- Technology and isolation: screens keep people indoors and apart; nobody walks, talks or reads.
- Conformity versus individuality: anyone who behaves differently is treated as sick.
- Dehumanisation: machines replace people — even the police car has no human in it.
- Loss of nature and simple joys: walking, fresh air and silence are no longer valued.
- Loss of literature and thought: writing is "no profession"; nobody reads.
- Control by the state: a citizen can be taken away without crime, trial or appeal.
7.1 Why the story is dystopian
| Feature of a dystopia | In The Pedestrian |
|---|---|
| a future society that seems orderly | crime has almost disappeared |
| hidden control | one automated police car controls the city |
| loss of freedom | a man cannot walk the streets at night |
| conformity | everyone watches screens indoors |
| punishment of difference | Mead is sent to a psychiatric centre |
| a warning to the reader | about technology and passivity |
(2025 specimen Q1(xvi): the story is best described as dystopian.)
7.2 Science fiction or horror?
| Science fiction | Horror |
|---|---|
| set in the future (A.D. 2053) | a man is taken away for no crime |
| a driverless, talking police car | the city is like a graveyard; people like the dead |
| "viewing screens" in every home | the cold, cell-like back seat |
| imagines the effect of technology on society | the chilling, helpless ending |
(2025 specimen Q5(v): accept either, with two plausible reasons.)
7.3 Imagery and comparisons
| Image | What it suggests |
|---|---|
| walking through a graveyard | the people indoors are as good as dead |
| the shadow of a hawk over open country | Mead's solitude and freedom |
| the middle of an Arizona desert, no house for a thousand miles | total emptiness and isolation |
| a moth caught in a lamp | Mead stunned and helpless in the car's lights |
| the back seat like a small black cell | the inhuman cruelty of the system |
| the brightly lit house | warmth, life and individuality |
7.4 Then and now
| In the story (written 1951) | Today |
|---|---|
| "viewing screens" in every room | televisions, phones, tablets, streaming |
| nobody walks at night | people spend long hours online indoors |
| a driverless police car | self-driving cars, surveillance cameras, automated systems |
| reading has died out | concern about falling reading habits |
| isolation and alienation | loneliness despite constant connection |
(2027 specimen Q1(xiv): the aspect of our world that most resembles Mead's is isolation and alienation.)
7.5 Significance of the title
A pedestrian is simply a person who walks. In Mead's world, this ordinary word has become strange: he is the only pedestrian in the city, and being one is enough to get him arrested. The plain title is therefore ironic — it names the "crime" that makes Mead an outsider.