Setting Analysis of “August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains”
The setting of “August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains” provides an idea of convenient living, reveals the reality of thoughtless development, and reinforces the theme of death. Bradbury’s “August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains” tells the story of a house in Allendale, California in the year 2026. The setting of this short story is very particular; it is set in a post-apocalyptic world that most likely illustrates the aftermath of a devastating nuclear war. The story takes place over the course of one day: “August 4, 2026”.
The main character is a smart, self-sufficient house that is capable of waking people up, making breakfast, and cleaning up. The clock says it is time to wake up; but the house is empty. The breakfast is made, yet there is no one around to eat it. Notwithstanding the loneliness, the house carries on because it was programmed to do so! This creates a chilling atmosphere, as the house continues to provide for a family that no longer exists. As the house constantly
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repeated itself, “It repeated the date three times for memories sake” (Bradbury 43), a glimpse was given into not only the lives of the people that once lived there, but also of the orderly and controlling nature of the house. However, as the story continued on, the truer side of the house was revealed. When the family dog came whining at the door, the house lets it in but “behind it whirred angry mice, angry at having to pick up mud, angry at inconvenience” (Bradbury 44). The house later incinerated the dog after it died, further showing though the house seemed alive, it could not possess the empathy most humans have. As the fire ignited within the house, a different side of the house was shown. The house went from being orderly to being chaotic – from making breakfast and announcing the schedule to screaming fire and frantically trying to put the fire out, “…the solvent spread on the linoleum, licking, eating, under the kitchen door, while the voices took up in chorus: ‘Fire! Fire! Fire!’” (Bradbury 46). After a nuclear explosion destroyed humanity, the technology that men left was the only thing “alive” left. Although the house was personified, the house was still not human. It did not possess survival instincts, so when nature began overtaking the house, it could not fight back. The house was not programmed to survive, only to serve, so it could not fight the fire as fiercely as the fire fought it. The house was technologically capable of surviving on its own without humans, but consequently it needed humans to replenish the water reserve in order to drown the fire out, “Somewhere, sighing, a pump shrugged to a stop. The quenching rain ceased. The reserve water supply which had filled baths and washed dishes for many quiet days was gone” (Bradbury 46). Bradbury’s “August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains” uses the setting to create an overall depressing atmosphere.
Through this atmosphere, the theme of death drapes over the setting like storm clouds. A nuclear explosion wiped out humanity, including the masters the house served. It was the only house left standing in a city of rubble and radiation. The family dog returns home “[whining], shivering, on the front porch” and has “gone to bone and [is] covered with sores” (Bradbury 44). The dog runs around the house frantically before dying and is incinerated in the cellar. When a falling tree bough shatters a bottle of cleaning solvent onto the stove, igniting a fire, “…the house began to die” (Bradbury 46). The house screamed as robotic mice scurried frantically to put out the fire, almost like the dog ran around before it died. Robotic voices wailed, “…like children dying in a forest, alone, alone” (Bradbury 46,
47). Ray Bradbury’s “August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains” creates the illusion of convenience, reveals the bleak reality of thoughtless development, and augments the theme of death. In Bradbury’s “August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains”, the main character is a technologically sufficient house that is able to wake people up, make meals, and clean. In fact, the house is even capable of disposing of dead bodies! However, none of the house’s capabilities seem all that necessary since its human masters have been killed by a nuclear explosion.
Ray Bradbury uses juxtaposition by contrasting this imaginary world that is set in the twenty-first century to very ordinary actions. Although the house is automated and again, empty, the kitchen is making the ideal breakfast for a family of four, and singing basic nursery rhymes such as “Rain, rain, go away...”. These humanlike events do not compare to the unoccupied house. The description of the house becomes more animalistic and almost oxymoronic when the, “rooms were acrawl with the small cleaning animals, all rubber and metal.” The almost constant cleaning of the tiny robot mice suggest that the previous household was very orderly and precise. Through Bradbury’s description of the outside of the house and its surroundings he indirectly tells the reader about the events that may have occurred. A burnt “silhouette” of the family imprinted on the west wall of the house is the only thing left of them. In the image each person is doing something picking flowers, moving the lawn, playing with a ball. This was a family having a good time, but little did they know the catastrophe they were about to experience would end their
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
cold, harsh, wintry days, when my brothers and sister and I trudged home from school burdened down by the silence and frigidity of our long trek from the main road, down the hill to our shabby-looking house. More rundown than any of our classmates’ houses. In winter my mother’s riotous flowers would be absent, and the shack stood revealed for what it was. A gray, decaying...
In “There Will Come Soft Rains,” Ray Bradbury addresses the possible danger of human extinction in an effective manner through the use of pathos and having aspects in the story that are relatable to our everyday lives. One aspect in which Bradbury is able to effectively illustrate the danger of human extinction would be when he describes the event of the dog dying as it “ran wildly in circles, biting at its tail, spun in a frenzy, and died,”(Bradbury.) The descriptive detail on the death of the dog appeals to the reader’s emotion in an exceedingly serious tone to the point that they are left thinking about the real possibility of human extinction. Furthermore, another aspect which illustrates that Bradbury is able to effectively illustrate
HEAT WAVE is a book about the weather and social living conditions that were present in Chicago, Illinois, on July 14, 1995. Chapter 1 focuses on the issue of a “good death” – what Americans perceive as a healthy lifestyle that leads to a comforting end. In this chapter, the life of Joseph Laczko is examined.
Ray Bradbury, from small town America (Waukegan, Illinois), wrote two very distinctly different novels in the early Cold War era. The first was The Martian Chronicles (1950) know for its “collection” of short stories that, by name, implies a broad historical rather than a primarily individual account and Fahrenheit 451 (1953), which centers on Guy Montag. The thematic similarities of Mars coupled with the state of the American mindset during the Cold War era entwine the two novels on the surface. Moreover, Bradbury was “preventing futures” as he stated in an interview with David Mogen in 1980. A dystopian society was a main theme in both books, but done in a compelling manner that makes the reader aware of Bradbury’s optimism in the stories. A society completely frightened by a nuclear bomb for example will inevitably become civil to one another. Bradbury used his life to formulate his writing, from his views of people, to the books he read, to his deep suspicion of the machines. . The final nuclear bombs that decimate the earth transform the land. The reader is left with the autonomous house and its final moments as, it, is taken over by fire and consumed by the nature it resisted. Bradbury used science fantasy to analyze humans themselves and the “frontiersman attitude” of destroying the very beauty they find by civilizing it.
The story begins within a house that starts the morning routine for the family that lives inside of it. However, early on, the author hints at the fact that the house is completely empty. The clock in the house ticked on, “repeating its sounds into the emptiness” (Bradbury). The house makes breakfast, cleans, and runs as if people are still living there. At night however, “the ruined city gave off a radioactive glow which could be seen for miles” (Bradbury).
Bradbury’s use of personification in “There Will Come Soft Rains” also exemplifies the intricate relationship between humans and technology. For instance, he writes, “At ten o’clock the house began to die” (Bradbury 4). When the house truly starts to die, the readers begin to feel confused because everything it has done has been entirely methodical. The houses aspiration to save itself joint with the dying noises evokes human sorrow and suffering. The demolition of the personified house might convey the readers to sense the deep, penetrating grief of the situation, whereas a clear, detailed portrayal of the death of a human being might merely force readers to recoil in horror. Bradbury’s strong use of personification is effective because it
...econd learning outcome that is present in the novel is: Analyse how audience and purpose affect the structure and content of texts. The Year of The Flood is a novel clearly written for the modern era we live in today. Her dystopian novel targets a western and current audience. Therefore many of the main themes in the novel are portrayed in a way that shows the newly arisen problems of today’s society, for example the health care problems that are becoming increasingly grave as people gradually realize that science does not have the answer to all the needs humans have, and that it have dangerous side effects to the ecosystems and human health. Its main themes cater to today’s culture and extended the problems of government control displayed in most famous dystopian novels, to illuminating the problems that scientific developments have on the future and present world.
To conclude, it should be evident that a faded, future setting and a theme relating to the do not’s of something seemingly innocent will leave a sad mood so carefully described previously. If someone decides to write or read a story taking place in the future when no one else can read, and your mind is controlled by the machine that destroyed the world, it is inevitable that the reader will be left feeling stranded and alone. If this reader itself is reading this on a cold November evening when all else feels cold and dead, it should enjoy its company, and curl a little closer to the heater.
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the humans doom and feel indifference towards the house. If one were to read Bradbury’s words
Post-apocalyptic times are characterized by tremendous devastation. The atmosphere is often depicted as grim. It is after an apocalypse when all signs of life are extinct. People and animals starve, and predatory groups of savages wander around. In The Road, McCarthy sets such an intolerable atmosphere. However, such tragedies are not punishing to all people.
This short story takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. It is unclear to the readers how the world got to be this way. This story takes place four years after all this chaos began. The narrator does an excellent job setting the scene throughout the story using lots of details. It is revealed throughout the story that it takes place during
Within the lines of every horrific and unsettling story of the apocalyptic realm lies the drastic measures and elements that create the daunting and suspenseful apocalyptic story. These elements thrive within the apocalyptic world and create the same devastating aftermath that lures in the darkness of an apocalypse. These specific elements tend to arise and create the main layout of the story along with the ideas and adjustments brought by the author. When writing an apocalyptic story, authors tend to focus on a similar path that branches off into their own apocalyptic mayhem. Within every work of apocalyptic literature, Main themes within the writings seem to capture the eagerness of the audience's attention.