Isaac Asimov’s science fiction story “Rain, Rain, Go Away” takes place in an average family whose neighbors have just moved in. Lillian, the mother in said family, was inquisitive as to the motive of the new neighbors animosity towards rain and the extreme pristine state of their kitchen. As a result of their secrecy of their motives, the Wrights (the preeminent family in the story) make a plethora of assumptions to elucidate the Sakkaros’ atypical nature. This goes forth with the idea that things are not always as you may perceive them to be. The story immediately begins with the Wrights conversing about the new neighbors, the Sakkaros. Lillian talks about how the Sakkaros, specifically the mother, seems to be extremely cautious towards the sky and weather. “She’s so odd... She’s always looking at the sky; I’ve seen her do it a hundred times she’s never out when it’s the least bit cloudy.” She then goes on to try and explain this behavior. They surmised that since their …show more content…
son thought he had heard they were from Arizona. that they must not be used to the weather in their location. This is evident in the quote; “Well, since they’re from are from Arizona, I dare say they don’t know rainclouds from any other kind.” This is significant because it shows them making assumptions and perceiving things, without knowing if it is true or not. Later on in the story, Lillian’s curiosity takes over and she decides to go pay the Sakkaros a visit. She quickly realizes how pristine their house is. This is illustrated by the quote; “And clean? I have never seen any place so spotless...Her kitchen... was so spanking clean you just couldn’t believe she ever used it.” To explain these odd facts, they, again, make conjectures to explain the missing details. A quotation stated by George (Lillian’s husband) clearly demonstrates this. “She must be a lot of trouble to herself.” This shows that the Wrights repeatedly made conjectures to explain what they cannot. When the Sakkaros and the Wrights go to the park together, the Wrights uncover even more peculiar details about the Sakkaros. One of the first things they notice is the unusual amount of cotton candy they consumed. This can be illustrated in the dialogue said by George in the following sentence; “If I see them biting away at another cotton candy stick I’ll turn green and sicken on the spot.” As if this wasn’t odd enough, the Sakkaros react strangely to the mentioning of other foods, seen this quote; “I offered her an orange drink and the way she humped back when she said no.” They tried to think of a possible explanation and eventually agreed that “...they’ve never been to a place like this before and they’ll need time to adjust to the novelty.” In the end of the story, the Sakkaros ask the Wrights to drive them home because they see an oncoming rain cloud.
Much to the despair of the Sakkaros, the rain starts just as they leave the car and they are stranded in the middle of their yard as the rain pours down. As the rain hit them, “Their faces blurred as the rain hit, blurred and shrank and ran together.” This leaves the Wrights realizing that everything they had originally surmised had been nowhere near the truth. The melting of the Sakkaros leads them to realize that they were actually made of sugar, which explained all their odd behaviors. They avoided rain because they would melt, they only ate cotton candy because other foods contained liquids (which was what caused the dissolving), and their kitchen was clean because they never had to use it. This all leads back to the theme things are not always as you may perceive them to be, because the Wrights perceived the Sakkaros incorrectly, and the truth was not at all similar to the
truth.
"The house is 10 feet by 10 feet, and it is built completely of corrugated paper. The roof is peaked, the walls are tacked to a wooden frame. The dirt floor is swept clean, and along the irrigation ditch or in the muddy river...." " ...and the family possesses three old quilts and soggy, lumpy mattress. With the first rain the carefully built house will slop down into a brown, pulpy mush." (27-28)
In Ray Bradbury’s " There Will Come Soft Rains, " he fabricates a story with two themes about the end of the world. The first theme is that humans are so reliant on technology, that it leads the destruction of the world, and the second theme is that a world without humans would be peaceful, however no one would be able to enjoy it. Bradbury uses literary devices, such as narrative structure, personnification, and pathos to effectively address human extinction. One aspect which illustrates how he portrays human extinction can be identified as narrative structure, he structured the story in a way that it slowly abolishes the facade of technological improvements made by people to reveal the devastation that technology can cause. The story started
In The Way To Rainy Mountain, the author N. Scott Momaday makes a clear use of figurative language throughout the story and descriptive language to describe the nature around them, explains their myths about how their tribe came to be a part of nature, as well as the importance in nature that are a part of the Sundance festival and the tai-me.
Wright felt in this house. The play takes place in the kitchen of the Wright’s farm house, “arguably the (only) domain of Mrs. Wright.” (McDaniel) Choosing this location within the house draws attention to the domesticated role of the women and Mrs. Wright’s perceived failure in this role by the unkempt condition of her domain. This serves to create a separation between the genders, drawing the women closer together with Mrs. Wright. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters try to defend the condition of her kitchen by telling their counterparts that it’s not always easy to keep a clean kitchen and there is a great deal more work involved than the men seem to understand. Life in the farmlands of the Midwest was often a very lonely and depressive experience, having miles between neighbors and no telephones or televisions to break the silence of the hard labor required to sustain the families. (McDaniel) The Wright’s farm house described as being “down in a hollow and you don’t see the road” (Meyer, pg 1044) serves as a physical separation of Mrs. Wright’s environment and the rest of her community. It is also stated to be a cold, gloomy atmosphere, having always been a “lonesome place” (Meyer, pg. 1044) demonstrating the lack of affection Mr. Wright held for his
A magnanimous amount of motivation for the tenant farmers was generally found in the self, in an individualistic manner. As "gentle (winds) followed the rain clouds," furthering the magnitude of the dust storms, the survival of the farmers and their families soon became doubtful. The men would sit in "the doorways of their houses; their hands were busy with sticks and little rocks... (as they) sat still--thinking--figuring." The adversity represented by the weather was hindered by the idea that man could triumph over nature--over the machine--and retain a sense of self-identity.
The coldness felt in the house as the sheriff and court attorney entered the house symbolized the same coldness brought about by Mr. Wright. For the house to be cold and gloomy and everything else outside the total opposite, was much more than just coincidence. It was as if when you entered the house a cadaver, cold and clammy, had embraced you in its arms. “ I don’t think a place’d be any cheerfuller for John Wright’s being in it”, Mrs. Hale told the court attorney (11). Mrs. Hale knew perfectly well what kind of personality Mr. Wright had, which is why she specified that she wished that she had gone to visit Mrs. Wright when only she was there. “There’s a great deal of work to be done on a farm”, says Mrs. Hale, yet they are seen as mere trifles because it is the women who take on these tasks.
In The Way to Rainy Mountain, the author Scott Momaday uses the theme of a journey to drive this story. He begins his journey after the passing of his grandmother, the journey to reconnect and rediscover his own culture. He shares this moment on page 10, “I remember her most often in prayer. She made long, rambling prayers out of suffering and hope, having seen many things…the last time I saw her she prayed standing by the side of her bed at night, naked to the waist, the light of a kerosene lamp moving upon her dark skin…I do not speak Kiowa, and I never understood her prayers, but there was something inherently sad in the sound, some merest hesitation upon the syllables of sorrow”. The passing brought a realization upon him to have to keep the culture going. He can barely speak Kiowa, while his grandmother was one of the few members who were completely fluent. I believe this book is a call out to his tribe to take the same journey Momaday took.
After hearing of her diagnosis, the narrator travels from his residence in “California to New York” where his mother lives (3). Staring out of his airplane window, he noticed a change in the scenery. The “mountains giving away to flatlands” is used to not only describe the scenery, but how his life is changing (3). He will no longer be living a lavish life in California, but a depressing one that would “bring tears to his eyes” (22-23). He got a “sense of slippage” at the thought of losing his mother (3). When he finally arrived to his parent’s residence, the narrator was greeted with “brittleness and frost” (4). The author uses these two words with a cold denotation to describe more than just the weather on Long Island (4). Brittleness and frost are utilized to display the narrator’s feeling, as well as the theme of the book. The weather wasn’t the only thing the narrator noticed when he entered his parent’s town. His mother's actions caught his attention as well. When she held his hand, he again felt a sense of slippage (9). It mirrored the sensation he experienced on the airplane. His mom is slipping out of his hands, while life
In “A Rainy Morning” by Ted Kooser, we get a lot of imagery, as well as figures of speech, specifically metaphors. This poem through the use of an extended metaphor helps us to see life and our everyday actions into a new perspective. Here we will examine the poem’s language and imagery to help understand what the theme of “A Rainy Morning” is.
In the midst of a gentle rain while these thoughts prevailed, I was suddenly sensible of such sweet and beneficent society in Nature, in the very pattering of the drops, and in every sound and sight around my house, an infinite and unaccountable friendliness all at once like an atmosphere sustaining me, as made the fancied advantages of human neighborhood insignificant, and I have never thought of them since. Every little pine needle expanded and swelled with sympathy and befriended me. (88-89)
Firstly, the narrator gives little detail throughout the whole story. The greatest amount of detail is given in the first paragraph where the narrator describes the weather. This description sets the tone and mood of the events that follow. Giving the impression that a cold, wet, miserable evening was in
Savant syndrome isn’t bad or harmful at all to the autistic person it is actually highly beneficial to the person and other people so there is no need for treatment for this. There have been no previous records of anyone trying to treat savant. A big benefit that Charlie had from Raymond was being able to count playing cards. Charlie taught his brother how to play black jack. After Charlie took Raymond to the casinos in Las Vegas Raymond help Charlie when a bunch of money.
In the beginning Carver ironically uses the weather as setting to describe the mood and atmosphere. The season used in the story is winter. As winter is season of cold and symbolizes cold, dark and gray. Where color represents happiness, joy and life and darkness represents dullness, sadness and stress. “Early that day the weather turned and the snow was melting into dirty water.”(276). the first sentence gives the reader a hint about something that has happened between the couple in the story and their
Then this isolation is accentuated because of the weather, it is raining. The rain is part responsible for the fact that they have to stay in their room. Nevertheless, the rain has a symbolic meaning together with the description of the public garden. It represents as suggests the critic
Watching the window not knowing why she tossed and turned feeling an uneasiness that she could not shake. The thunder rumbled softly and the lightning on the horizon flashed light across the bedroom walls. The wind began to whistle loudly around the log home. Jenny felt uneasiness, and softly reached to touch the shoulder of Blade. Not awakening him she decided to slip quietly out of bed to peek in the distance of the upcoming tragedy that she never thought would happen. As she moved sleathfully around the house, the windows seemed to rattle an alarm. The wind now not only whistled but wailed in the surrounding pine woods. Not knowing what to do Jenny sat in the living room window searching for a tragedy she felt was about to con some her life