In this passage, Bradbury uses internal conflict to argue that, when humans become emotionally isolated, they lose value to people that are important in their lives. Mrs. Bowles shares her beliefs that most of society feels towards children, “they: “They come home three days a month; it’s not bad at all. You heave them in the ‘parlor’ and turn the switch.” This shows that Mrs. Bowles doesn’t value her children and is essentially not the one raising them, but the TV walls are. She doesn’t care about her children as much as her latest TV shows, isolating herself from her family.
Mrs. Phelps talks about her husband, “oh: “Oh, they come and go, come and go… Army called Pete yesterday. He’ll be back soon. Quick war.” This shows that the idea of war is normalized in their society so it doesn’t matter when it happens. They don’t pay enough attention to the world outside of their technology and, when they do, they don’t want to believe the hard truth. Mrs. Phelps goes on to talk about her marriages,: “He said, if I get killed off, you just go right ahead and don't cry, but get married again, and don't think of me.” This shows that it doesn’t matter to Mrs. Phelps about what happens to her husband. She isolates herself with her technology and TV shows in such a way that it wouldn’t matter if her husband was there or not. Marriage in this society is not a genuine connection but rather an accessory to life. The characters in this society isolate themselves because of their exposure to technology and forget the worth of physical connections and creating bonds that matter in life.