This is an interesting question to consider when thinking
about this excellent short story. Of course, whilst the parents do face what they show
fear about--the lions in the African scene that the children have created in their
futuristic nursery--they do not choose to face this fear at all. Rather, their children
manipulate and trick them into getting them into the nursery and then lock the door,
ensuring their parents' death in the most horrid of
ways.
Therefore, if I were you I would want to discuss the
fear of the children in being taken away from the nursery which they have become so
dependent on. Notice how Peter threatens his father when he suggests that they should
have a "house-free existence":
"I don't want the nursery locked up," said Peter
coldly. "Ever."
Also, when he
makes this final decision to turn off all of the mechanical machines that have taken
over their lives and had such a negative impact on their children, note Peter's
reaction:
"Don't let them do it!" wailed Peter at the
ceiling, as if he was talking to the house, the nursery. "Don't let Father kill
everything." He turned to his father. "Oh, I hate
you!"
However, in spite of
this step in the right direction, the father crucially and fatally gives in, allowing
his children one more play in the Nursery and thus sealing his own fate. So, when we
think about facing fears in this excellent short story, the biggest fear is the
children's fear of being without their nursery, which they never truly have to
face.
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