Ray Bradbury

There Will Come Soft Rains

Ray Bradbury
• Bradbury was born
August 22, 1920.
• He is a famous
horror, sci-fi,
mystery and fantasy
writer.
• Best known works
are Fahrenheit 451,
The Illustrated Man,
and Dandelion Wine.
 There Will Come Soft Rains
• The short story is an except from a
collection entitled The Martian
Chronicles.
• The collection was published in 1950.
• Many of the short stories were based
around a futuristic society.
• Like many authors Bradbury was
inspired by the events that took place
around him.
 SCIENCE-FICTION AS ALLEGORY
Allegory is a literary device used to present
an idea, principle or meaning in literary form.

Allegory communicates its message by

means of symbolic figures, actions or
symbolic representation.

As a literary device, an allegory in its most

general sense is an extended metaphor.
HIROSHIMA
• On Monday, August 6,
1945, the first atomic
bomb was dropped on
the Japanese city of
Hiroshima.
• It killed 80,000 people
instantly.
• Over the next year over
100,000 people died
from radiation
poisoning.
 The Atomic Age
Although the United States emerged
from WWII victorious and powerful, it
was not long before the Soviet Union
developed its own stockpile of atomic
weapons. The use of the first nuclear
weapons at Nagasaki and Hiroshima
initiated the Atomic Age, Cold War,
and decades of fear.

Bradbury published TWCSR in 1950,

five years after the U.S. dropped the
first atomic bombs on Japan. This
story reflects the fear at that time that
rival nations might unleash their
deadly technology on the world and
destroy humanity, entirely.
 THEME
TECHNOLOGY WILL BE THE
SALVATION
OR
DESTRUCTION OF
HUMANKIND.
 TECHNOLOGY
There are no humans present in the story, only
traces, shadows, echoes. Bradbury explores an
ironic reflection on the strengths and weaknesses
of human nature, while warning against the limits
and dangers of technology.

The same advancements that enable the people of

the future to create the fully automated house are
also responsible for the creation of the nuclear
weapons that lead to their destruction.
 It is a warning against relying too much on technology,
forgetting we are mortal and of course, nuclear war.
The automated house and the machines that run it of course
represent our obsession with technology and the
convenience it can bring. The house is designed to provide
everything the family could possibly need but firstly it can’t
protect them from nuclear war and secondly it can’t even tell
when the family it is designed to serve are all dead and gone.

There is also a message that is supposed to remind us not to

disengage too much from nature and that we are mortal
animals – not gods. This comes in the way that the house
constantly separates itself from the outside world and in the
end it is the natural elements that causes its destruction. As
well as this the fact that the only characters in the story are
machines and robots, replacing living things adds to the
conflict between nature and technology in the story.
The story also sends a message about the horror of nuclear
war. It does this through setting and atmosphere.
Not only do we have the empty, haunted house but we also
have the charred surrounding and the ghostly shapes on the
wall of the house.
The devastation we are presented in the story reflects
contemporary feelings towards nuclear war and should
resonate even today.
 Man vs. Machine

Even though the tragedy of the story has already

taken place by the time the story begins, it is the
conflict between human beings and the machines
(technology) they have created, that is at the heart
of the story.

People have the power to create devices that can

help them and also those that can destroy them;
however, there is no evidence to suggest that
mankind enacted any measures to prevent their
destruction
House is preoccupied with keeping time, a human
construct; despite the absence of any humans, the
house continues to be concerned with celebrations of
time (birthdays, anniversaries) and timely reminders (the
insurance, water, gas, and light bills)

The house does not possess any sort of artificial

intelligence – it does not pause to wonder why no one is
eating the food it has prepared or listening to it as it
reads poetry aloud or enjoying the services it loyally
provides. The house has no concept of death, even as
it’s being destroyed.
 Machine vs. Nature
Animals exist without humanity, but in poor conditions

The family dog dies from radiation poisoning and

starvation

House functions performed by mechanical animals (mice,

rats, snakes)

The children’s bedroom features an artificial jungle with

mechanical animals and synthetic environments

In the end, nature prevails over technology

A tree falls on the house, causing the fire
Fire is a basic, natural force and a symbol of true
 IRONY
Irony is defined as the effect created when a writer
contrasts expectations and reality.

Situational irony: an event directly contradicts

strong expectations

Verbal irony: a character states the opposite of

what is meant

Dramatic irony: the reader knows something a

character does not
 IRONY

Time
The house has been programmed to run on a
tight schedule, which it follows religiously
even after the humans are gone.
 IRONY
Shadows
The west side of the house is
charred completely except for five
“nuclear shadows,” or silhouettes
left by the family members as they
died in the sudden, instantaneous
explosion

Contrary to the nature of their

death, the shadows seem peaceful,
like a picture: the children are
playing ball, the husband is mowing
the lawn, the wife is picking flowers
 IRONY
The Poem

Mrs. McClellan, the former owner of this highly

advanced home, had programmed the house to read her
favorite poem about the destruction of humanity by the
hands of technology and how little nature will care once
mankind has perished

It is also ironic that the poet seems to suggest that

nature will benefit from mankind’s destruction, that in
the wake of our extinction nature will be restored to a
state of peace (a rebirth)
 PERSONIFICATION
Examples
The house seeks to protect itself from
intruders. It has an “old-maidenly
preoccupation with self-protection which
borders on a mechanical paranoia.”

The house is obsessed with keeping itself

clean (religious symbol of Baal used to
describe the incinerator).
 PERSONIFICATION
Examples
The story ends with intense imagery of the house being
burned alive, exposing mechanical capillaries,
ligaments, and bones.
It screams like “children dying in a forest, alone,”
creating a sense of helplessness.
Choruses of malfunctioning objects sing out, “oblivious”
to their impending destruction
Above the roaring fire, one voice reads poetry with
“sublime disregard for the situation”
Another voice continues to say the time and date, even
though the house has been utterly decimated
THE END