As Leonard is walking a leaf alarms him.
A normal person wouldn’t be so disturbed or alarmed by a leaf.
Autumn leaves
But this leaf and the veins on it however fascinate Leonard, as he believes it is the only thing living in dead city.
The city’s atmosphere is almost a character in itself. It appears to be very peculiar at night it seems so quiet, hushed and motionless. There appears to be empty streets. But however during the day it seems so normal and busy. Its like they are caught up in a trance, they appear to be hypnotised during the night.
The city talks about people being and seen dead.
Tomb like houses
Where people sat like the dead
This states in the story that people are so attached and inclined to this viewing screen that they are appearing to have no brain of their own just repeating every day again and again. Appearing to act like dead people in a dead city.
These people appear to have nothing affecting their thinking in a positive way.
Multi-colored lights touching their faces, but never really touching them.
They don’t seem to have felt anything touching them or seeing them.
During the evening it seems to reduce it some trance state. You could say in a hypnotised mood.
In a phantom state
Sudden Gray phantoms
Phantom means hypnotised during the whole day.
Everyone else in the houses seems to have these huge- viewing screens. It’s a big and wide screen. It appears to be in this city all they really want to do is watch these screens during the evening, but through the day it’s busy just like a normal day.
Early in the story it points out that there is no crime in this city. Police cars have decreased from 3 to 1. The people in this city of 3 million don’t seem to be interested or disturbed by not committing crime. All they appear or want to do is watch these viewing screens they have become so attached, dependant and a obsession has occurred and risen to watch these screens.
The language used to describe the city, the people and atmosphere is as follows.
The author describes the people in the city, as a graveyard a city of the dead. Easily elaborating on the fact that people are dead there doesn’t seem to be a lively busy city as it is normally seen as.
The atmosphere appears to be very tense, he describes the city as a
Arizona desert
Dry riverbeds
He tries to express his views and thoughts to the fact that it’s really quiet and a deserted city. Dry in the sense that nothing seems to grow anymore in the city.
He uses these words to describe
Dry season
The highways are empty during the night. There doesn’t seem to be even a single car driving down. Or even a single person taking a stroll.
He expresses his thoughts on the houses like
Tomb-like houses
He tries to say that these people have no voice or thoughts of there own there completely quiet whilst there are other people living with them during the night.
The streets appear to be empty have or no sound or motion.
The word empty is seen as a repetition the only way to emphasis on this word is to say that the author is trying to get the description and atmosphere of the city. As to say it has nothing living in there, completely silent towards the night, it has no motion.
The author uses the word
Phantoms
This is used to describe people being hypnotised and having any control over their life.
The last line of this story the author mentions the word chill.
This is not only seen as chill in the temperature but also in fear as well. The question is never really answered referring back to the start. Where I wrote what posses these people to act so different? You can only have a few judgements of what is the answer due to the amount of evidence given.
This story is set in the future and relates to a thrill show. The hired killers pursue the contestant. The contestants mission is to survive a week and receive a phenomenal amount of money two hundred thousand dollars. While being pursued by hired killers, the killers are armed the contestant is left defenceless. As the hired killers are hired they are granted immunity for life. So this gives them a great opportunity to do anything knowing they will be considerably protected.
Jim the character and contestant of the story has survived the week but has little as four and a half hours to go. He is running around searching for some place to protect himself. He has been shot. As being broad minded as anyone else he heads to the church for sanctuary. But there doesn’t seem to have the effect he has hoping for, no mercy was being shown. So he runs out and heads for the back door.
Whilst he is running and panting to catch up with his breath he falls straight in to the open grave almost a symbolic response.
Jim is an average ordinary man the audience are overall capable to be able to identify with him. When they look at him they see a similar attraction with him and can easily say he is one of them. The audience automatically put themselves in his position and accept him as an ordinary guy. Jim had been seen, as he was too modest to have dreams. It seems as though he is being given a test even before the show has started.
Mike Terry the host of The prize Of The Peril makes a lot of money by hosting this show. The only reason he wants to take part or conclude in this show or want anything to do with people like that is merely because he makes a lot of money from it. The other important factor is the audience. They begin of course by supporting Jim, they feel as though he is one of them. (Corresponding of people).
But as the show continues the audience change sides. They begin to side with the killers. Their judgement of Jim being a good a person and feeling as though he is one them unfortunately changes. The audience’s choice and view changes rapidly as the show becomes more tense and vital. The reason for this rapid change is mainly because the audience realise if Jim does win he will be very rich earning ($2,000,000)
So the audience become jealous, they tend to realise he cant become rich, as he is one of them. They begin to face the fact why should he leave rich and they leave with nothing when he is one of them. But gradually as the show goes on they emphasis on their judgement and change sides. It goes from being a good audience to a bloodthirsty and violence audience. They all of a sudden want to see violence, action they become bloody thirsty. The quality of jealousy makes them change sides and build up hatred for Jim.
Mike Terry’s is the host for this show his commentary seems to be as though he is commentating for a sport event. The only reason he takes part or conclude or want anything to do with people like this is because he earns a wage from it. He makes alot money by presenting this show.
I notice his commentating technique is recognised as a sporting event by the way he speaks.
“ What a finish”
This line makes it seem as though he is taking this show as a sport event.
Is Mike Terry seen as a hypocrite? Well we have to admit he makes a lot of money out of presenting this show. He condemns but makes money. I think who would be hold as responsible for this tragedy of a show would have to be the audience.
It is the audience who became bloody thirsty and change sides. It is them who became jealous and tell the hired killers where Jim is hiding. If it weren’t for the audience to have such audacity, to have such a bloody thirsty mind to even consider having a show like this to be broadcasted then it wouldn’t be broadcasted. Then this show wouldn’t be held and people wouldn’t die, and there would no need to see live killing. So I think in my personal point of view after reading this story I would say it is the audience who are held responsible for the killing.
Comparison
After reading these two stories I noticed that they had a few similarities. Both stories are set in the future and you can emphasis on this when you see the difference in the way life is seen and structured out. For example in The Pedestrian story, life isn’t laid out as it is today. It doesn’t have the busy nightlife, or certain people putting them in a trance. It does consist of people working normally during the day but then acting odd. As though TV is the only connection with the outside world that keeps them entertained during the night.
You can see the similar similarity in the prize of the Peril. This can be identified and noticed by a number of odd and peculiar life entertainment events. Today taking life of others is seen as breaking the law and committing a murder. But referring back to question which was how can I prove it is set in the future? By reading certain events of this story from different aspects. It came to my knowledgement that committing crime in this story is seen as life entertainment and certain people earn a lot of money from it. Also some are granted immunity. It is seen as a happy occasion, people are becoming bloodthirsty. They would do anything to see violence, murder and action.
The stories both deal with life entertainment, they both see life as a large viewing screen. In the Pedestrian people are seen as though they have been hypnotised and are completely focused on the large viewing screen. They don’t seem to have any interest in anything else in life, apart from watching the screens all night. It’s quite strange to notice that household members have one and every household member is addicted and attracted to them. In the prize of the peril it is different. But it still contrasts with life entertainment. In the pedestrian it is seen as life entertainment by watching these huge viewing screens. Whereas in The prize of the peril it refers to real murder, live murder.
People seem to be interested in seeing people killed for real, it is seems as though they enjoy the reality of this thrill show. They want to see more, they have become addicted to seeing people killed, they see it as harmless entertainment.
It doesn’t appear to be a hopeful view on human nature. They want to see people dead/killed. The more you feed their imagination the more they actually want.
After concluding both stories, I realised the similarities. They were both cut down to two main aspects of life. They were both seeing and believing life entertainment was all that life surrounds and what life is about. Also that life is being structured and set out in a very different way. They both deal with television and getting entertainment in a passive way. These pessimistic stories don’t hold much hope.