“The Pedestrian” is a dystopian short story that describes one night in the life of Leonard Mead, resident of an unnamed city in the year 2053. Mead enjoys walking the city streets alone every night. As he walks the empty streets, he passes the homes of other citizens, who are inside watching television. He has done this for ten years and never encountered another person, since all the other people remain inside their homes, mesmerized by the light entertainment programs on their television screens. The other citizens are described as if they are dead: “gray phantoms” who live in “tombs.” As he walks, Mead enjoys taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of the natural world. He also talks to himself, addressing the people in the homes, asking under his breath what they are watching on television.
On this night, however, Mead meets a robotic police car—the only one left in the city, since crime is virtually nonexistent. The car interrogates Mead, trying to discover why he is out by himself. This questioning reveals that Mead is nonconformist in many ways: he doesn’t own a television, he is unmarried and lives alone, and he is a writer in a society that doesn’t value the written word. Upon revealing the depth of Mead’s nonconformity, the car instructs Mead get in and tells him he is being taken to a psychiatric institution to be studied for regressive tendencies. The car then drives away with Mead inside.
