PLOT
CHARACTERIZATION
SETTING
MOOD
SOCIETY
100
What is Leonard Mead doing in the opening of the text?
Taking a walk.
100
What is the main character's name?
Leonard Mead.
100
What is setting?
The place, time, and social context of the story.
100
What is mood?
The feeling that a text conveys to the reader.
100
What are all of the other characters doing in their houses while Leonard goes on a walk?
Watching TV.
200
What happens when Leonard is finishing up is walk and is within a block of his destination ?
He gets stopped by the police.
200
How are Leonard's hobbies different than the hobbies of the other citizens?
He likes to walk outside, and they like to sit inside and watch tv.
200
What year is the pedestrian set in?
2053
200
What is the general mood of this text?
Dark, brooding, desolate, lonely, etc.
200
Why does Leonard have to change into sneakers to go on his walks?
The sneakers made him quieter, which meant that dogs wouldn't bark and people wouldn't know he was walking around outside.
300
For Leonard, what is unusual about having a lone car approach him?
In his society, nobody does anything outside at night except for him. He has never encountered another soul on his nightly walks.
300
What is the simile used to describe the way Mead is drawn to the beams of the police car?
Like a moth to the light.
300
Why is the sidewalk slowly being taken over by grass and cracks? How is that important to the story?
Because nobody is walking on them anymore so the grass is covering them, and since nobody is using them anymore they don't repair them. This shows that Mead is a unique character in this society because he does enjoy walking, and that the other peoples in the society have become obsessed with staying inside and watching tv.
300
Name three descriptions of the setting that create a mood of death/desolation.
"graveyard" "phantoms" "tomb-like" "skeletal"
300
What are some details we learn about police enforcement in this town?
There is only one policeman because crime is decreasing.
400
Using context clues, predict why the police car stopped Leonard when he was just taking a walk.
Answers may vary. (Perhaps he has done something we don't know about yet. Perhaps the police are looking for someone and he is the only one outside. Perhaps it seems suspicious that he is the only one outside. Perhaps...etc.)
400
How is Leonard Mead different than the people in his society? Give two pieces of direct evidence that show this difference.
"Mr. Leonard Mead most dearly loved" to take walks, but "in ten years of walking by night or day, for thousands of miles, he had never met another person walking, not one in all that time." He enjoys taking relaxing, quiet walks alone, but everyone else would rather be constantly surrounded by technology and entertainment.
400
"During the day it was a thunderous surge of cars, the gas stations open, a great insect rustling and a ceaseless jockeying for position as the scarab-beetles, a faint incense puttering from their exhausts, skimmed homeward to the far directions." Why does Bradbury use the image of the beetle to describe rush hour traffic? What contrast does the daytime traffic have to the empty streets Leonard is walking?
He uses this image to show the unending, purposeless movement of the people that resembles insects wandering quickly and aimlessly.
400
How does the mood of the story affect the predictions you make about what's going to happen next in the text?
The mood is dark and forbearing, which makes it seem like something bad is going to happen to our protagonist.
400
Based on the setting and mood, what type of society is Leonard living in and how do you know this?
He is living in a society that values technology (aka TV) over spending time outside or even spending quality time together.
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