There Will Come Soft Rains Analysis

Situated in the aftermath of World War II in the 1950’s, a young Bradbury decided to write his poem “There Will Come Soft Rains”. Broadcasted to the entirety of the world, the atomic bombs dropped on Japan’s Hiroshima and Nagasaki not only ended the war but also demonstrated a new power that could devastated millions by deciding their fate. Radiation and explosions threatened the very existence of humanity ,and with the growing volatile tensions forming between the two superpowers of the world, the United States and the U.S.S.R., imminent death was a real worry for individuals situated in both countries. Bradbury becoming a young man in this very tumultuous time was heavily influenced by these outside events which he expressed in his writing.

In the short story, Bradbury states “Until this day, how well the house had kept its peace. How carefully it had inquired”(2). The fact that Bradbury used the phrase until this day , immediately implies that this event of the house caring for itself has been occurring for a long time. Bradbury demonstrates the American Nightmare through this sentence by showing that humanity is not need to keep the peace but actually obstructs it. This theme ruins the pivotal idea that the world revolves around humanity. Also by stating that the house itself had inquired, the distant object of the house is given humanity’s intellect and reasons which later leads to its destruction. Bradbury also states “ In the kitchen, an instant before the rain of fire and timber, the stove could be seen making breakfasts at a psychopathic rate”(4). Destruction through fire of the house is symbolic of the story’s hinted past of humanity being obliterated by nuclear warfare. The fire was caused by the house again mirroring humanity’s intellect which lead to its end. The oven is personified here by saying that it is completing an action without humanity’s help at a psychiatric rate. This urge to normalcy no matter the crazy situation is foreshadowed by the assumption that during the nuclear warfare mass hysteria was