'The Pedestrian' : Essay on the Individual

Authors Avatar
Essay on the Individual

It is fairly simple for people to be regarded as a person who is suspicious, or subversive. Another thing which is very easily done to people is to dismiss them. Many ways in which this can happen are shown in the short story, "The Pedestrian." It shows examples of this in the way which the man is treated and how the whole world has become such a cold place.

As the man was taking a walk, it seemed like a very cold place from the start of the story. As he gets stopped by the police car it begins to talk to him. At that point the thought begins to occur to you, as if something is wrong because there is nobody driving the car. The humans who used to drive these cars, the police officers have been replaced by machines. The government and society is dismissing them because they are no longer needed. A new, more efficient and less costly way of doing things has been found. This is a frightening idea, to see people being replaced by cold, hard steel.
Join now!


He continues to talk to the car it asks him why he is talking and begins to see him in a suspicious way simply because he does not conform to the ideas which have been accepted by the rest of society. This lead you on to think that if you choose not to follow the "norm" and truly think freely that you will be thought of as somebody who will pose a threat. This is something that people have been trying to do for many centuries. They believe that they must stop anything that can pose a threat ...

This is a preview of the whole essay