There Will Come Soft Rains

Ray Bradbury

Gabrielle
Sylvia
Delia
Theme :
• Ray Bradbury's short story 'There Will Come Soft Rains' takes up a
common concern of the mid-twentieth century. As technology
advanced at a rapid pace, particularly following the development of
the atomic bomb in the 1940s, a fear of robots taking the place of
humans developed. Some people were concerned that their jobs
would someday belong to robots, while others believed that the rate
of technological development might outstrip human ability to keep up
with the ethical concerns that often accompany technological
advances. These concerns about technology naturally made their way
into the literary works of the time, and science fiction writers in
particular focused on issues like these.
• Bradbury focuses on several themes related to these issues in 'There
Will Come Soft Rains'. Many of the jobs typically performed by
humans have been handed over to robots in the short story. The
stove cooks breakfast on its own, and small robot mice clean the
house. To some extent, humans have been replaced by technology in
this story.

• The reader is naturally left to wonder what has become of the

house's human residents, and there are few specific clues in the short
story. It seems likely that some technological development, invented
by humans, has destroyed all the humans on Earth. The dangers of
reckless, thoughtless development is one of Bradbury's themes, or
the story's main ideas, in 'There Will Come Soft Rains'.
• Another theme in the story is that machines can serve as both a help
and a hindrance. The machines inside the house are clearly of great
benefit as they zoom around cleaning the house. The house contains
an oven that cooks breakfast and washes dishes, and robot vacuum
cleaners swoop up every particle of dust. Yet a nuclear event has
apparently resulted in the destruction of all human life. For every
advance in technology, some harm seems to result.
Setting :
• August 4-5, 2026, inside the only house that remains after a nuclear incident has eradicated all the humans.

The setting is meant to take place in the future, and the house is located in Allendale, California. The setting in the
story is revealed to the reader by the helpful voice of the house's robot, which periodically announces reminders
of the time and the day's scheduled activities.

The story indicates that only traces of the house's human inhabitants remain. At night, a radioactive glow reveals
the silhouettes of a man, a woman, and two children. This imagery is reminiscent of the shadows left after the
Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.

The human race has been vanquished, so the house becomes the main character in the short story. The house
performs many tasks that a human character could do: it cooks, it cleans, and it speaks. The house recites poetry
and even seems to express emotion when threatened by fire. 'Fire!' it screams, as it attempts to save itself from
the blaze.
Mood :

• The mood at the beginning of this short story is Idyllic (Peaceful and calm)
• As the story goes on, the mood gets more melancholic and sadness as is
shows the hopelessness and helplessness of the dog and the burning house.
• The absence of characters gives out the sense of loneliness.
• The atmosphere of the exterior of the house also gives a gloomy expression
on the story.
• After the fire, the remains of the house continue its daily tasks, this creates a
weird and fearful feeling in the readers.
• The despair that is left in the readers after the unfortunate disasters in this
story might trigger a sense of realization on the danger of nuclear weapons.
Point of View :
• The story is told in a third person POV.
• The Narrator of this story is omniscient.
• Therefore, the reader knows what is going on the entire time.
Exposition :
• The exposition of this short story introduces an abandoned computer-controlled modern house that seems to exist on a
ghost land in a disastrous radioactive city. The readers then enter the text on August 4, 2026 in the city of Allendale,
California and follows through some of the daily tasks that the house perform on a day of work.
• “…The house stood alone in a city of rubble and ashes...”
• “…At night the ruined city gave off a radioactive glow which could be seen for miles…”
• The absence of any character eventually made it clear that the residents of the house are not there and the house is
empty. There was no direct explanation of the nonexistence of the family is made, the silhouettes of what seems to be a
family carrying out their daily lives having burnt into one side of the house implies that they were all incinerated by the
thermal flash of a nuclear weapon.
• “…The entire west face of the house was black…”
• “…Here the silhouette in paint of a man mowing a lawn. Here, as in a photograph, a woman bent to pick flowers. Still
farther over, their images burned on wood in one titanic instant, a small boy, hands flung into the air; higher up, the image
of a thrown ball and opposite him a girl, hands raised to catch a ball which never came down.”
• Moreover, a skinny shivering dog is also introduced which seems to be the pet or one of the pets of what used to be the
inhabitants of the house. This is the nearest the story has of any characters. The house and the dog however is unaware
that the family is gone.
• “…A dog whined, shivering, on the porch…”
• “…The front door recognised the dog voice and opened…”
• “…The dog, once huge and fleshy, but now gone to bone and covered with sores…”
Rising Action :
• The dog attempts to search for its owner but soon came to realization that
they were gone. The dog soon died, either from a disease or starvation. The
dog’s body is then incinerated by the cleaning procedures of the house.
• “…at last realizing, as the house realized, that only silence was there.”
“…It ran wildly in circles, biting at its tail, spun in a frenzy, and died…”
“…The dog was gone. In the cellar; the incinerator glowed suddenly and a whirl
of sparks leaped up the chimney.”
After that, the house creepily maintained its daily routine. Then at one point,
further information into the demise of the family is introduced when the
house recited a poem by Sara Teasdale entitled “There Will Come Soft Rains”.
The poem describes how nature is unaffected by the extinction of the human
race that has occurred through an unnamed disaster.
Climax :
• The climax of this story happens at 10.00 p.m., a gust of wind blows a
tree branch through the kitchen window, causing cleaning solvent to
spill on the stove and starting a fire instantly.
Falling Action :
• The house set out a warning to the family and tries to limit the
spreading of the flames. The house attempts to fight the fire, but its
water source have been depleted after numerous days of cooking and
cleaning without replenishment.
• “The reserve water which filled baths and washed dishes for many
quiet days were gone.”
Resolution :
• The building is then almost completely destroyed except for the same
wall with the shadows of the family burnt into it, which continues to
give the time and date the following morning.
Literary Analysis :
• In There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury we have the theme of suffering, dependency, empathy and nature. Taken from his The Martian
Chronicles collection the story is narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator and after reading the story the reader realises that Bradbury
may be exploring the theme of suffering. It is left to the reader’s imagination as to what happened all the humans in the house but four silhouettes on
the wall by the side of the house suggest that they have been victims of a nuclear apocalypse. Something that is further reiterated by the fact that the
house is the only house standing and there is a radioactive glow outside. This may be important as the reader (if they believe a nuclear apocalypse
occurred) immediately gets a sense of the damage that has been caused and how instant death came to the family who own the house. It is possible
that Bradbury is suggesting that the reality of a nuclear apocalypse is that nobody will survive. It is as though Bradbury is warning society. Something
that is a little clearer to the reader when we discover that the story was written only five years (1950) after the nuclear explosions in Hiroshima and
Nagasaki at the end of World War II. As to who may have launched the nuclear attack may not be important considering that any nuclear attack in the
twenty first century would involve mutually assured destruction.

• It is also noticeable that the entire house is operated by robots and machines. From cooking meals to running the bath to choosing what poem to
listen to. Everything is run by machines. Which may be important as Bradbury could be suggesting that in the future mankind will become dependent
on machines. As to whether this is a good thing is left to each individual reader to decide. It is also noticeable that there is no sense of mourning in
the story. Everybody is dead so nobody is left to mourn anybody. The one creature that was alive. The dog. Is unceremoniously removed from the
kitchen when he dies and is disposed of. Teasdale’s poem also suggests that nature would not care if humans were dead or gone and it is somewhat
ironic that the robot chooses to recite this poem for a now dead Mrs McClellan. It is as though there is nobody left to care. The robots and machines
are without feelings so they don’t care and the one living creature that could show empathy (the dog) is now also dead. It is possible the Bradbury is
suggesting that this is the price that mankind will pay for its folly (nuclear apocalypse). There will be no trace of mankind or any other living creature
remaining.
• It is also possible the Bradbury is suggesting how futile it might be to have an automated home (or world). The robots and
machines carry on regardless even though there are no occupants in the house. They might provide comfort to an
individual but they still nonetheless can be useless tools. There is no point in having a fully automated home that is still
performing daily duties when there is nobody home. If anything Bradbury could be suggesting that when it comes to
technology and advances in technology it may be more appropriate to slow down. Rather than having an industry that is
so enthused with moving forward. What is also noticeable about the robots and machines in the house is that they are all
either timed or sensory. The oven and the mice cleaning being two examples. They don’t necessarily think for themselves.
Unlike humans. However they do suffer as all the humans have suffered when the house goes on fire. Despite their valiant
efforts to beat the fire. The fire or nature eventually wins. Except for one wall standing at the end of the story. It’s wiring
still in place.

• The introduction of the fire may be significant as it draws slightly on Teasdale’s poem about nature not caring if mankind
exists or not. The last remaining house after a nuclear apocalypse has been beaten by a fire that has been driven by the
wind. Nature can destroy the last relics of mankind whether mankind likes to believe it or not. The most powerful weapon
that mankind has is a nuclear bomb yet nature has in her arsenal even more powerful and simpler weapons that can
destroy. Fire and wind being the examples that are used in the story. Not even the machines can defeat nature. Just as
mankind is useless when it comes to a nuclear apocalypse so too are machines to nature’s simpler threats. At the end of
the story neither man or machine wins yet nature is still standing. Unbeaten by anything that mankind has thrown at it.
Which leaves the reader suspecting that though mankind has been obliterated nature will continue as it always has.
Nature doesn’t need mankind and mankind’s struggle for power (apocalypse) will not displace nature from its position of
strength.
Figurative Analysis :
• When one first reads the title,"There Will Come Soft Rains," one can predict that the poem has something to do with
nature and possibly humanity. It could also be either figurative or literal. The gist of what the poem is saying is, that if
there is war and humans vanish nature will go on. The animals will not know, weather will not know, nature will not know
that humans are no more. There are many literary devices used in There Will Come Soft Rains including imagery,
alliteration, personification, and rhyme/rhythm. The poem opens with imagery in lines 1-4, creating the setting or scene
of the poem. Painting the picture in a reader's mind with the smell of rain and ground, the sound of nature, birds and frogs
singing at night. All this imagery creates the story Teasdale is trying to tell. Another device included by Teasdale is the
alliteration in line 2. The shimmering sound, emphasizing the rain and nature which is a big motif in the poem. The
personification of spring in lines 11-12, also adds to the tale being told. Spring is personified here as almost oblivious to
what is going on. Again bringing back the idea that nature would not notice if we perished. The reader can hint on the
speaker's tone by the haunting effect of the rhyme and rhythm of the poem. The tone of "There Will Come Soft Rains", is
unfairly fatalistic. The speaker views life and humanity as unfair. There is no sympathy, life will go on with or without
humans no matter what. Nature will not stop because mankind is dead. Everything will continue on just as it would.
Humans will destroy themselves but nature will rebirth and go on without mankind. There are no major shifts in the
poem it is continually told in a gloomy mood. The title is in fact literal and about nature/humanity. The title also acts as a
preview of the mood. Rainy days are often dark and glum, like the poem. The title could also be interpreted as figurative,
the rain being the teardrops of mankind now fallen. The overall theme of "There Will Come Soft Rains" is that nature lives
forever while humans are merely temporary.
Author's Purpose :
• To observe that no matter how technologically accomplished we
become, human's overriding inclination is to wage war.

• Warn readers on the overruse of technology, sometimes depending

their lives too much on it and how it can be taken advantage of for
destructive purposes like nucleor weapons.
Study Questions :
• Explore the ways the author creates negative moods in the story.
• If you could stop the accident that caused the death of the family,
what action would you take to do so?
• What is your opinion on the futuristic house that is described by the
author in the story? Do you think it would help or destroy and burden
mankind?
• Do you think we should decrease the use of reactive substances?
Why?