There Will Come Soft Rains Analysis

In 1950, Ray Bradbury wrote the story August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains, a post-apocalyptic story of a house standing alone in a world ruined by nuclear warfare. The timing of the narrative is important, as the universe was still spinning from the effects of the Hiroshima bomb. People were terrified at just how powerful the nuclear bomb was and feared that they might confront the same destiny of the citizens of Hiroshima. Bradbury uses this news report to question human’s reliance on engineering. The home was created for the exclusive intent of helping humanity. Despite the house’s wondrous skills, the house cannot save the family, or humans, from the brutality of a nuclear bomb. On the other hand, the house does not need humans to prevent exercising – in fact, throughout the story it

(Bradbury 27) In the end, the house succumbs to the blaze and crumbles. The only bit of technology remaining is the dying voice of the house, proclaiming the current day to be “August 5, 2026”. (Bradbury 28) While technology has ultimately lost the battle of natural selection, humankind lost the war long ago. There Will Come Soft Rains gets its title after Sara Teasdale’s poem of the same figure. Bradbury uses this poem as a warning of precisely how small technology and nature cure for the survival of man. “Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree / if mankind perished utterly / And Spring herself, when she awoke at dawn / Would scarcely know that we were gone.” This is understood throughout the narrative, as the household extends to function without the assistance of the family that owns it. World developed this technology to serve them, but the technology does not care if humans are around to employ its services. Single of the most jarring themes in the narrative is the realization of exactly how “robotic” the house is. (Hicks) There is a distinct lack of human