Setting

Physical setting

Ray Bradbury’s short story, “The Pedestrian” takes place in the “world of A.D. 2053”, in an unnamed “city of three million” somewhere in the US, as indicated by references to “Arizona” or the “United States Cavalry”. The action takes place at night, during Mead’s walk outside. 

The physical setting of the city has several important functions in the story. Firstly, the description of the setting helps set the atmosphere, warning readers that something might be wrong: 

“And on his way, he would see the cottages and homes with their dark windows, and it was not unequal to walking through a graveyard where only the faintest glimmers of firefly light appeared in flickers behind the windows. Sudden gray phantoms seemed to manifest upon ...