There Will Come Soft Rains
The short story, There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury, was about a world without Humans. Nuclear war wiped people from the face of the earth and what remained, in a city, was just a house. A self sufficient and working house which was programmed to do certain things without the help of people. Even with the family gone, it remained doing the things it was programmed to do. With this short story, Bradbury tried to show that a world without reason and understanding is a Dystopian world
The house and the robots inside are portrayed as people. “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 religions continued senselessly, uselessly” (Bradbury 324). There are no humans left. Nobody was there to eat the food, to use the car, to read the books, and to listen to the poems. But the house didn’t know that and so it missed the big picture. There was no reason for house to go on doing the things it had been doing but the house didn’t understand better to stop. The house didn’t stop to notice nobody was eating the food or smoking the cigar or listening to the poems. The house was like this because it hadn’t known the reasons or why it did these things in the first place. The house only knew that it had been always like this so it went on. Later in the story, a fire engulfed the house. The house tried very hard to save itself but in the end, it seemed as though there was no hope and as the fire ravaged on, “…a few last cleaning mice darting bravely out to carry the horrid ashes away!” (328). This truly is a Dystopian World. The mice, even in the face of danger, are cleaning the house. They do not choose to run away but choose to clean the ashes of a house that now doesn’t need to be cleaned. That purpose disappeared at the same time the humans did. But the mice, lacking in reason and understanding, have set firmly in their minds that they must clean
The house and the robots inside are portrayed as people. “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 religions continued senselessly, uselessly” (Bradbury 324). There are no humans left. Nobody was there to eat the food, to use the car, to read the books, and to listen to the poems. But the house didn’t know that and so it missed the big picture. There was no reason for house to go on doing the things it had been doing but the house didn’t understand better to stop. The house didn’t stop to notice nobody was eating the food or smoking the cigar or listening to the poems. The house was like this because it hadn’t known the reasons or why it did these things in the first place. The house only knew that it had been always like this so it went on. Later in the story, a fire engulfed the house. The house tried very hard to save itself but in the end, it seemed as though there was no hope and as the fire ravaged on, “…a few last cleaning mice darting bravely out to carry the horrid ashes away!” (328). This truly is a Dystopian World. The mice, even in the face of danger, are cleaning the house. They do not choose to run away but choose to clean the ashes of a house that now doesn’t need to be cleaned. That purpose disappeared at the same time the humans did. But the mice, lacking in reason and understanding, have set firmly in their minds that they must clean
Cited: Bradbury, Ray. “There Will Come Soft Rains.” The Vintage Bradbury. New York: Vintage Books, 1990.