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Plot Summary: "There Will Come Soft Rains"

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Plot Summary: "There Will Come Soft Rains"

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Within Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles, there is a poem called “There Will Come Soft Rains”. Human characters don’t exist in the story because it is shortly after a nuclear blast. “The automated house prepares itself for the day, but its inhabitants have not responded to several wake up calls” (Plot Summary: "There Will Come Soft Rains"). Human’s own innovations led to their demise with nothing standing but an automated habitation with no purpose to fulfill. “They are now "five spots of paint" against a house covered with a "thin charcoal layer."” (Plot Summary: "There Will Come Soft Rains"). Five people simultaneously passed away in one house alone with many more perishing in Allendale, California. Bradbury’s implication is that we are all the same species living on the same planet but care more about our own growth than the common good.

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"There Will Come Soft Rains" is one of Ray Bradbury's most famous stories. Also known as "August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains," the story was written and published in Bradbury's highly acclaimed collection of stories, The Martian Chronicles, in 1951. Written in an era in which many people were concerned about the devastating effects of nuclear weapons, the story depicts a world in which human beings have been destroyed by nuclear force. The central irony of the story is the fact that humans have been destroyed rather than saved by their own technology. The atomic bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan, were recent events in 1951, and many readers and critics found Bradbury's images of a desolate planet haunting and cautionary. In a further moral lesson, 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 story, which envisions the future but takes its title from a poem by a nineteenth-century writer, is a prime example of how science fiction literature can encompass moral and philosophical concerns.

The story opens with a clock announcing that it is time to wake up and a hint of premonition that perhaps no one will. In the kitchen, the stove cooks breakfast and a voice from the ceiling announces the setting: Allendale, California, on August 4, 2026.

The automated house prepares itself for the day, but its inhabitants have not responded to several wake up calls, breakfast, the weather box, or the waiting car. The robotic mice finish cleaning the house, and it is revealed that the family who lived in the house, two parents, a daughter and son, have died. They are now "five spots of paint" against a house covered with a "thin charcoal layer." The city is in rubble and the "radioactive glow" emitted in the area indicates that an atomic blast has wiped out Allendale, if not the world.

The family dog returns to the house and is let in by the front door which recognizes the dog's whine. He is alive but injured from the bomb. Covered with mud he enters the house, and the robotic cleaning mice are annoyed that they will need to clean up after him. The narrator explains that all dust and debris is cleaned by the mice and fed into an incinerator which sits "like evil Baal," a reference to the heathen god of the Old Testament and Satan's chief lieutenant in Paradise Lost by Dante. Within an hour the dog is dead, presumably from radiation poisoning.

Afternoon settles in and the house continues its routine. A card table is set up, drinks are poured, the nursery transforms into a jungle scene. The stove prepares a dinner that will not be eaten and a faceless voice begins to read a poem by Sara Teasdale, an American poet who killed herself in 1933. The poem tells of a soft rain that falls while nature circles, shimmers, and sings, amidst a war that neither birds nor frogs care about-even if all the people die.

At the poem's end, a wind comes up, spills a bottle, and starts a fire that quickly engulfs the house. Mechanical mice and faucets come to the rescue, but the fire prevails. The voices within the house begin to die and the house implodes. All that remains is "smoke and silence." Dawn appears, and one last lone mechanical voice announces the new day: August 5, 2026.

The House: "There Will Come Soft Rains" is an unusual story in that it contains no human characters. However, because of its anthropomorphic characteristics-its ability to act on its own-the house itself is a character. It continues to function even after the world around it has been destroyed. Although not specifically stated in the story, it is implied that all human life on earth has been obliterated. All that remains are shadowy silhouettes of figures burned into the side of the house by the blast of the bomb.

The house is computerized and has been equipped to act without the intervention of a human being. The computer wakes the house's inhabitants up from their sleep, it cooks the family's meals, cleans the house, and even sets up the card table for the regular bridge game. The house is efficient, dependable, and well-programmed. This is ironic, though, because without the people there, all these functions serve no purpose. The meals go uneaten, there is no one to play the card game, and no one listens when the computer reads the poem from which the story takes it name, "There Will Come Soft Rains," by Sara Teasdale. Thus, the house is dutiful but also rigid and unchanging.

The house is also characterized by the "cleaning mice," who are somewhat annoyed by the mess made by the dog. This animal arrives at the house sick with radiation poisoning and tracks mud into the house. The agony of the dying dog is not acknowledged by the cleaning mice; they express only annoyance when forced to clean up its mess. This is also ironic because it demonstrates the inability of the house to sympathize and its sense of exasperation, normally human emotions.

When the wind blows a tree branch through a kitchen window and knocks over a bottle of cleaning fluid, the house also imitates human behavior by attempting to save itself from the fire. Bradbury makes the house seem like it is experiencing the human instinct for self-preservation. This is another instance of irony, since this "instinct" fails to preserve the house's "life," and exposes its "human" behavior as an imitation only, not the "real thing." Thus, ultimately the house represents the inability of technology to replace humans.

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Plot Summary: "There Will Come Soft Rains"

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"There Will Come Soft Rains" is one of Ray Bradbury's most famous stories. Also known as "August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains," the story was written and published in Bradbury's highly acclaimed collection of stories, The Martian Chronicles, in 1951.

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 In the Martian mirror: An SF novelist's dystopian visions --and nostalgic evocations.

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 In the Martian mirror: An SF novelist's dystopian visions --and nostalgic evocations.

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The Martian Chronicles is another novel written by Ray Bradbury in the 1950s and showcases the deficient outcomes of planetary expansion. The American Dream’s motto is equal opportunity and high achievement of aspirations. Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles" is proclaiming against that. “A rocket is simply a plot device for conveying people from Earth to Mars; on the surface, humans breathe unaided with little difficulty” (In the Martian mirror: An SF novelist's dystopian visions --and nostalgic evocations.). He is demonstrating the non-necessity of colonizing another planet because it doesn't even support our basic needs. Ultimately, Earth’s civilization collapses with Mars becoming the new host for humans due to negligence of prosperity. Bradbury is writing against the space race, which is a modern representation of the American Dream.

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Edited by Jonathan R. Eller

897pp. Library of America. $40.

Ray Bradbury and his contemporaries were often called on to consider the use of science fiction. Perceived to be driven by scientific advances, the genre was perhaps also presumed to be more innately utilitarian than other forms of literature. In the essay "Why Science Fiction?", featured here in the first of the Library of America's two planned collections of his work, Bradbury says there are "few literary fields ... that deal so strikingly with themes that concern us all today".

The Martian Chronicles, first published under this name in 1950, provides evidence that many of the themes with which Bradbury concerned himself remain relevant today. Long before Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk began to bang the drum for the colonization of Mars, Bradbury warned that what we will find on that planet is nothing better--or worse than ourselves. "Mars", he wrote, "is a mirror, not a crystal."

In this cycle of stories we read of humanity's pioneering expeditions to Mars at the end of the twentieth century and first contact with the indigenous Martian population. Widespread colonization follows, but the planet is subsequently abandoned; humanity later begins a final, tentative resettlement. The Martian Chronicles makes explicit the parallels between the historical settling of the American West and our future expeditions to the Red Planet: just as the First Nations suffered at the hands of European settlers, so too in Bradbury's stories are the Martians nearly wiped out.

Although these space-age stories anticipate the Mercury and Apollo programs, Bradbury shows no interest in the necessary scientific advances, and neither do his characters. A rocket is simply a plot device for conveying people from Earth to Mars; on the surface, humans breathe unaided with little difficulty; contact with the Martians is neither helped nor hindered by science, since they have no problems communicating in English. The lack of new technology deliberately configures this fictional planet as an ersatz Earth where people's jobs are uncannily similar to those they left behind. In "The Off Season", a hot dog vendor on Mars is described going about his daily routine of preparing food as he waits for new arrivals to touch down.

In contrast, the dystopian society of Fahrenheit 451 (1953) has been deformed by technological advances. Its citizens are able to access wall-to-wall entertainment that requires no effort on their part and, consequently, they have lost all interest in the sustained concentration required to read. The few remaining books are destroyed by flamethrower-wielding "firemen" acting on behalf of the state. To some extent, the plot of this, Bradbury's most celebrated novel, feels over-determined: if the vast majority of people are simply uninterested in reading, then the remaining books can't pose anything more than a very theoretical sort of threat; no widespread rebellion appears to have arisen in this state. In the essay "No Man Is An Island", written at the same time as Fahrenheit 451 and included in this new anthology, Bradbury links his conception of the novel to the Nazis' destruction of books in 1933. He fails, however, to distinguish between those real-life book-burnings, which discriminated against minorities, and those in the novel, which are seemingly demanded by minorities. ("Colored people don't like Little Black Sambo. Burn it".)

Although some of Bradbury's work has begun to show its age, what does still give delight is the lush beauty of his writing, shown to best effect in the Chronicles and Dandelion Wine. This latter work, published in 1957, is an episodic and autobiographical evocation of early twentieth-century childhood in small-town America. It may be overly nostalgic and lacking in bite, but there is still something stunning about it. "A cat moved unseen among the hypnotized dogs and boys to purr against the garage door, in the sound of snow-waves crumbling down a faraway and rhythmically breathing shore."

Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) is the flipside to Dandelion Wine, with the same Midwest town now serving as a backdrop for a tale of horror involving a travelling carnival led by the sinister Mr Dark. The carnival brings with it an almost irresistible carousel capable of making its riders younger or older. The malevolent effect of this is rendered in unforgettable images: "Each time he wheeled to view he sat alone with his bones, which shaped like warm candles burning away to tender years".

Perhaps because these two last books evade any requirement to be "useful" science fiction, they create a space in which to explore personal relationships. Jim and Will, the teenage protagonists in Something Wicked, are unalike and yet understand and help each other. The inherent mistrust in technology that features in Fahrenheit 451 also creates a more emotionally satisfying plot arc here. The carousel may be initially appealing, but the story delivers a moral lesson when Jim and Will realize the resulting maturity is just an illusion.

Pippa Goldschmidt is co-editor of Uncanny Bodies, 2020, an anthology of academic and creative work updating the concept of the uncanny in the context of sickness, medical advances and scientific interventions

Caption: Ray Bradbury, 1970

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# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
In the Martian mirror: An SF novelist's dystopian visions --and nostalgic evocations.

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Edited by Jonathan R. Eller 897pp. Library of America. $40. Ray Bradbury and his contemporaries were often called on to consider the use of science fiction. Perceived to be driven by scientific advances, the genre was perhaps also presumed to be more innately utilitarian than other forms of literature.

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Fahrenheit 451 was published in 1953, shortly after WWII, and demonstrates Bradbury's optimism regarding future societies & advancements. The story takes place in the future United States where books are outlawed and burned by dedicated firemen. “The book burnings of the Nazi regime in Germany during the 1930s had been widely shown after World War II” (Historical Context: Fahrenheit 451). Bradbury took his inspiration from the grim Nazi regime as well as the ongoing United States censorship of media in the 1950s. Works that opposed national ideologies were redacted or banned. This opposes freedom of speech, which is a large declaration of the American Dream.

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Author Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) published Fahrenheit 451 in 1953, a period wedged between the chaos of World War II (1939-1945) and the communist "scare" of the 1950s. German war atrocities were still fresh into the minds of many Americans when the communist Soviet Union took up the mantle of ideological archenemy. Both societies were oppressive regimes that were viewed as threats to American way of life. Bradbury drew on many of these influences when he created the tale of a dystopian future where free thinking is discouraged and books are burned as illegal.

Critical Thinking Questions

What were some examples of censorship in the United States in the 1950s?

What "modern" technology from the 1950s does Bradbury reference in Fahrenheit 451?

Why was conformity encouraged in 1950s America?

Bradbury had a number of recent historical events on which to base Fahrenheit 451 when he wrote the book in the early 1950s. The book burnings of the Nazi regime in Germany during the 1930s had been widely shown after World War II. These book burnings became a major symbol of the repression that followed in Nazi Germany. The importance of books and the freedom to read them was a central concern of liberal-minded people during the 1950s. As the Senate hearings of Joseph McCarthy began to focus on writers and film makers, the question of artistic freedom troubled many people and became the subject of debate. It was within this context of artistic repression that Bradbury expanded his story "The Fireman" into a full length novel. The fact that the book was reprinted forty-eight times over a twenty-five year period after its publication is indicative of the fact that Bradbury hit a vital nerve center of public consciousness. Unlike many of the characters in Fahrenheit 451, the American reading public ultimately rejected the idea of thought control that was present during the McCarthy hearings.

While Americans are guaranteed free speech and free press in the Bill of Rights to the Constitution, a history of censorship has nevertheless existed in this country. Censorship was at times allowed and even enforced by the United States government. In the early years of film making, censorship was allowed on the grounds that movies were entertainment and not an expression of free speech. Senator Joseph McCarthy's hearings into the political background of artists led to the "blackballing" of several prominent Hollywood writers during the 1950s. While the Supreme Court decision allowing censorship of films was overturned in 1952, strict regulation of film content persisted into the 1960s. Today, the attempt to censor artistic products comes mainly from organized pressure groups. Ironically, Bradbury's publishers, unknown to him, bowdlerized Fahrenheit 451 -that is, "cleaned up" or deleted some of the language that Bradbury used-in order to make the book saleable to the high school market. Since the advent of films, television, and the internet, efforts to limit access by children to certain types of material in these media has persisted to this day. The general method has been to have producers of these media rate the programs and place the burden of responsibility on parents to censor what children see in the movies, watch on television, or have access to on computers.

Political Repression and Conformity

Besides the repression that took place during the Nazi regime in Germany during the 1930s and 1940s, similar political repression and dictatorship had been taking place in the Soviet Union. After World War II, Western Europe and the United States entered into what has been called the Cold War-a struggle pitting the ideals of democracy and communism against each other-with the Soviet Union. Frequent reports of Soviet repression of writers and censorship of books were in the news. In his dystopian novel 1984, George Orwell had satirized what he called "big brother," a government figure who was always watching the public. Orwell also used two-way television to illustrate how the new technology could be used against the public. Bradbury presents television in Fahrenheit 451 as a drug that stupefies its viewers. Much of the pressure to conform in the United States during the Cold War was derived from the holdover of a wartime psychology that was strong during World War II. The mobilization during the war spilled over into the postwar era. As the United States and Europe went through a period of rebuilding domestic markets, the Cold War also stimulated a military economy. Opportunities for advancement abounded. Jobs were plentiful and people were encouraged to "work hard and get ahead." The image of the "organization man" was prevalent. If you "followed orders, you would succeed" was the conventional wisdom of the day. This attitude is reflected in Bradbury's portrayal of Montag in the opening scenes of Fahrenheit 451 .

From the early days of television in the 1950s, when every American scrambled to have one in the home, to this day, watching television has competed with reading books. In the 1950s, schools began to use television in the classroom because it was becoming apparent that children's reading levels were dropping. Bradbury, who had been nurtured as a child on books, used this in his novel to show how literature was begin reduced to the simplest, most general terms. "Out of the nursery into the college and back to the nursery; there's your intellectual pattern for the past five centuries or more," Captain Beatty tells Montag and his wife when he tries to rationalize the work of the firemen.

Of all the technological advances developed since World War II, none have had a greater impact than the development of atomic energy and the atomic bomb. During the 1950s and up until the fall of the Soviet Union, the fear of nuclear war was a real threat in the minds of people. The fear of damage from nuclear waste remains an environmental threat. The fear that destructive atomic power might fall into the hands of terrorists is also an issue that compels political discourse and action. It is within an atmosphere of fear that repression can flourish. In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury re-creates the atmosphere of fear and repression that prevailed when he was writing the book.

Another technological advance that Bradbury deals with in his book is the development of robots. In the Mechanical Hound he presents a robot that is more powerful than a human being in its ability to "sniff out" its prey. This representation reflects a commonly held view that the nature of robots is to be feared because they do not possess human qualities and might even be able to take control over human beings. Many science-fiction "mad scientist" movies of the 1950s capitalized on this fear by portraying monstrous creatures created by misused technology as well as technology itself revolting against its creators. This fear of technology was pervasive during the 1950s.

Burning books as a form of censorship has been used for thousands of years. The practice is most often used to silence opposition or destroy works seen as heretical. In the third century BCE, Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang (259-210 BCE) ordered the burning of his nation's poetry, philosophy, and history books in order to ensure his government had control of the knowledge available to the people.

On May 10, 1933, German students, heavily influenced by the ideologies of the Nazi Party, organized a series of book burnings across the country. The students targeted books they saw as "un-German," particularly those written by Jewish authors. In Berlin, an estimated forty thousand people gathered to toss works by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), Albert Einstein (1879-1955), and many others on a large bonfire.

Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945) spoke at the rally saying the students were cleaning up the "debris of the past." The incident opened the eyes of German writers and scholars to the hold the Nazis had on their nation and prompted many to flee the country. It also sparked widespread outrage and led to numerous counter demonstrations around the world.

Source Citation

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Author Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) published Fahrenheit 451 in 1953, a period wedged between the chaos of World War II (1939-1945) and the communist "scare" of the 1950s. German war atrocities were still fresh into the minds of many Americans when the communist Soviet Union took up the mantle of ideological archenemy.

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Ray Bradbury, an American speculative-fiction novelist, uses his unique ideas to contradict The American Dream. He adds another dimension to the perspectives towards it by introducing corrupt societies in his stories, Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles.