There Will Come Soft Rains Ray Bradbury

By leaving the house empty and alone, but still standing after the city is destroyed, Bradbury

“In the kitchen the breakfast stove gave a hissing sigh and ejected from it’s warm interior eight pieces of perfectly browned toast, eight eggs sunnyside up, sixteen slices of bacon, two coffees, and two cool glasses of milk” is a quote on page 471 that is used to introduce the house’s tidy and proper manner. The explanation of how this automated house goes through it’s chores thoroughly everyday on a set schedule adds to this effect. It is only later revealed on page 472, that this once peaceful neighborhood is now “of rubble and ashes.” The paragraph continues with, “This was the one house left standing. At night the ruined city gave off a radioactive glow which could be seen for miles.” This is implying that an atomic bomb had exploded at a previous date.

Throughout the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, fire and water is a recurring motif. This motif is not only found in Bradbury’s novel but also in Matt Daffern’s poem, “Fire and Water.” Both works present a myriad of interpretations as to the nature and interaction between fire and water. Fire can mean anger, destruction, strength, or rebirth. Water can symbolize complacency, peace, rationality, or cleansing. These separate and opposite forces have contrasting qualities. However, there is a clear correlation between the novel and the poem as they illustrate that fire and water are closer than what one may normally think and they also emphasize the balance of both.

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

He compares the house to “an altar with ten thousand attendants” and the absence of people as “the gods had gone away” (Bradbury 2). By including this extended metaphor, Bradbury confirms that the house is indeed the last remaining structure and entity of the now decimated society. Through detailed comparison, Bradbury helps the reader infer the twistedness of the situation and understand the reality of the setting.

The main character of “There Will Come Soft Rains” is the house itself. For many reason this house is far better than the ones we currently use. For example, this house has beds that heat themselves when it is time for bed and constant reminders of when and where to be. An interesting feature is that the lawn mows itself and the house cleans itself with little robot mice. With a routine, the house will not stop so there will be no

Ray Bradbury once said, "I don't try to describe the future. I try to prevent it." These days you'll find that most people walk around with phone in hand. To a certain extent Bradbury's are becoming realities. However in order to prevent the worst from happening, readers must consider just what that worse thing would be. What was it that Ray Bradbury was trying so hard to prevent?

Piles of trash and waste all over the ground and on every beach. Is this the future of our planet? It might be if nothing is done to protect the Earth. One day devoted to preventing this situation is Earth Day, April 22nd, which is not as popular as a holiday as it should be. Starting in 1970, Earth Day was created to show the increasing concern for our planet due to the occurring nuclear wars and pollution build up (Earth Day Network). The holiday encourages using less technology and getting outside to clean up and enjoy the nature Earth offers. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark”, William Wordsworth’s “The World Is Too Much with Us”, and Ray Bradbury’s “There Will Come Soft Rains” are all examples of why we should focus less on what

The text, There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury tells the story of a robotically controlled house left standing in a post-apocalyptic world. Every day, life continues as normal for the house until it meets the same fate of “death” as it catches on fire and burns to the ground, leaving only one voice behind.

Furthermore, it is no coincidence that Bradbury used the same title in his short story that Sara Teasdale did in her poem “There Will Come Soft Rains”. Teasdale’s poem is a stunning piece that just like Bradbury hints at the fact of a war. She talks about the beauty of the earth and how even without mankind the world still turns and life goes on. “Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree/If mankind perished utterly” (Teasdale 9-10). The idea of this poem is used ironically in Bradbury's short story when the house recalls "Since you express no preference, I shall select a poem at random." Quiet music rose to back the voice. "Sara Teasdale. As I recall, your favorite…” (Bradbury 3). However, both poem and short story, lead back to fact that without human civilization the world is a better place.

In the futuristic short story, “There Will Come Soft Rains,” Ray Bradbury, the author, utilizes tone and figurative language to generate a lonesome mood. Set in the year 2026, he portrays a innovative house in an environment in which humanity no longer exists. On the outside of the house, the author illustrates a “silhouette in paint of a man mowing the lawn… a woman bent to pick flowers… a small boy… and opposite him a girl, hands raised to catch a ball which never came down” (328). Solitarily and inconsolably, the images of the households remnants on the walls manifests the sublime lifestyle before the deaths of its residents. However, the once buoyant lives of the family dissipate as the house lingers alone.

The short story "There Will Come Soft Rains" reflects upon the idea that the isolation of nature and how the continuity of it does not depend on the human race. This theme causes the tale by Ray Bradbury to have an ironic, regretful mood. Beginning with the most evident example of both the mood and literary device, irony, is the poem within the heart of the story written by Sara Teasdale. In this poem it describes a world in which nature awakens after mankind's destruction and completely disregards the disappearance of us. The theme of the poem is that nature will survive after humanity is gone, reflecting upon the mood of the story; that even the vast cities of humanity will ultimately be salvaged by nature.

Ray Bradbury’s work “There Will Come Soft Rains” also shows the possibility of humans creating technology and inadvertently wiping out the human race. The story begins with the living room voice-clock singing “[t]ick-tock, seven o’clock, time to get up, time to get up, seven o’clock! as if it were afraid that nobody would” (Bradbury 1). The house proceeds with the daily chores of making breakfast, cleaning, and preparing a bath. However, readers can safely assume that there are no signs of human life and the house is completely “empty” (1).

“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.

This personification of the house shows that even in the absence of its inhabitants, the house still