There Will Come Soft Rains

Poem and Short Story Analysis

Directions: After reading the short story and analyzing the poem, answer the following questions about the
two in complete sentences.

Personification:  A  figure  of  speech  in  which  a  thing,  an  idea  or  an  animal  is  given  human  aRributes  
Theme:  The  central  message  of  the  story  
Tone:  The  author’s  actude  toward  the  subject  
Imagery:  The  use  of  vivid,  descripWve  language  to  paint  a  picture  inside  the  reader’s  mind    

1. Based  on  Ray  Bradbury’s  tone  in  the  short  story,  is  technology  more  harmful  or  helpful  for  humanity?  
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It was more harmful than helpful because the way Ray was talking it had more of an eerie, dull, and

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depressing tone than amusing and fun. Ray Bradbury at first used a happy and amusing tone, he made the

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clocks sing, and the house bright and clean. Although later on in the story he uses more of an eerie and depressing

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tone he made it creepier and more intense, by showing us how the house went crazy, and everyone was dead.
2.  Ray  Bradbury  uses  a  lot  of  personificaWon  in  the  story.  Provide  an  example  of  personificaWon  from  the  
story  and  explain  how  its  use  enhances  the  text.  
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"The house tried to save itself" This statement conveys the level of human technical achievement as well
as the possibility that the house has a conscience of its own. The home, however, is less nimble than it
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once was and responds to the fire more slowly. Ray Bradbury used a lot of personification throughout the
whole story because he wanted to make the house come to life, since the main character and the setting
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is the house. He wanted to give the house a personality.
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3.  One  of  the  short  story’s  theme  is  man  versus  technology.  What  do  you  think  Ray  Bradbury  is  trying  to  tell  
society  with  this  short  story?  
I think it shows us how in the future when technology is more developed,
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the technology could be so advanced that it might not even need the instructions or
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orders from humans anymore. They might even start taking over the world without our consemt.
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4.  Explain  how  the  owner’s  favorite  poem  “There  Will  Come  SoF  Rains”  by  Sara  Teasdale  is  related  to  the  
events  and  theme  of  the  story.  
She explains how nature will always be there, no matter how much technology is
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developed or advanced, plants will keep growing, and animals will keep on doing their thing
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not caring about what happens around them. She tells us about how much she misses nature,
and living a simple life before all the war and dangerous technology came in.
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5.  Ray  Bradbury  uses  a  lot  of  imagery  in  the  story.  What  are  three  excerpts  from  the  story  that  contain  
imagery?  
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1- "The house shuddered, oak bone on bone, its bared skeleton cringing from the
heat, its wire, its nerves revealed as if a surgeon had torn the skin off to let the red
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veins and capillaries quiver in the scalded air. Help, help! Fire! Run, run! Heat
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snapped mirrors like the brittle winter ice. And the voices wailed Fire, fire, run, run,
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like a tragic nursery rhyme, a dozen voices, high, low, like children dying in a forest,
 
alone, alone. And the voices fading as the wires popped their sheathings like hot
chestnuts. One, two, three, four, five voices died." He used a lot of vivid verbs vocab.