The authorities in this story are very strict and this is reminiscent of Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451. Mead is charged with walking for the sake of walking. In this state, there is only one police car left because crime has become virtually nonexistent.
Note that Mead has walked the city streets at night and has never seen another person. In this society, people go to work, go home, watch television, go to sleep, and...
The authorities in this story are very strict and this is reminiscent of Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451. Mead is charged with walking for the sake of walking. In this state, there is only one police car left because crime has become virtually nonexistent.
Note that Mead has walked the city streets at night and has never seen another person. In this society, people go to work, go home, watch television, go to sleep, and then repeat the process. This is the status quo. The narrator even refers to the houses as tombs. These people are forced and/or brainwashed to work and then go to their cells/tombs (homes). At the very least, Mead wants the freedom to leave his tomb and go for a walk. He is arrested and taken to a psychiatric ward because he threatens this status quo.
If the authorities are as strict as they appear to be, they might keep Leonard locked up forever. Remember that he has revealed to them that he's broken the rules for ten years. However, the fact that he has broken the rules for ten years speaks to his defiance of the law and his intellectual desire to challenge the laws he perceives as ridiculous. Leonard might be similarly defiant when questions by the psychiatrists and that would keep him locked up indefinitely. Or, Leonard might take a more devious strategy and say he was misguided and will never walk at night again. If he can trick the authorities into believing that he will become an obedient citizen like the rest, they might let him go. Then he would be free to walk the streets again. He would just have to avoid that sole police car.
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