What is so compelling about the technological horror of "There Will Come Soft Rains"?
In Ray Bradburry's short story "There Will Come Soft Rains," by far the most immediately compelling detail is that of the setting. Anybody who would pick up this book would immediately think about what exactly caused this doomsday scenario. Through this post, I hope to convey to you what stood out to me, particularly about this story's doomsday setting which resonated with me so profoundly.
The story opens with a device called a 'voice-clock'. To us as readers in 2023, this is not at all something that we find surprising. Many of us likely already have devices that can do this and more sitting in our pockets at any given moment. This may seem like a nitpick, however I think this is important to contextualize the story. This was written in 1950, only a few years after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and furthermore World War two. On every reader's mind was a fear that a third World War may break out, with every country being armed with these unfathomably destructive nuclear weapons. This fear is prevalent throughout the story, which I will go into depth in as I continue this analysis.
From the beginning of the story, you can hear a tone of loneliness and isolation that runs throughout the entire story. It is not mentioned until the second page that this house is the only one left standing in a ruined city, but as you read the first few paragraphs you are given a sense of uneasiness. As an example, we can look at the voice clock once again. It sings in the morning, sending the kids off to school and the parents off to work, but it is stated outright that '...no doors slammed, no carpets took the soft tread of rubber heels...And rain tapped on the empty house, echoing." This is very on the nose about the absolute solitude of the house, and the futility of all of its efforts to keep its nonexistent residents in comfort.
As the story continues, the world around the house continues to build up more and more leading up to the climax. The house continues its function with a haphazard indifference to nature, as symbolized by the appearance of the family dog. The family dog, as it is recognized by the house, is treated with disgusting disregard by the house. The dog is treated more as a nuisance by the house, than a living creature. The dog, I believe, is made to show the indifference of human technology to the plights of life itself. In fact, I would argue that one of the main points of this story is that technology abhors nature. Of course, this is not a story about man's triumph over nature, and it must come to an end. In an almost ironic way, the house meets its end to a fire just as it had done to the dog mere hours ago. The story's namesake, There Will Come Soft Rains, is about just this. The indifference of nature to the efforts of mankind. The harder we attempt to push against nature, the harder it pushes back.
-David
The part at the end where you talk about nature pushing back harder against humanity really stuck out to me, as if you look at formerly prominent cities that used to be urban metropolises, some have died out, and nature has reclaimed them, showing that when humanity is all done, nature will push back and regain control. It seems as if that is what happened in the story as well, as nature ended up being the demise of the house and will most likely happen again in our own civilization. Good post!
ReplyDeleteI thought your analysis of this short story was very profound and well thought out. I especially liked your connection between mankind's developments and nature, and how nature's indifference is a contributing reasoning to how the story ended. Great post!
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