Symbolism In There Will Come Soft Rains By Ray Bradbury

In his intriguing story There Will Come Soft Rains, Ray Bradbury portrays a dystopian future wherein all of humanity has been destroyed and all that remains is their creations, more specifically the technology they’ve created. By portraying this haunting image of a world decimated by simple human nature, Bradbury illustrates the idea that we, as a species, cannot resist our nature to expand beyond current limits and to explore unchartered territory, and in doing so, will have reached and will continue to reach places, literal and figurative, that we never should have visited or even had been willing to visit. The inevitable result is our demise.

“I don’t try to describe the future. I try to prevent it.” This is a quote by Ray Bradbury, an author who wrote many books and stories about the future of society. He often sets his books in a dystopian society. Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, and his short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” both display this dystopian theme in which he thinks will be modern day society. Oddly enough, these stories are set around today’s time which is around the years 2020 to 2050. Bradbury uses imagery, conflict and setting in both Fahrenheit 451 and “There Will Come Soft Rains” to imagine the future where the stories take place, that relate to contemporary life. However, Fahrenheit 451 relates more to contemporary life than “There Will Come Soft Rains”.

Albert Einstein once said, “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.” During the 1950s one of the most powerful inventions, the nuclear bomb, was on everybody's mind. An author called Ray Bradbury wrote science fiction texts and he wanted to show how people could died of nuclear destruction because of that nuclear forces it has caused problems in our society. In the story, “There will come soft rains” by Ray Bradbury, there is a house that started to burn down with the city. Therefore, technology has harmed society because society thinks that their inventions can protect them but it ends up harming humanity.

In Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains,” the author reminds the reader how the technology advancement can be wondrous yet dangerous. He shows the world in the 2026, how it’s going to go on without the life of humans. As technology has been misused, it became the ultimate destruction of humans. People depended too much on technology and had faith to it.

What are the true motives behind the writing of the two short stories written by Ray Bradbury? Digging deeper into the mind of the author, interpreting the era in which he lived and wrote the story, we get a better understanding of the deeper meaning of these short stories. August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rain and A Sound of Thunder are used to portray Bradbury’s fear of the destruction of the human kind through self absorption and corruption. Simultaneously, Bradbury expresses the fact that nature will continue to thrive with or without humans.

Technology is a helpful tool that society has become accustomed to using. However, the overuse of technology can lead to disaster. In “The Veldt” and “There Will Come Soft Rains”, Ray Bradbury explores the power that technology holds through the use of futuristic gadgets. Both stories contain smart homes that provide everything for the humans living in the house and show the destruction caused by it. Through these technological advancements, the reader sees how mankind is being defeated by its own creation in mental and physical ways. Bradbury uses the superior technology of the smart home, the replacement of humans for the newest electronics, and the dependence of technology on humans to explain that overindulgence of these modern appliances can have drastic results.

The story “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury exemplifies the idea that the loss of humans would have a small effect on this planet through the ideas of dramatic irony, personification, and a climax.

Through their work of literature, author form their thoughts and cautions into words, hence, the following accounts are enriched in momentous warnings. In the two short stories, “August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury, and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the authors deliver their warnings about human civilization and the harm they’ll bring upon themselves. In the first account, “August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains”, Bradbury, through the use of personification, emphasizes how one’s dependence on technology will bring upon one’s demolition. Moreover, in “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the author delivers a consequential warning of violent and harmful rituals that should be disposed of. The author successfully delivers this warning through the use of irony. In

Pat Conroy’s memoir, “The Water is Wide,” is about his life on Daufuskie Island, also known as Yamacraw Island in the book. Conroy spent a year teaching on the island in a little two room schoolhouse. The Yamacrawans were rural African-American people that by leaving on the island had basically no knowledge of anything beyond the island. Conroy tells of all the troubles he faced while teaching on the island and all the struggles he faced with outside forces. Conroy uses the setting, the title of his book, symbolism, and different themes to express what the year he spent teaching there was like.

In both Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and Vonnegut’s “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”, the authors show major concerns about the future. Bradbury’s major concern is the misuse of technology that leads to the corruption of society while Vonnegut’s major concern is overpopulation and the lack of natural resources for the future. Both authors show concerns that can turn out to be real if people do not do anything about the environment and about technology.

Imagine if a person could actually prophesize the future. Try to imagine what the future will hold as individuals, artificial intelligence, and world peace. Ray Bradbury was a poet and writer of idealistic futuristic scenarios and horror. Although he did not want to be classified as a Science Fiction writer, he was exactly that in the eyes of his readers and critics. Ray Bradbury wrote two short stories composed of his ideals of the future: “There Will Come Soft Rains” and “All Summer in a Day. “ Both of these two short stories show a futuristic outlook on life for humans and humanity; although the concepts are expressed differently. “There Will Come Soft Rains” shows the fate of the human race and the end of humanity. Bradbury describes

In short story, On the Rainy River the rainy river that separates Minnesota from Canadian border is a very significant part of this story. The river is the passage way for O’Brien from the U.S into Canada and when O’Brien was very nearly to cross the border, he completely changes his mind and returns because he is thinking about the people who is going to call him a coward for going to the war. The river signifies O’Brien’s choice between being a coward and deciding to go to war or as a same result, being a coward and just escaping from the war. Furthermore, since O’Brien works at a meatpacking factory, the smell of the pigs he was slaughtering remains on him and he could not get rid of the bad smell

The 1950s is when technology started its raise to power, making its way into our homes. Now a day, something new and improved comes out in the tech market. Post World War II writer, Ray Bradbury creates the worlds of “There Will Come Soft Rains” and “The Veldt”, in which he shows the idea of technology having so much power can be unsettling. In “There Will Come Soft Rains” one house remains after a nuclear holocaust, and it tries to maintain itself, but inevitably is destroyed. “The Veldt” takes place in a 1950s futuristic home, in which husband and wife, George and Lydia, try to save their children from a robotic nursery, but end up killed by it, thereby losing their kids. Not only does technology destroys the connection between parent and child in “There Will Come Soft Rains” and “The Veldt” it also destroy itself which Bradbury develops through Personification, characterization, and symbolism.

I am going to talk about the poem written by Sara Teasdale. In the poem “There will come soft Rains” Sara Teasdale, she is talking about war, about war that happened already, or war that she is experiencing now. Teasdale has stated, that “nature will not care if mankind wipes itself out” completely, in the war that she is in. Sara

Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, once said,“The PC has improved the world in just about every area you can think of. Amazing developments in communications, collaboration and efficiencies. New kinds of entertainment and social media. Access to information and the ability to give a voice people who would never have been heard.” Ray Bradbury was an author that was born on August 22, 1920 and wrote many stories during his life span. In addition, during the 1950s, World War 2 was happening and many people feared the damage nuclear weapons can have after the United States attacked Japan. To add on, the story “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury takes place in the future where technology has made the process of many things easier but a fire ends up overpowering the electronics in a house. Technology has improved society because it can help people be safe.