There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury 1950

There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury – 1950 Questions:

1. What is missing from the story? What is thriving? 2. What is the main character? 3. Give examples of personification. Why does Bradbury use personification? What effect does it have on the reader? 4. Give examples of imagery. Why does Bradbury use imagery? What effect does it have on the reader? 5. Give an example of irony in the story. What is Bradbury’s message? How does irony get this message across? 6. Give an example of allusion. Why does Bradbury use this piece of writing? 7. What would you say is the theme of this story? 8. What other post-apocalyptic stories do you know? What does this remind you of? ideas

 “Reckless folly of thoughtless technological development”  Martian Chronicles – expansion to mars, wild-west like  American Dream can equal misunderstandings and waste  Ray Bradbury concerned with the loss of freedom of thought and the clash between individuality and a highly technological society  Setting as a character. How is the house personified? The fire?  Context – Hiroshima 1945, 1950s bomb shelters, Cold War 1947-1991, bomb drills, nuclear fallout shelters, nuclear devastation Russia, Cuba  Contrast between the destruction of humanity and the survival of nature  “altar” “ritual of religion”  the poem – Sara Teasdale, nature will prevail without humans WALL-E Contrasts the beauty and eternity of nature with life that is subject to the technology and vulnerability of machines  irony – house is destroyed by fire but lived through a nuclear fallout, the fire alarm is destroyed by fire  Irony / Theme – Human beings have been destroyed, rather than saved by their own technology.  Imagery – war torn suburban city – grotesque and the pleasant  Themes – individuals versus machines