Short Story Discussion -3rd by Sumerlin

Prompt:

elizabeth_sumerlin — 2026-05-12 18:22:12 UTC

Compare the humans' reactions to the wretched" aliens versus the "beautiful" ones. How does the author, Yu, use the science fiction genre to comment on current global issues?

Prompt:

elizabeth_sumerlin — 2026-05-12 18:26:53 UTC

To what extent is the narrator responsible for Doodle's fate? In what way does the narrator's pride affect the story (don't think about just the negative).

Prompt:

elizabeth_sumerlin — 2026-05-12 18:32:44 UTC

Bradbury gives the house human-like qualities. How does giving the house a "personality" affect the story? Does it make the absence of the family more or less haunting?

Prompt:

elizabeth_sumerlin — 2026-05-12 18:39:20 UTC

The story has several different conflicts with the stand-off between the dog and the snake being only one of those. What other conflicts exist within the story and how do they connect or relate to the snake vs dog conflict?

There will come Soft Rains

2026-05-14 13:53:44 UTC

The house with human like quality's makes it more haunting, as, although the family is gone, the house always keeps running until the house physically cant anymore. The house having this personality shows when the house catches fire, all the robots start panicking and showing human like features.

there will come soft rains

2026-05-15 14:10:41 UTC

the house doesn't exactly have a human personality it shares a human voice and manner but it lacks emotion you know its fake so it brings a sort of uncanny affect and the dread of seeing the family dissolved basically while the house continues on until it eventually falls doesn't give it a human like look its just a very human sounding automated system

sarahedmond — 2026-05-15 14:19:02 UTC

In the story The Wretched and the Beautiful, the humans describe the ugly aliens as mangled, sickly looking and just barely resembling the humans. When the pretty humans come they describe them as everything the humans dreamed of being. They dressed nice, drove fast cars and probably enjoyed the nicest items. The humans also begin calling them, beautiful beings, while still calling the ugly aliens, aliens. The author Yu uses the science fiction genre to comment on how people see lower class, immigrant people often as lesser or inhuman, but rich 'classy' people as beautiful and everything they want to be.

There will come Soft Rains

sethdoss — 2026-05-15 14:20:49 UTC

The house having a personality, makes the story more unsettling, as the house eerily continues its standard routines as if the homeowners and everybody around them were likely killed in an atomic blast. This makes the families absence more haunting, as the house cannot know, comprehend or is ignoring the situation around it. The house becoming frantic at the end desperately trying to save itself from the fire makes it even more unsettling.

presidentsky1 — 2026-05-15 14:21:04 UTC

Vijji was calling everyone for help because she didn't know what to do. but everyone either thinks she is crazy or doesn't really care enough to help.so she gets scared that her dog might die

The Wretched and the Beautiful.

dylanherndon — 2026-05-15 14:22:18 UTC

When the humans saw the Wretched aliens they felt sick watching them because of the amount of limbs and joints. When the humans saw the beautiful ones they adored them and felt they resembled what they could be. This connects to the global issue of looks as a society. Conventionally unattractive people receive less opportunity than attractive people. Ugly people are seen as less and beautiful people are looked up to.

Scarlet Ibis

kasonrosser — 2026-05-15 14:26:50 UTC

The narrator is fully responsible for Doodle's fate at the end of the story. When Doodle falls, he cries out for his brother's help and these cries are fully acknowledged by the narrator, yet he chooses to run away and leave Doodle behind. He waits on Doodle to come to him out of the storm but he never does. The author made it seem like the narrator forgot Doodle was new to walking. The narrator's pride affects the story more negatively than positive, but there are positive moments. The narrators pride made him believe he could teach Doodle more than just walking, things like swimming, fighting, running, and climbing a tree Doodle believed so too. His pride and selfishness also led to the fate of Doodle.

Parallels to the Real World

2026-05-15 14:26:52 UTC

The humans react to the ugly aliens with disdain and violence, but they welcome the beautiful ones with open arms and admiration. Yu uses science fiction as a way of critiquing the way that people perceive immigrants (especially people of color) and how we view those seeking asylum (empathizing with oppressors as opposed to refugees) and even shares how people view those who harm those people (victimizing abusers).

2026-05-15 14:27:42 UTC

a conflict relating to the dog vs the snake is the woman, she is in battle with her heart and her mind. Her mind would be the dog because she stands her ground when her dog encounters a danger shes going to have to trust her dog on knowing she can't help. Her heart relates to the snake causing confusion , tension , and strong emotions all around. she worries herself way more when its coming from her heart. The dog vs the snake relates to The woman's heart vs her mind..

2026-05-15 14:28:36 UTC

viji is having other conflicts in her life and now she is in a situation where she doesn't know what to do so she tries to get advice from different people but they both give different opinions do she gets overwhelmed and doesn't know what to do - Emmanuel Vazquez

Answer

2026-05-15 14:32:55 UTC

The narrator is responsible for doodle's fate the older brother had way to much pride and all the pride costed him his own brother's life, Doodle called out for his older brother in the poring rain and his older brother kept running away only until the older brother snapped back into reality and went back to help doodle was it then to late. His pride in thinking Doodle could run after him was not good it costed Doodle's life and the older brother has to live with that guilt.

answer

2026-05-15 14:39:14 UTC

The narrators is responsible for doodles fate .because when they were under the storm trying to get out of there as soon as possible the older brother noticed how doodle would copy every move he would do like walk fast if he was walking fast so he started to run & completely forgot how tired & frightened doodle was that he started running as fast as he could & the narrator forgot that doodle couldn't run so the brother just left him there till he died & then went back for him after noticing he couldn't hear his cry for help anymore. the older brother will have to live with the guilt of him abandoning his little brother forever.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (oops sorry this is Mha'Lii)

2026-05-15 14:40:04 UTC

The differences in the reactions to the "wretched" aliens and the "beautiful" aliens was very drastic. When the "wretched" aliens first arrived everyone turned a blind eyes when then aliens asked for help. On page 2 they state that the people were "reassured that something would be done" because the aliens would be cared for by people who had more money then them, or were in the position to care for them. This is what you would call the bystander effect ("The bystander effect is a social psychological phenomenon where individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim in an emergency or crisis when other people are present"). Though even when a woman spoke up to offer help for the aliens, they still avoided the situation. Contrastingly, when the "beautiful" aliens came, everyone immediately welcomed them with open arms. Those aliens were so beautiful that the humans no longer thought of them as aliens, but as someone they deeply admired and a person they strived to be. After the "beautiful" aliens spoke of how dangerous the "wretched" aliens were, the humans immediately trusted them. So when another lone woman spoke and tried to protest against what the "beautiful" aliens were saying, they outrightly spoke against her instead of staying quiet as before. The author uses this genre to comment on current global issues because this view is how real humans think of immigrants. They think of them as aliens and as someones that not a part of their kind. So this science fiction view is a literal view of how some humans think of others.

Visualizer

2026-05-18 13:44:14 UTC

Does this count towards my extra five points to get an ahundo

The Wretched and the Beautiful

2026-05-18 13:55:25 UTC

Yu uses science fiction to address the dire situation of mistreatment against immigrants. She uses the ugly aliens as metaphors for immigrants, and the beautiful aliens are metaphors for their native nation's leaders. In the Wretched and the Beautiful, the ugly aliens were cast aside, while the citizens of earth felt as if dealing with them wasn't their problem. In the United States, immigrants are treated somewhat the same. Taxpayers are angry that their money goes to someone that seeks asylum. When the beautiful aliens come to earth to retrieve the ugly aliens, the citizens are glad to hand them over since they didn't want them there to begin with. Compared to our society, immigrants are sought after almost the same way, and collected like clothes from the lost and found.

There will come soft rains

jordynalford — 2026-05-18 14:44:07 UTC

The house doesn't necessarily have a human personality; it has human mannerisms and a human voice. It doesn't really think like a human, and that's how we can tell it's a robot. It completes human tasks daily on a precise schedule, showing how helpful technology could be to humans, but when the family dog comes back, the robot's mask slips; it wants the dog gone, even though the robot vividly remebers the dog, it still sees it as something that should be gone. When the dog dies, the robot burns its body in the incinerator an hour after it has died. This shows how cold the robot is towards the dog and how stuck it is in the routine. It makes the story more interesting and more haunting knowing that the human race has been wiped out by some sort of nuclear explosion, leaving the robot alone.