What aspects of contemporary family life do the “Happylife Home” and the nursery satirize? What exactly have the Hadleys “purchased” for...

The Happylife Home and the nursery are used to satirize the value that people place on material objects and technology. 

Author Ray Bradbury commented not long before his death that he once believed technology would be "mankind's savior, but now I think it may be our doom." This idea is illustrated in "The Veldt," as Lydia and George Hadley hold the belief that technology is the answer to their problems. Sadly, the virtual reality walls of the nursery become...

The Happylife Home and the nursery are used to satirize the value that people place on material objects and technology. 

Author Ray Bradbury commented not long before his death that he once believed technology would be "mankind's savior, but now I think it may be our doom." This idea is illustrated in "The Veldt," as Lydia and George Hadley hold the belief that technology is the answer to their problems. Sadly, the virtual reality walls of the nursery become their doom instead.

Believing that technology is a boon to their lives, the Hadleys have purchased an expensive house that does a multitude of tasks for them. But what they lose from having technology be the homemaker is the human and loving touch and interaction that their children need. For instance, Mrs. Hadley tells her husband that she no longer feels that she belongs in her home, but she forgets that there is more to a child's bath than just the washing of the body:

"The house is wife and mother now, and nursemaid....Can I give a bath and scrub the children as efficiently or quickly as the automatic scrub bath can? I cannot."

Wendy and Peter do not receive the nurturing and humanizing that comes from a child's physical, emotional, and intellectual contact with parents. Then, because of their separation from the human touch and interaction, the children seek experiences of emotion from their virtual reality of their nursery. And, since the walls of the nursery cannot provide the deep feelings of love, it substitutes for Wendy and Peter what it can produce—the intensity of violence.