My favorite story I’ve read this semester would have to be “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury, mainly due to the fact that even though the story initially came across as very straightforward, the ending caught me off guard. In summary, the story was about a family who lived in an automated that catered to their every whims via telepathic emanations to the extent that they began to lack any sort of self-reliance/independence, but more so began to have a more devastating effect on the children, Peter and Wendy. Their parents, George and Lydia felt that the house replaced them as mother and father as the automated house completely stripped them of their parental duty of taking care of their kids, but it mainly came down to the fact that the children spent most of their time in the nursery (a sort of glorified virtual reality room) and usually had it on the African veldt setting. When advised to shut down the house, the children adamantly and vehemently reject this idea, taking this rejection to the extreme by threatening and even devising and carrying out a plan to kill their parents by locking them in the nursery with actual lions. 

The main characters are the entire family (the parents: George and Lydia, the children: Peter and Wendy), including the house itself due to the crucial role it plays in both the family’s lives and the children’s perception/treatment of the parents. But I’d say the main character would have to be George.

I believe that displays a hybrid of utilitarian and virtue ethics throughout the entire story. His utilitarian ethics are put on display when he becomes fully committed to turning off the automated house. By turning off the house, he felt that he is maximizing the overall good of the family, but mainly his children who have become completely dependent on the house. He also demonstrates his utilization of virtue ethics in that particular instance as well, as he feels that becoming over-reliant on the house isn’t something he wants for his children. He wants him and his family to become more independent as he doesn’t want to become a person who can’t take care of himself.