Soft Rains and Complex Themes

Disaster fiction has long been a popular choice of fiction to read and write. Ray Bradbury is no stranger to this in his short story “There Will Come Soft Rains.” This story depicts a grim post-apocalyptic future set in the summer of 2026 where humans have been all but wiped out and all that’s left behind is some wildlife, rubble, and our technology. The main focus of this story is of the events that occur throughout the day to a single house that had managed to survive the initial apocalyptic event. In this piece, Ray Bradbury’s use of imagery, symbolism, and various other literary techniques helps weave a story that can be interpreted to have many different meanings. The main themes of which include the power and limits of technology, the power and indifference of nature, nothing lasts, and self destruction.

One way of better understanding a written work is to understand the context in which it was written. This short story, for example, was first published on May 6, 1950. This date is significant because it takes place during what was known as the Cold War where there was a constant looming threat of possible nuclear warfare. The ripples caused by this threat can be seen in Bradbury’s work as the apocalyptic scenario in question was caused by a nuclear explosion. While the explosion itself wasn’t documented, it is made very clear that a nuclear attack of some sort caused the scenario due to Bradbury including lines like “At night the ruined city gave off a radioactive glow which could be seen for miles,” (Bradbury 1).   Also in 1950s America, technology was rapidly evolving with technology like planes, televisions, and early computers, and spacefaring objects being invented, improved upon, and planned. The effects of these developments are also distinctly seen in the story with how advanced and automated the house has become due to technology.

Due to the heavy influence of the current world situation on Bradbury’s writing, it is likely that Bradbury intended his audience to be people like himself; other Americans in 1950s America who were also affected by the Cold War and changing times. As a result, it is reasonable to assume that Bradbury intended to inform these other Americans about the possible dangers and reality of their society regarding human existence and evolving technologies like the nuclear missile. This piece particularly can serve as a warning about how much humans are starting to rely on technology and the dangers that come with it. It is also likely, after two world wars, the threat of a nuclear attack seemed very likely and this story is Bradbury’s way of exploring that possibility. All of the aforementioned developments during the 1950’s and the probable assumptions surrounding them are all important when it comes to both understanding the piece and investigating the theme of the piece itself.

The actual story “There Will Come Soft Rains,” itself is organized in a chronological fashion. Before every event is described the time is first said to show how the day is progressing. One good example of this order is the line “Nine-fifteen, sang the clock, time to clean,” (Bradbury 1). This system of organization helps reflect how regimented the house is since every change recorded in this short story revolves around the actions of the house. There is also no actual dialogue in this piece. Any words spoken in this story come from automatic pre-recorded tapes played by the machines. These words have no effect on any later events and are essentially meaningless. The only one these words actually mean anything to is the reader who would be able to understand what those pre-recorded words mean in the context of the situation. At one point in the story a whole poem is inserted under the same name as the short story itself. This included poem both helps explain where the title of the story came from and it helps add to the meaning of the story itself that might have been lost to the readers otherwise.

There is certainly no shortage of imagery and symbolism in this story. Even the title itself has it as it references Sara Teasdale’s poem of the same name that brings up the idea that if mankind were to disappear, nature would remain indifferent to our fate (Bradbury 2-3). The line itself even of “There will come soft rains,” means that nature will continue on its path like usual with soft rains and birds flying regardless of if humans were present. Starting with even the first line alone, any readers who read this story would probably notice something is wrong; the house is unnaturally empty yet the clocks still ticks. Multiple times throughout the passage, the subject of death is often brought up. Repeatedly the house is described as silent and empty, also the breakfast, initially fresh and warm, ends up shriveling and hardening as time goes by in a sort of metaphor for decay and how nothing lasts. Essentially the house is already dead even before the fire started because nothing is actually changing and there is silence everywhere within its walls while the house carries out the same mundane tasks day after day for seemingly no reason.

If there wasn’t enough imagery in the beginning of the story in regards to death, decay, and destruction, there certainly is when the house catches fire at ten o’clock. At one point for example, the house’s machine for putting out fires is described as a “dead snake,” that the fire backs away from (Bradbury 4). Later the house is then also compared to a skeleton with bones and the wires serving as nerves. Countless times in this section the motif of death and destruction is brought up to emphasize the devastation of the event taking place.

Along with the previously mentioned literary technique that Bradbury used, he also included a surprisingly large amount of pathos for a story devoid of any actual human characters. For the most part, most of the pathos comes from the mechanized house itself, with many parts of its finer processes being personified in the story. In the first line the living room clock is described as singing the signal to get up “as if it were afraid nobody would,” (Bradbury 1). Just the first line alone fosters feelings of pity and concern slightly for the clock despite it being only a clock while also cueing us in through the use of pathos that something is fundamentally wrong even though we don’t know what is wrong just yet. Many other mechanical devices are also personified in this story such as the robot mice, nursery animals, and even the house itself when it shut up all its entrances in self protection that “bordered on a mechanical paranoia,” (Bradbury 2). One of Bradbury’s more blatant examples of pathos however, comes from the dog. It is well known that even in Bradbury’s time, most dogs were generally loved and enjoyed by most people. This fact alone adds all the more emotional weight to the moment where the family dog finally arrives home to find an empty house where it dies only to be indifferently cleaned up and incinerated by the house.

The power of technology and also technology’s limits is very clearly one theme in this short story. As mentioned earlier, Bradbury and many others became wary of the advancements of technology going into the 1950s due to the emergence of the atomic bomb and people’s growing dependence on technology for daily tasks. This power of technology to the point of being harmful to humans is shown in how much the the house takes care of every single household task a family would normally do for themselves. More notably however, the dangers of technology’s power is shown in how it caused the complete decimation of the city surrounding the house and the family that inhabited that home. The theme of technology’s limits and how it shouldn’t be something that is relied upon is also very blatantly shown in how the house did nothing to protect the family and dog and how it couldn’t even save itself from the fire in the end.

Another theme that is heavily suggested and to be explored in this piece is the power and indifference of nature in relation to humans. In the poem mentioned in the piece by Sara Teasdale, if humans were to completely disappear from the planet, the natural world would hardly notice at all. This mention in the poem is further reflected into the story with how the local wildlife continues to go about their lives around the house and city’s rubble and the only animal to show any serious interest in the house was the family’s dog that ended up dying fairly quickly in. The power of nature is both exhibited in how the animals are still around even when the people aren’t anymore and when the tree crashes through the window causing the house to burn down while the house fails to save itself.

In addition to the previous themes, another common theme mentioned here is the idea of entropy and how nothing will last forever. The house is shown in this piece trying to resist the changes of the surrounding world automatically but even it with its advanced technology lost the battle against time and change. The constant imagery of death and destruction utilized by Bradbury helps to emphasize this point as life is one of many things that doesn’t last and connecting that imagery to the house ensures that the theme isn’t lost even on inanimate objects.

One last theme that can be deciphered from this work is the theme of self-destruction. Multiple times the occurrence of self destruction takes place in this piece. One example of this theme showing up is the cause of the catastrophic event in the first place. It is most likely the case that humans ended up bringing up their own demise. It is highly improbable that a fox or potted plant was the one that built and released the missiles that ended humanity. This same theme is shown again in how the cleaning solvent, a tool meant to benefit the house like how the bombs were originally intended to benefit humanity, ended up being the thing that brought upon the house’s demise. This last theme was made all the more impactful by the use of pathos. The family’s silhouette on the outside wall and the personification of the loneliness then death of the house all serves to make the theme presented all the more impactful and memorable.

The repeating line at the end of the story both has meaning and means nothing. It is the date the house died and a world ended but the date means nothing to anything left living. The foxes, birds, and trees are all indifferent to the fact it is August 5th, 2026. This symbolic repetition of the date along all of Bradbury’s other rhetorical devices and use of imagery and symbolism all help create and sustain the different themes presented in this short story. For some people, this story represents the dangers of technology and why we should shy away from it all, yet for others it represents the insignificance of humanity in the minds of animals and nature itself, while still for others, it leads to thoughts on the brevity of life and the irony of self destruction. Regardless of what one may believe the main theme to be, this short story is incredibly complex for only being five pages in length and that almost none of that complexity would have been possible without the use of rhetoric, imagery, and symbolism to help develop it.

 

Works Cited

Bradbury, Ray. “There Will Come Soft Rains.” May 6, 1950, https://www.btboces.org/Downloads/7_There%20Will%20Come%20Soft%20Rains%20by%20Ray%20Bradbury.pdf