Duc Vo
Heidi Kozlowski
Eng1B
9/24/2013 THERE WILL COME SOFT RAINS

“August 2026: There will come soft rains” is a short story by Ray Bradbury. The story is about a house equipped with extensive machinery to facilitate the delivery of any needs and performance of any activities that the owners could need. The story is set in the year of 2026 where advanced technological development conquers Earth. Therefore, the house is able to operate daily activities and maintain itself without assistance from other parties.

The story begins in the early morning of 4th August 2026. It goes on to describe the different activities that usually go on in the house from morning to evening. There is clear specification of the duties that the house undertakes during this period. These activities include waking the occupants, making breakfast, cleaning and maintaining both the house and the compound among other duties. It is however important to note that the occupants of the house are not present throughout the story. It is also implied that these occupants had not been around for a long time and would not be coming back anytime soon. On the evening of 4th August 2026, the house is accidentally set on fire and burns to the ground by the next morning. The different machines try to clean up the mess but they are defeated by the raging fire which eventually leads to the destruction of everything inside the house, except for one wall.

The setting of the story is distinctly in the distant future. One of the main indicators of that is the date of the day on which the story is told. The story is characterized by high levels of mechanization where the stove cooks breakfast, little mice are responsible for cleaning and there is a timer that announces the time and activity of what should be happening according to the daily schedule. Everything in the house is done by machines and robots. The house even goes to the extent of reading books to the household and changing the appearance of the house at different times. This characteristic shows that the author expected that by the year 2026 technology will have completely overtaken most of the roles that the human workforce undertakes in the present.

The other main characteristic that the story maintains is the role of the different members of the society and the normal processes that these members go through in the society. These include waking up, getting breakfast; parents go to work while children go to school and the existence of a dog as a family pet. This setting shows that some of the values in the society today are expected to be still existent in the year 2026 which represents the future.

The story is told from a third party’s point of view. The narrator observes every events occurring inside and outside the house. An illustration of this is the observation of how the fire affects the house and his existence even after the house is burned to the ground. This gives a distinct sense of detachment from the things that go on in the house throughout the story. Hence, readers can also approach the story line objectively. If it had been written from another point of view, let’s say, first person point of view, we could not have been able to observe all aspects clearly. In addition, since the main character is the house itself, having first person point of view is quite impossible. Though the house and its furniture perform our jobs, human beings’, they do not have thoughts or feelings to lead the story line.

As stated, the main characters is the house as the story is centered on the magnificence it represented and the power portrayed through its ability to maintain itself despite not being inhabited for a long time. At first, the house appears to be an ideal house. Everything is automatic and orderly. For example, at exact seven o’clock, the voice-clock would wake others up; at exact seven-nine o’clock, breakfast is served; at exact nine-fifteen, it is cleaning time, and so on. Whoever own this place are the luckiest ones, aren’t they? They do not need to do anything, even remember their acquaintances’ birthday or bring an umbrella when it is raining outside. Technological advances indeed create a perfect product. However, at the end, the house is destroyed, even with all equipped system. In my opinion, it is not sympathetic. The house’s existence does not hold any meaning, after all. There is no one to wake up or to eat those meals served. Without a soul, a mere body, a mere emptiness cannot give out any warm feelings.

The second character representation is the owners or members of the house. This family is made up of four members including a mother, father, son and daughter. This is revealed only through the mention of shadows on the outside of one of the walls to the house. The absence of this family or any other member of the community is very noticeable and instills a sense of suspense and curiosity in the story. Their whereabouts are never addressed throughout the story. They might leave to another place long ago, or worst, they might be dead.

The third character is the dog. This family pet is described as malnourished to a serious extent mainly due to the absence of its owners. It is used to explore the seriousness of the situation as it lies down and dies in the house. Therefore, it plays a very short but significant role in the story. The dog represents a familiarity in the schedule of the house because the house recognizes its bark. It is also used to emphasize on the tough nature of the security due to voice identification systems.

Symbolism is one of the main literature devices used by the author. For instance, the house represents a sense of independence as well as social development in the society. Its ability to clean after the humans and take care of itself shows how development is systematically dehumanizing processes and activities in the society today. The use of an incinerator as the only way of disposal and the mention of how the outside environment seems wasted and decayed symbolizes the impact that technology has had and continues to have on the environment. The author uses this to show that in the future the environment will be so degraded due to human innovations that it will be hardly recognizable.

Irony is also utilized in the story. An illustration of this is where the stove is making a huge amount of food for breakfast of nonexistent humans while the dog curls up and dies of hunger. In addition, the poem which the house reads out loud talks about how nature would not care even “if mankind perished utterly”, yet the dog, one symbol of nature, also cannot survive after all. It is also highly evident in the situation where the house is overly secure that not even a bird could perch on the window sills. However, it is not able to protect itself from a fire which it is responsible for starting without external interference.

Imagery is another most extensively used literature devices in the story. It is very useful in describing the different situations more vividly therefore making the story more lively and realistic. An illustration is the comparison between fire and an elephant. The author states that “The fire backed off, as even an elephant must at the sight of a dead snake” (Bradbury). This is used to describe the behavior of the fire in the house by comparing it to the behavior of an elephant when confronted by a snake. The fire feared the liquid that the robots emitted to stop it just as an elephant would fear a snake. Similarly, there is reference to the house shuddering while its beams and frame of its structure is referred to as bones and skeleton. This personifies the house like a person or an animal (Bradbury). The house is portrayed as being in pain as the flesh is torn out by the flames like a person.

In conclusion, the theme behind this story is to show exactly what would happen if the world was riddled with the technology but no people. The story seeks to show the repercussions of extensive development. These same developments can be the same reason for our destruction. Though not clearly stated, the absence of humans in the story can be attributed to war. The degraded environment is a result of nuclear bombing. The major theme of this story is therefore war and it’s after effects in the society (Smith). Technology is highly represented in the story but it is of no use in the end because the whole house is destroyed in a fire that even the house could not prevent or put out.

The meaning of this story is to emphasize that even in technological advancement; some activities should be left for the human labor to undertake. Automation of every single process may be beneficial in the short term but ruin the planet in the long term. Furthermore, it is technological development that led to the development of nuclear bombs which are the reason for the eventual destruction of the human occupants and in turn their absence causes the destruction of the house. The title there will come soft rains can be viewed as a meaning that the rains would be of peace other than bombs falling from the sky (Smith 2002). The story can be used as a representation of the negative impacts that war leaves behind and the future effects of these situations.

Works Cited

Bradbury, Ray. "August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains." 1950. Hanoverhornets. http://www.hanoverhornets.org/tokheim/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/There-Will-Come-Soft-Rains.pdf. 24 September 2013.

Smith, Patrick A. Thematic Guide to Popular Short Stories. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002. Print.