Ray Bradbury's The Long Rain

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“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” That was a quote from Thomas Edison. Some people would agree that it's hard to keep going even if they are super close to the solution, and they would just give up because it seems like it’s easier. This was the case for the Space Explorers, the conflict in this short story makes them grieve over their acquaintances when the rain doesn’t stop falling on Venus. The short story is called “The Long Rain” by Ray Bradbury, and despite the torment of ceaseless rain, the goal of reaching a Sun Dome helps the Space Explorers persevere. First, we’re going to be talking about a specific character that contributed a lot to the exploration of Venus, …show more content…

A long quote from the short story is, “He did not sleep”. There were things that crawled on his skin. Things grew upon him in layers. Drops fell and touched other drops and they became streams that trickled over his body, and while these moved down his flesh, the small growths of the forest took root in his clothing. He felt the ivy cling and make a second garment over him; he felt the small flowers bud and open and petal away, and still the rain pattered on his body and on his head. Suddenly, he leaped up and began to brush the water from himself. A thousand hands were touching him, and he no longer wanted to be touched. He could no longer stand being touched. He floundered and struck something else and knew that it was.” This shows that he is slowly succumbing to the insanity caused by isolation on Venus. However, even if he is unable to sleep and rest with the rain pattering around him, he still has a goal in mind, to find the Sun Dome. And this drives him to persevere. The lieutenant is determined to find the Sun Dome. He leads the Space Explorers, persevering through the harsh conditions on Venus. This …show more content…

In this paragraph, we will be talking about the setting, where it takes place. The rain never stops. It keeps falling and falling until the end. The ceaseless rain tortures the Space Explorers. The sheer isolation of Venus adds to the need to find the Sun Dome. The setting contributes to the conflict because basically Venus is just overgrown fungus and flowers with a bunch of rain making everything super soggy. The “Sure, China. Chinese water cure. Remember the old torture? Rope you against the wall. Drop one drop of water on your head every half hour. You go crazy waiting for the next one. Well, that’s Venus, but on a big scale. We’re not made of water. You can’t sleep, you can’t breathe right, and you’re crazy about just being soggy. If we’d been ready for a crash, we’d have brought waterproof uniforms and hats. It’s this beating rain on your head that gets you, most of all. It’s so heavy. It’s like a BB shot. I don’t know how long I can take it.” This quote tells us a lot of things. It tells us how it compares to the Chinese water cure, which is a type of torture that makes you want water and go crazy for it. As it is being compared, Venus is the opposite. Sure, it makes you go crazy, but it isn’t little drops of water every half-hour, but drops of water that keeps falling and never stops. At the brink of death, the Space Explorers still have no hope besides the lieutenant for ever finding the Sun Dome. They will go insane because of the

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