There Will Come Soft Rains Analysis

In There Will Come Soft Rains, Ray Bradbury uses a theme of how technology can run our lives. He shows this by the a voice-clock telling a empty house to get up and start the mourning with breakfast, then a automated kitchens starts making the breakfast (Bradbury 1). A automatic garage door opened for no one (Bradbury 1). He had robotic mice running around the house that were used to go around and clean the floor (Bradbury

This can be clearly seen when the house “[shuts] up its windows and drawn shades in an old-maidenly preoccupation with self-protection which [borders] on mechanical paranoia” (Bradbury np). The house always inquires “‘Who goes there? What’s the password?’” (Bradbury np) before letting anything or anyone in. However, no response comes from the “foxes and whining cats” (Bradbury np) outside the house. The house “[quivers] at each sound” (Bradbury np). When a sparrow brushes against the house’s window, the house snaps its shade up since “not even a bird must touch the house” (Bradbury np). The house tries to keep all animals outside with the exception of a dog, “gone to the bone and filled with sores” (Bradbury np), that can be inferred to be the pet of the dead McClellan family. Aside from the dog, all animals inside the house are mechanical and they perform different tasks within the house. The tiny robot mice and “copper scrap rats” collects dirt and cleans the floor, while the aluminum roaches and iron crickets play with the kids during children’s time. These animals are different from the animals outside that are alive since the house wants its mechanical ways to be

In “There Will Come Soft Rains” Ray Bradbury suggests that technology is very destructive and dehumanizing. Bradbury shows this through talking about a house in the year 2026 that does everything for the humans that live in it. The house makes their food, cleans the dishes, cleans the house, and even reads to them. To some people this may sound like a good thing, but Bradburry shows how the house is not a human and it just is not the same. These are things people are meant to do and can have some meaning. Having a house doing nearly everything for you truly is dehumanizing. When he describes the houses jobs he makes them sound useless. The movements are useless because there are no people in the house, due to what Bradbury suggests was an atomic bomb by writing that the house was the only one not destroyed in a whole city, and there was a green radioactive glow throughout the city. Another way bradbury showed the house was destructive was when

Though the newly developed technology has innumerable advantageous and has brought human civilization thus far, human’s reliance of this technology will bring upon their demise. The warning is enhanced as the author uses personification to bring life to the remaining lifeless objects after the perishing of humans, creating a sense of emptiness. Furthermore, throughout the account,the author symbolized the previous inhabitants of the house and humans as “the gods (that) had gone away”. Furthermore, Bradbury compares the house’s service to its habitants as a “ritual”. Yet, the absence of the humans rendered the “ritual” (the house's service and purpose) “senseless” and “useless”. For instance, when the house announced “‘Today is August 4, 2026,’ ”, “No doors slammed, no carpets took the soft tread of rubber heels” (Bradbury 1). (ADD THREE SENTENCES)The author’s warning about technology can be further be implied today, as the conundrum has only worsened throughout the years. Hence his warning is only becoming more

Ray Bradbury has written several futuristic stories which portray the advancement of society. “There Will Come Soft Rains” contains technology in the house that we only dream about. Our current homes, compared to the house in Bradbury’s story, seem bland and helpless in comparison.

If this story had been told from a first person point of view, the reader my not have gotten this in depth of a description of the setting. Without the reader understanding that the house was boarded up and abandoned, to the point where it seems

Bradbury’s imaginings of the futuristic house are bold in attempting to convince the reader that it had human qualities and that the house had an almost above superiority over humans. “The house was an altar with ten thousand attendants, big, small, servicing, attending, in choirs. But the gods had gone away, and the ritual of the religion continued senselessly, uselessly.” (Bradbury 2) Bradbury describes the characteristics of the house, what it can do versus what humans would normally do in handling everyday tasks and chores. Almost with a religious cadence, the futuristic house continues to do its set duties.

The story opens with this sentence, “In the living room the voice-clock sang, Tick-tock, seven o'clock, time to get up, time to get up, seven o'clock! as if it were afraid that nobody would” (1). This first sentence personifies the house and demonstrates its inner motives. The house’s goal is to please its inhabitants. It wakes everyone up, cooks breakfast, provides information about the day, and tells everyone their schedule. These actions give a first glimpse into the house’s love for its family. Suggesting that the house’s family has died, the narrator states, “But no doors slammed, no carpets took the soft tread of rubber heels” (1). At 10:15, the suspicion is confirmed, “The entire west face of the house was black, save for five places…. The five spots of paint—the man, the woman, the children, the ball—remained. The rest was a thin charcoaled layer” (2). The house is alone and thus, has lost its purpose. Unable to accept this fact, the house continues to try to please its family.

While the house has survived the initial nuclear explosions as weeks of exposure to fallout, the house ironically meets its fate not to man, but rather to house fire brought on by a natural storm. In this way, we see that while technology may seem to have great power, the natural order will always have the final say on its fate. Furthermore, the house’s blind obedience to its duties also helps seal its fate. Because the house has been using water to wash clothes and dishes in its occupants’ absence, it lacks the water necessary to put out the fire and save itself. Because it lacks direction from humans, it completely fails despite doing what it was designed to do. In this way Bradbury shows technology at its most vulnerable, where technology alone is neither powerful nor infallible, despite what many people may feel about their computers and

“August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains” is a story written by Ray Bradbury. The story opens in a living room of a well technologically advance house, where a clock which is voice activated yells out the time, making sure everyone gets up, and also makes breakfast, cleans, and does just about all the household things you are to do. After we read about all the things the house does, we start to notice that the house is empty, which then leads us to learn about the silhouettes on the walls of the house, which we can infer, based on our knowledge of bombs that this is from some type of nuclear bomb. As we read on we learn that the house is the only house left standing in a pile of ruins. After a while the voice in the house starts to play one of Mrs. McClellan favorite poems, which is ironic given the type of situation that the house is unaware that has taken place, the poems talks about nature and how it will still move on and not care that mankind has wiped itself out completely. After the poem, the mood of the story changes the house catches on fire and even with all of its technology it still can’t stop the fire and burns down, the only thing that remains is a wall, which holds the clock that just keeps repeating the date August 5, 2026. From reading the story I think the author plays with the idea that nature is the only thing that can go along its track without any human interactions.

The house’s efficiency and helpfulness seem to make it cold and emotionless and the fact that it lives on after its inhabitants have passed just proves how the house is only a machine that is unable to love, this house will always be a house but it will never be a home.

This work, along with others make Ray Bradbury a significant and influential science fiction author. His writing style and themes developed due to personal and historical events that he experienced during his lifetime. Ray Bradbury’s childhood and early work, the events of World War II, and his focus on the destructive nature of technology influenced the character, themes, and plot of Ray Bradbury’s story “There Will Come Soft Rains.”

This house is fully equipped with 21st century technology. Even though there are no people the house works on a specific schedule 24 hours 7 days a week. The story begins normally, alarm clock goes off and right away that’s a sign of people. What was not expected was that there is no humans beings what so ever, it was just one little house by it self, around is just rubble and debree. Since this story is written as if it was in the future, everything is automated. The house is a machine that did everything from cleaning to preparing food. Although people are not present (because of the nuclear holocaust), the house still functions. The climax of the story is when a weak tree bough crashed through the kitchen window, knocking over cleaning solvent over the stove. Instantaneously the kitchen catches fire. The house tried its best to defend itself but as we all know nature is unstoppable. This story is phenomenon; it’s very intense and has you on the edge of your seat the whole time. This story is made for the reader to visualize the actual story, as if you were actually there. All that is left is the lonely house and the wounded dog. What happens in the end really is unexpected and even sad. In Ray Bradbury’s short story “August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rain”, He uses various literary devices to warn us about the dangers of technology . Bradbury uses symbols to illustrate that humans are to dependent on technology. He uses the themes of the story to

reader feel a sense of dread and despair because unlike the house the reader knows the owners

Silence dominated the household. The only audible sounds were the howling wind and the rain pouring down on the windows and rooftop. Everyone in the house was sleeping, the landlord and his family, his wife and the children. In solitude, the man stood staring wide awake at the cold stove. He blinked in anguish at the work that his pathological insatiability did not allow him to believe.