Torrens

Ingrid Torrens ENC 1102-829056Prof. LopezJanuary 15, 2015

Annotations: August 2026: There will come soft rains by Ray Bradbury.

"Tick-tock, seven o'clock, time to get up time to get up, seven o'clock! as if it were afraid that nobody would."Tiny robot mice are the ones that clean the house. The house stood alone in a city of rubble and ashes. At night the ruined city gave of a radioactive glow which could be seen for miles.No, not even a bird must touch the house!The house tried to save itselfAnd the wall sprays let down showers of mechanical rain."Today is August 5, 2026, today is August 5, 2026, today is..."The voices of the house are the ones which drive the story. Personification is used constantly to describe the house's actions. It becomes obvious that there no humans are going to appear in the story.Where are the people? Why is the house making breakfast, singing out times and reminders, if there are no human masters to be served? I inferred that through the deeds of the house, the idea that there once was a family living there is constantly reaffirming. From the opening sentence the house has been afraid- afraid no one would get up, afraid of being alone. Here that fear is reinforced. The house was an altar with ten thousand attendants, big, small, servicing, attending, in choirs. But the gods had gone away, and the ritual of the religion continued senselessly, uselessly. By using the altar metaphor this fear becomes clearer. The house is afraid because it has been left behind. It is alone and masterless.This scene where the dog turns on itself is symbolic of what happened to its masters- their own creations were turned against them and destroyed them.The actions of the house are given a naturalistic description. It is ironic that for all these people seemed to desire to shut out natures, suppresses it, and control it for their convenience, their creations end up imitating it.We see a paradox of an artificial nature being brought into this technologically obsessed home.The house is in the end of its existence. It is about to follow in the footsteps of its masters and be overcome by one of the most primitive forces of nature- fire.Ray Douglas Bradbury(August 22, 1920 June 5, 2012) was anAmericanfantasy,science fiction,horrorandmystery fiction author. Best known for hisdystopiannovelFahrenheit 451(1953) and for the science fiction and horror stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles(1950) andThe Illustrated Man(1951), Bradbury was one of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers.Bradbury was a reader and an ironic writer throughout his youth.He knew as a young boy that he was "going into one of the arts."In 1932, one of Bradbury's earliest influences wasEdgar Allan Poe.He cited H. G. Wells and Jules Verne as his big science fiction influences.When he wrote There will come soft rains the fear of the devastating effects of nuclear force was typical of the Cold War era. This was a time of uncertainty, and the possibility of nuclear war was a daily fear. Thats why the story portrays a scene of obliteration, in which the human race has been destroyed by a nuclear war.