Monday, September 15, 2014

There Will Come Soft Rains


This is a short story. I read it for class a couple of weeks ago and wanted to share my analysis between the short story by Ray Bradbury and poem of the same name by Sara Teasdale. I really didnt read a book this week.

There will come soft rains
Ray Bradbury
? pages 

Summary: Wikipedia.com (not the complete thing)

"There Will Come Soft Rains (Short Storyr)." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Sept. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_Will_Come_Soft_Rains_%28short_story%29>.


The story begins by introducing the reader to a computer-controlled house that cooks, cleans, and takes care of virtually every need that a well-to-do United States family could be assumed to have. The reader enters the text on the morning of August 4, 2026, and follows the house through some of the daily tasks that it performs as it prepares its inhabitants for a day of work and school. At first it is not apparent that anything is wrong, but eventually it becomes clear that the residents of the house are not present and that the house is empty
Analysis:
The inclusion of the poem on page 263 helps support the theme of the short story. In the short story, the fully automated house cheerfully continues taking care of its owners-blind to the fact that they are mysteriously missing possibly due to a nuclear event/disaster. The poem focuses on war and the absence of humans to show that life and nature goes on in. One verse in the poem stood out to me: “Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree, if mankind perished utterly; And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn would scarcely know that we were gone,” This verse implies that nature will continue to have supremacy or domination regardless of the  impact of man. Likewise in the short story, regardless of technological advances, nature will still reign (thedestructive fire). The inclusion of poem also foreshadows the ending and gives out a sense of irony. At 9:05 pm, the house asks Mrs. McClellan what poem she would like to hear that evening (pg. 262). When the house doesn’t hear a response it plays her favorite poem, “There Will Be Soft Rains” by Sara Teasdale. This poem is    ironic since it foreshadows the absence of humans and also since the whole household has been ‘destroyed’.  Lastly, the poem and the short story both use personification. Throughout the story, the technological house seems to have a mind of its own. It performs daily tasks, sings, and reads. Technological house also shudders, oak bone on bone, when it is being attacked by the fire (pg. 264). Also in the story, the fire shows human characteristics; “But the fire was clever” (pg. 264). In the poem, the animals have human characteristics;           “Robins will wear their feathery fire, whistling their whims on a low fence-wire…” (pg. 263). The similarities  between   the poem and the short story are very easy to catch, but for the differences you had to look hard.
 The destruction of the nursery utilizes a type of conflict: Technological nature vs nature (pg. 262-265). The nursery was destroyed by the fire. The animals had started to flee from the fire. Humans try to recreate nature, but they couldn't control it. Once the nursery animals were being attacked, they didn't try to fight but they all fled. Another difference was the appearance of the dog on page 261. The dog was still clinging to life, while looking for its owner.  The dog can also symbolize nature, showing that nature continues on. The difference in  this though is that the dog was dependent on humans to survive (like some aspects of nature). 
Read here @ www.elizabethskadden.com/files/therewillcomesoftrainsbradbury.pdf

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