Although Williams usually wrote with particular readers in mind, his themes and subjects have universal relevance and can still reward readers today. Williams tells us that he intended A Key "specially for my friends residing in those parts." In other words, he wants to instruct fellow missionaries and traders how to interact with his other friends, the Indians. He is determined to dispel the stereotypes and false conceptions of them as subhuman savages current in the early colonies. Images of the Indians in writings from Williams's contemporaries and earlier explorers should provide students with a clear sense of the audience, their assumptions, and their needs. Williams has much to say still about interracial understanding, respect, and harmony. Moreover, his observations are still keen insights into human nature.
The society in which the protagonist of The Pedestrian resides can best be categorized as dystopian totalitarian. Bradbury, whose later novel Fahrenheit 451 provided one of literature's more compelling depictions of a futuristic dystopian society, in The Pedestrian provides hints of what was to come.
