The Smile
(Ray Bradbury)

As the title indicates the story by R. Bradbury “The smile” is supposed to be a merry one. But that’s common knowledge that Bradbury is keen on not escapist writing but sharply dramatic and deep psychological sketches. Definitely the topic of the story is a Smile, but it can’t give a hint to the idea without the topic sentence that in my view can be said like: “And there on his hand was the smile”. And the message of the story lies in the words of a man from the story that people with a heart, imagination and a soul for pretty things can save the beauty and the civilization.
The metaphoric exposition and the plot bring the reader’s mind to work on the problem raised, as everyone can find there the issue that he is personally concerned with: some may think that the story is about the future of the world, some would declare the mob psychology effects, others will think about the problem of choice in people’s life or the ideas of happiness, - these are all can be considered as the story’s major themes. Any of the ideas may be supported by the conflict when named and as for me there is a complex conflict that from the external point depicts the person (a boy – Tom) versus the mob. The second variant of the external conflict I’d work out as more general one: people within the civilization and out of it. The internal conflict goes around the boy being of two minds: to follow the others or to listen to his feelings and aspiration.
So, the author tells the story in the third person and just takes a step back to make us interpret the things on our own. He plausibly creates the picture of the atmosphere but leaves the room for the reader’s imagination to create the details of the decorations at the same time. All the settings can be rendered through the dialogues, as most of the story is coming in dialogue form to personificate the tension as it is in the rising action: “The authorities have decreed that as of high noon today the portrait in the square is to be given over into the hands of the populace there…”. But what concerns the most important parts like climax, the author prefers to render it by means of narration to avoid ambiguity and make it more explicit for perception and understanding: “Reaching out in blind imitation of the others he snatched a scrap of oily canvas, yanked, felt the canvas give, then fell, was kicked, sent rolling to the outer rim of the mob”, - continuing in the same way with the falling action: “Only tom stood apart, silent in the moving square. He looked down at his hand. It clutched the piece of canvas close to his chest, hidden”.
The denouement also goes in a narrative form: “He shut his eyes and the Smile was there in the darkness. And it was still there, warm, gentle, when he went to sleep and the world was silent and the moon sailed up and then down the cold sky toward morning”. So, I’d say that the author uses the means of narration to emphasize and drive the reader’s intention not in an importune way, and uses the means of dialogue as the main one for narration.
Although the events are arranged in a chronological order and the plot is rather simple, as far as the author is more concerned with social environment of the characters than specific physical objects, from the setting the complications acquire a symbolic meaning: “…among the ruined buildings, bits of mist…,soiled gunny-sack clothing of the men…,the long line of men and women”, - all these things contribute to the despairing effect of the story from the very beginning and have a symbolic meaning which can be interpreted as cultural and personal crisis. The further dialogues reveal the death of common values, especially concerning the beauty and appreciation of it. To reflect the emotional state of the character in the setting there is a parallel with the clear air that was going to disappear with the approach of the day. All these setting details convey the atmosphere of the future that is expected to come in case we won’t stop distorting human spiritual values. The skew of night and day perception make the most generous detail: I mean the comfortable mood that is usually produced by the day with its sunny warmth has the opposite attitude in this story: “…bringing heat which made the men shed their grimy coats and greasy hats…the odors of the ruined city stank on the hot air and things crawled…”. And the night takes the role of a soothing means: “…a cold white light. The moon rose very high and the little square of light moved…the white illumination from the mid-night sky…the world was silent”. And the chronological order in arranging the narration just amplifies the feeling of credibility.
The setting is scattered throughout the whole story as the idea would be inconceivable without the specific setting. I feel like it functions as if playing several roles: to construct the world of the story, serves as a means of its characterization and reflects the inner state of the main character (the boy).
And for more, to individualize the main character and to give a hint at certain features of the main character's personality the author depicts him like a boy – a child that is supposed to be more innocent, still natural and authentic as opposed to the grey and already putrefied mob. So, this contrast helps not just to see the difference what they were originally before and what have they become, but also shows us a fatal possibility for the boy to become the same – one of the mob. This setting is crucial to the reflection of how the two conflicts do resolute in the conclusion: the boy takes his personal decision against the depressing crowd and the resolution is left for the mob.
When starting to read the story I thought it would possibly be about poor medieval people who are standing in a cue for their daily bread or something vitally necessary to continue their living. The story made a great impression on me as it really didn’t live up any of my expectations about the plot: until the end I was expecting for a kind of savior or encouragement that didn’t come. It is said to be one of the specific Bradbury’s narrative feature – to leave out the very ending and make the reader to think it over in his own way.