Using "Harrison Bergeron" and the excerpt from "The Veldt" discuss how the theme of paranoia over control by technology is demonstrated in postmodernist literature. How do these authors feel about technology? What is their warning?

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Richard Franco

30 May, 23:38

Using "Harrison Bergeron" and the excerpt from "The Veldt" discuss how the theme of paranoia over control by technology is demonstrated in postmodernist literature. How do these authors feel about technology? What is their warning?

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Steven Bridges · Answer 1

These stories illustrate a strong sense of paranoia that technology may come to control us.

In "Harrison Bergeron," technology is used to make everyone equal. In this sense, people and technology are, in a sense, one. People live with radios constantly playing in their ears. People are literally unable to live without technology, as required by the government.

In "The Veldt," technology is awesome - - until it turns on them. The family lives in a house where technology does everything for them. As a result, they become dependent on it. They cannot cook or clean or do anything for themselves, because the house does it all. Eventually, the house is responsible for the death of the parents.

The authors of both stories worry that people will grow so dependent on technology that we will be unable to live without it, eventually leading to our downfall.