HeidrylB's Site

Here is my blackout poem on The Veldt. The assignment was to find several words on a page of a dystopian novel, and to black out the surrounding words to make a poem that links to the themes of The Veldt. I used Canva and FireAlpaca to create this poem. I ‘found’ this poem on page 12 of the novel Red Rising by Pierce Brown.

Heidryl Buena’s poem “Machine” explores the theme from Radbury’s The Veldt on how our obsessiveness with technology is isolating us from each other. The first line, “Machine grasps and gnaws at my mind”, touches on addiction to technology, like how the children in The Veldt were so attached to the Happylife Home – and practically addicted to the nursery. In the next line, “Despite the voices, I am alone” Heidryl uses ‘the voices’ as a metaphor for technology and it’s many forms of digital entertainment – especially social media. It’s so easy to feel so satisfied happy once one receives likes and comments of praise on a post, but soon they will come to realize that Instagram likes can never replace human connection. This ties into the line “I, I seek warmth”, followed by “I still dream of it”. Here, she demonstrates a use of repetition and talks about how quality time in relationships is becoming rarer. We are all so caught up in our phones and social media, that we forget to spend time with loved ones – or maybe even prefer not to due to the appeal of staying home on our phones. This is especially present in families, as many family members stay isolated in their respective bedrooms watching television, playing video games, or on their phones, which is very similar to how the nursery in The Veldt played a big role in distancing the kids from their parents.  The last line, “The babies, like me, are lonely.” also talks about how with giving children technology, they often lose their connection with not only their parents, but also the people around them. Many studies have shown how a heightened amount of screen time in children can negatively impact their development in social skills, causing isolation and essentially, loneliness. The children in The Veldt are a good example of this study, as they had lost their empathy due to the amount of time they spent with technology, rather than spending time with their family or other people.