When their parents, advised by a psychologist, decide to turn the room off, the children at first lash out in outrage, then calmly acquiesce. The children, concerningly, always have it turned to a scene of the African veldt, where lions feast on prey. One of Bradbury's most famous and terrifying stories, 'The Veldt' portrays a family in the future who have installed a virtual reality playroom for the children of the house, the walls of which can portray any environment they might wish. At the end, the narrator grows frightened of these tattoos, which seem to foretell his own death. These tattoos seem to be living: they tell stories and constantly change, weaving imaginative stories that celebrate and condemn. He is an ex-circus performer who received full-body tattoos from a mysterious old woman, changing his life. The eighteen short stories in The Illustrated Man are tied together with an overarching narrative, that of the 'illustrated man' himself. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own.

'The Fox and the Forest' - A couple go to the past to escape a terrible future.These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. 'No Particular Night or Morning' - A series of experiences on a space ship drive a man insane. 'The Exiles' - The last memories of burned Earth authors must battle against humans invading their new home planet - Mars. 'The Last Night of the World' - The world ends. 'The Fire Balloons' - Christian missionaries on a colonized Mars must convert strange, blue-colored Martians to their religion. 'The Rocket Man' - A retired Rocket Man visits his son and wife for numerous periods of time - or is he? 'The Long Rain' - A group of humans stuck on Venus must find the evasive and elusive Sun Domes. 'The Man' - A group of space-travelers land on an unknown planet and are meet with the strange case of a mysterious man. 'The Highway' - A group of obscure Mexican farmers meet a group of tourists who try to understand the words 'the world'. 'The Other Foot' - After leaving Earth for Mars many years before, a community of blacks must deal with a white man from a destroyed Earth. 'Kaleidoscope' - As their ship is destroyed, astronauts recount their lives and let out their most deep urges. 'The Veldt' - The Hadley parents become worried as their two children use their virtual reality-like 'nursery' for their own desires. The stories are connected through the tale of a former member of a circus whose body is full of illustrations who meets a wanderer on a street who is shown him the illustrations tatooed on his body. 1951 The Illustrated Man is a 1951 short story collection of eighteen short stories by Ray Bradbury.

The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury