Power and Powerlessness in Ray Bradbury's All Summer in a Day

The composer, Ray Bradbury, conveys the key ideas related to power and powerlessness in the text All summer in a day. The power of the group, where the group of children go up against Margot in a successful attempt to physically and emotionally abuse her. The second idea portrays the lack of power of the individual, Margot, as she is isolated, and vulnerable against the majority. These are the key ideas present related to power and powerlessness.

The power of the majority/ group is a key idea relating to power and powerlessness. Margot is the individual going up against all her classmates, the majority. The power of the group is represented as the oppression as all the children confront Margot and taunt and bully her. This can be the main plot point of the story of this story. These school children hear Margot’s story of how she has been to Earth and experienced the sun before but they become ignorant and start taunting her and twisting everything that she says. The reason behind all this hate is because they are all jealous that she has seen the sun more frequently and that they can’t relate to that experience. Margot is shown to be powerless as all the children taunt her and abuse her. “What’re you looking at? Said William. Margot said nothing. Speak when you’re spoken to. He gave her a shove. But she did not move; rather she let herself be moved only by him and nothing else.” This shows strong direct speech and sets the tone to a dark and intense atmosphere as Margot is getting bullied and taunted at. This idea shows how strong the majority is in the eyes of the individual.