What aspects of contemporary family life do the “Happylife Home” and the nursery satirize? What exactly have the Hadleys “purchased” for...

The "Happylife Home" advertises the pinnacle of convenience for families. It includes a kitchen that will cook all your meals for you, a house that will put your children to bed, and so on. With the inclusion of the nursery, the kids will supposedly be occupied for hours exploring the simulations created by technology. In short, the technology of the "Happylife Home" should free people from domestic work and many parenting responsibilities so they can...

The "Happylife Home" advertises the pinnacle of convenience for families. It includes a kitchen that will cook all your meals for you, a house that will put your children to bed, and so on. With the inclusion of the nursery, the kids will supposedly be occupied for hours exploring the simulations created by technology. In short, the technology of the "Happylife Home" should free people from domestic work and many parenting responsibilities so they can have more free time.

Throughout many of his stories, Bradbury offers observations of technology that range from ambivalent to highly critical. Theoretically, technology should allow more free time for people to create, explore, and converse with one another, but it usually ends up being used for mundane or shallow purposes. Moreover, with the "Happylife Home," the family should have more time to spend together, but the children spend the majority of their time in the nursery, which ultimately disconnects them from their parents and produces a tragic result.

Although it was written decades ago, "The Veldt" could just as easily have been published this year. For instance, the present-day enthusiasm for "the internet of things" asserts that we can let technology take over the boring aspects of our lives like cooking and cleaning, leaving us free to pursue our passions and interests. Of course, like the family in the story, giving up these chores and responsibilities means that people won't know how to do them if the technology ever breaks down or something goes wrong. In "The Veldt," for example, the nursery is supposed to make life easier, but is ultimately used to kill. While we haven't quite reached that point in the present, there have been many examples of identity theft, injury, and so on, simply because people have given over sensitive information or important responsibilities to computers.