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Metaphors
Definition of Mood
The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes in the reader. Every aspect of a piece of writing... read full definition
The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes in the reader. Every aspect... read full definition
The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes... read full definition
Mood
Explanation and Analysis:
The mood of “The Pedestrian” is depressing and bleak. The story takes place in a futuristic city in which no one leaves their homes (and, in particular, their television sets) except to go to the gas station and work. No one, that is, but the protagonist Mead, who walks for hours every night, reflecting with bitterness and despair on the sad state of his society. The depressing mood comes across in the following passage, as Mead walks along a city street:
Was that a murmur of laughter from within a moon-white house? He hesitated, but went on when nothing more happened. He stumbled over a particularly uneven section of sidewalk. The cement was vanishing under flowers and grass. In ten years of walking by night or day, for thousands of miles, he had never met another person walking, not once in all that time.
The bleak mood here comes across in the way that Mead believes, for a moment, that he heard “a murmur of laughter” from within a house, only to keep walking “when nothing more happened.” The fact that Mead “hesitates” at the possible sound of laughter suggests that laughter is a rare occurrence in this society. Further, the fact that he stumbles over an uneven section of sidewalk indicates that the city does not take care of its sidewalks because so few people use them—another bleak fact. Perhaps the most depressing moment of all comes in the final sentence in the paragraph, in which the narrator explains that, over the course of ten years of walking, Mead “had never met another person walking, not once in all that time.” Here readers can assume how lonely Mead must be, walking for years without seeing a single other human face.
The story becomes even more bleak after Mead is picked up by an automated police car for walking and then taken to a facility for people with “regressive tendencies.” Readers don't know what will happen to Mead at the facility, but from the story so far, they can infer that it won't be good. Thus the story ends even more ominously than it began.
Related Themes:
