More notes on 'There Will Come Soft Rains'

Ray Bradbury: “There Will Come Soft Rains”                                                   

Content:

In this short short story, a third person narrator presents us with a narrative about a technically sophisticated house and its demise. Using the device of a talking clock, the story is structured around a house’s final day.

The narrative is largely descriptive, and it is through description of the house itself we learn that a nuclear blast has obliterated the house’s original inhabitants, a nuclear family (ooh, the irony) of mother, father, son and daughter. Despite the family’s absence, the house is still teeming with ‘life’, in the form of robot mice, automated devices and the house’s central computer.

Essentially, Bradbury presents the house as a ‘living’, semi-sentient entity, and its futile operations are, I think, presented as tragic in the absence of human beneficiaries.  

How key themes are presented and developed:

The story’s title is interestingly ambiguous and sets up a central theme from the outset: how seemingly harmless and indeed positive images of the natural and normal have – or can – become destructive. Although ‘soft rains’ would bring up associations of fertility and nurture, there is something ominous in the fact that it is presently presented as absent: it ‘will come.’ This absence might indicate that the narrative present is negative and void of the means for growth and development. We are, by extension, arguably presented with a dystopia. Adding to the tone of lament and negativity is the use of the adjective ‘soft’ in relation to a future state, especially if one considers the impact of the ‘hard’ rain of a nuclear fallout.

The sci-fi aspect of the story is also hinted at in the use of the future tense, possibly instilling the notion of this as a subtle morality tale. The narrative present is, as we’ll soon learn, utterly devoid of human life, and it is indicated that we are responsible for our own extinction. There is ‘life’ in the story, but this life is entirely artificial (bar the dog, which dies, and some stray references to animals and birds).

This is the central irony[1] of the story: humans have been destroyed rather than saved by their own technology. To reinforce this idea, Bradbury shows how human technology is able to withstand the demise of its maker, yet is ultimately destroyed by nature, a force which prevails over all others. The ‘soft rains’ of the title, then, are brought into play in order to show hope (although not necessarily for us).

Key techniques and examples of close reading (fitted to key themes):

a)      Language:

The anthropomorphic representation of technology is used interestingly throughout, possibly as a means of emphasising the absence of human life. Loneliness is evoked in the description of the house standing “alone in a city of rubble and ashes,” but it has been successful in “keeping its peace.” What we seem to be presented with is an approximation of an elderly person who inquires “carefully” and “quiver[s]” at sounds. Moreover, the verbs used, such as “sang,” “shuddered” and “recognised,” add to a picture of a sensitive, feeling entity, something which clearly is ironic when applied to a complex piece of kit “directed” by “an attic brain.” 

See also form

b)     Form:

Short paragraphs are used extensively throughout the story. In conjunction with the use of the clock device, the short paragraphs help accentuate a sense of a relentless march towards the end, possibly hinting at the destructive side of ‘progress.’

The short paragraphs are also setting up a contrast between the house’s actions and their effect. The frantic action of a short paragraph outlining how the house is setting up leisure activities for its inhabitants is undercut by the direct simplicity of the following paragraph: “But the tables were silent and the cards untouched.” The silence is enhanced by the space around the paragraph, and the muted echoes of the “flutter[ing]” cards and the “music played.”

c)      Structure:

Essentially covered in form and content bits – although further evaluation would be helpful (action juxtaposed with futility of action echoes and house’s meaningless sophistication echoes that of modern man’s. In the end, nature may hold out, but we, like the house, are ephemeral…)

Use of character and characterisation:

The story is incredibly interesting in its use of characters as the very lack of characters accentuate the story’s theme: our use of technology might one day be our doom. This is, therefore, a story that needs to be unpeopled.

However, one could argue that the story’s protagonist is the house itself – a tragic figure lacking in any real purpose. After all, Bradbury does anthropomorphise the house extensively, even possibly attempting to evoke pathos when we are told that “At ten o’clock the house began to die” and the process is made graphic by references to “oak bone on bone” and “voices wail[ing].” It is presented as being in pain.

Similarly, as we the narrative is focalised through the ‘character’ of the house, nature is presented as the antagonist. The events which instigate the demise of the house are presented as accidental, but the escalation of the crisis is again personified. “But the fire was clever,” we are told “as it sent flame outside the house.” Both the adjective used here and the verb “sent” present fire as wilfully destructive and even plotting. Indeed, “sent” might even bring up connotations of masterminding and organised leadership.   

Use of setting:

Paragraph needed here – but no time…Sorry!

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[1] Bradbury uses irony to great effect in the story. Irony in this case means presenting an outcome of a situation that is the opposite of what one would expect. Thus, it is ironic that the same technology which created a house that can cook and clean is also the technology which destroyed all the people on the planet. Furthermore, it is ironic that such a sophisticated example of technology, the computerized house, can be destroyed by nature, represented by the tree limb which crashes through the window and starts the fire.