above.
Choose one of the 20 practice Mod C prompts from the OneNote page. Compose an imaginative piece in response to one of these prompts.
Continue writing the narrative after Leonard Mead was taken away by the police car. What happens next?
Choose one of the significant quotes from the list above as the basis for a narrative that follows your created protagonist.
Student Sample:
He looked foreign. Out of place. A living breathing soul in the dead of night where no living thing dared to roam for fear of missing the world viewing on channel nine, seven or ten. I could see the breath coming from deep within his skeleton-like form, hunched over at the shoulders, trying to walk quietly to avoid disturbing the houses he glanced guiltily into.
I was at the window when I saw him. I had been breathing onto the frosty glass of the window, writing my name into the cloudy mist that it created. As I finished writing my name my perspective shifted and I saw in the reflection three people lined up on our viewing furniture. Their eyes were focused on the screen in front of them and the lights it threw created shadows that danced on the walls, reminding me of my child hood when I was allows to spend my Thursday afternoons learning new routines and talking with my friends after school. Friends. What an abstract concept that was today. I hadn’t written my name in years, it felt odd to see the letters form in front of the reflection of my offspring and mate, who all still sat, eyes fixed on the viewing screen, like three figures frozen in time.
I had seen the man several times now. Late at night he walked, trying to stay in the shadows. He looks like he was thinking, and I longed to hear his thoughts. What I would give to talk to him, hear his views and walk alongside him in the brisk evening air. I wondered if my house sharers would even notice if I left? I knew that as long as the channel didn’t change and the stories from the world kept being projected to them, nothing would break the reverie they were in.
I had decided, and even moved towards my jacket, when I saw the new reflection suddenly appear in the glass of the window. Blue and red lights interrupted the evening dark and the man stood upright as the lights landed next to his murky form. I pressed my nose to the condensation of the smooth glass to hear what I could.
Muffled tones came to me, and I only caught a few of the words.
“Wife…..viewing screen…….walking?” a metallic and cold tone filled the air.
“Where….years….done anything…” a saw the figure waving his hands, and once again I was reminded of the emotions and characters of a time gone by.
Before I knew it the man was out of sight, in the cage of the police vehicle and driven away. My eyes followed the car until it disappeared into the horizon.
The next night I bundled on my jacket and stepped out into the brisk evening air. I hoped to see the man, but after an hour of walking past cold, tomb-like houses, it was clear he wasn’t walking tonight. I wondered what had come of him.
Suddenly, blue and red lights appeared next to me…
Discursive:
Compose a discursive piece of writing inspired by Bradbury's "The Pedestrian". Choose one (or more) of the following prompts:
Choose one of the main themes or ideas from the list above and explore this topic from multiple perspectives. Remember that this is NOT meant to be persuasive.
Choose one of the 20 practice Mod C prompts from the OneNote page. Compose a discursive piece in response to one of these prompts.
Choose one of the significant quotes from the list above as the basis for a discursive piece about an idea explored in the text.
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