How Is the Continual Battle of Nature vs Human Technology Represented Throughout the Story? in There Will Come Soft Rains by Bradbury

Explain how Bradbury uses this story to question human’s reliance on technology The house was created for the sole purpose of serving mankind. The house cannot save the family, or humans, from the viciousness of a nuclear bomb. By the time the reader is exposed to the house, the owners have been eradicated, “their images burned on wood in one titanic instant”. The house continues to make breakfast, have little robotic mice that clean the house, and even read poetry for, essentially, no one. When the story begins, it appears that machinery has triumphed over humans.

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Humankind might have fallen beneath the powerful nuclear bomb, but technology has not. Furthermore, while the family relied on the house to take care of them, the house does not require them to survive. However, as the story proceeds, the reader watches as the house is attacked by a fire. As the house scrambles to save itself, there is a sense of panic. “Doors sprang tightly shut” and “blind robot faces peered down with faucet mouths gushing green chemical”. In the end, the house succumbs to the blaze and crumbles.

The only bit of technology remaining is the dying voice of the house, proclaiming the current day to be “August 5, 2026”. While technology has ultimately lost the battle of survival, humans lost the war long ago. Bradbury uses this story as a warning of just how little technology and nature care for the endurance of humanity. “Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree, if mankind perished utterly. And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn. Would scarcely know that we were gone. ” This is seen throughout the story, as the house continues to function without the aid of the family that owns it.

Humans developed this technology to help them, but the technology does not care if humans are around to use its services. Ultimately, Bradbury warns not about the advancement of technology but rather the complete dependence on it. The conveniences that the house provides appear to be beneficial, but in the end are completely useless. Bradbury also points out the lack of “humanity” within the machinery of the house. Instead of a family having to cook and clean, the house does it for them. There is no love within the house.

While it would require more work, perhaps it would be more meaningful for a family to work together to keep their house running properly. Instead of being a mere house, it would become a home. Techniques Bradbury uses throughout the story? 1)Personification 2)Foreshadowing 3)Suspense 1)The most often used literary technique to describe the house is personification, where you give inanimate objects human-like characteristics. The stove is given human actions, “In the kitchen the breakfast stove gave a hissing sigh and ejected from its warm interior… . This passage shows that Bradbury has given a breakfast stove the ability to hiss a sigh. Stoves are not physically able to sigh. Rain is personified, “And the rain tapped on the empty house, echoing”. The rain did not literally tap on the house, it means that the rain was making noise as it fell and came into contact with the house. 2)Bradbury uses is foreshadowing, hinting clues that suggest events that will later happen. The voice-clock sang, worriedly, “… Ticktock, seven o’ clock, time to get up, time to get up, seven o’ clock!

As if it were afraid that nobody would”. This shows that the house was sensing something was going to be different today. It foreshadows that something bad may happen. There is a fire in the house, “Smoke and silence. A great quantity of smoke. “. The silence is foreshadowing that the house has given up and died. Foreshadowing is used by Bradbury to hint later events. 3)Bradbury uses suspense to create an effective story. The dog is injured from the nuclear bomb. “…once huge and fleshy, but now gone to bone and covered with sores…”.

This creates suspense because it makes the reader wonder if the dog is going to survive. When a fire is ablaze in the house. “The fire burst the house and het it slam flat down, puffing out skirts of spark and smoke”. It makes the reader wonder what will happen next and how the house is going to result. Suspense is used to build up the excitement of the reader making them want to read on to find out. In conclusion, personification, fore shadowing and suspense are used to create “There Will Come Soft Rains”. Bradbury uses literary elements to make a successful short story.

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