Chima Enwere Professor Sam Zahran 2014FA.ENG.112.0003 23 September 2014 Literary Analysis Although brief, the short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” has a vast amount of literary elements to examine. By examining Bradbury’s usage of symbolism, personification/anthropomorphism, and irony, we can grasp a better understanding of what he wanted readers to learn and appreciate this work of literature. There are many symbols that have much significance in this short story.
A person’s outer beauty will only mask the ugliness of their personality for so long. When their looks begin to fade the people around them will view the monster that lurked underneath the skin. (F.O.S) Inner beauty, however, shines through the skin and manifests itself into the surrounding world. The Japanese gardens throughout the book personifies the fact that inner beauty matters more than skin-deep beauty ever
It’s never just rain.” (Foster 70). As Foster explains, rain in novels is much more than just rain; it can symbolize a cleansing. The opening sequence of 1984, “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen,” (Orwell 1) describes a generally odd occurrence. At midday in the heart of spring, having cold weather instills a colorless tone that sets up the novel to be a dark and dreary tale, shaping the reader’s view of the dystopian society as grimly depressing.
Situational Irony is a very important element in literature and can be found in many famous literary works including Ray Bradbury’s There Will Come Soft Rains. Situational Irony adds drama to the story and engages the reader. There are three specific examples of situational irony in There Will Come Soft Rains: The house continues to perform its daily tasks even though no one lives there, the house is destroyed by a tree branch that starts a fire yet it survived a nuclear fallout, and Mrs. McClellan’s favorite poem describes the situation in the story. The first example of situational irony can be seen in the fact that the house continues to do its everyday tasks even though all of the humans that used to live there are dead.
Beauty comes from within, not the outside. On page 307 it shows an example of personification. “A chill went down Tally’s spine at the words.” This is an example because it gives human characteristics to wind. On page 284, it shows an example of onomatopoeia.
Ray Bradbury’s “There Will Come Soft Rains,” tells the story of a self-regulating house that is all that is left of the world. Through the use of diction, the reader is able to understand the shifts in tone throughout the story. In the beginning of the story, we are introduced to the house. Bradbury uses terms such as “ruined city,” “radioactive glow,” and “rubble and ashes,” (Bradbury 1) effectively creating a dark and forlorn atmosphere. The author’s word choice creates an image in the reader’s mind of how desolate the house’s surroundings are, ultimately contributing to the somber tone.
When all is said and done, the weather and love are the two elements about which one can never be sure” (Alice Hoffman). In life and in this novel, weather reflects a character's internal and external actions. On a sunny day, faces are smiling, hearts are light, and life is good, compared to a dark, stormy day when everyone is stuck inside, sad and tired from doing nothing. In the novel this is shown by weather effecting each characters, and setting the tone as the reader follows the novel's course of events.
In war, there is no clarity, no sense of definite, everything swirls and mixes together. In Tim O’Brien’s novel named “The Things They Carried”, the author blurs the lines between the concepts like ugliness and beauty to show how the war has the potential to blend even the most contrary concepts into one another. “How to Tell a True War Story” is a chapter where the reader encounters one of the most horrible images and the beautiful descriptions of the nature at the same time. This juxtaposition helps to heighten the blurry lines between concepts during war. War photography has the power to imprint a strong image in the reader’s mind as it captures images from an unimaginable world full of violence, fear and sometimes beauty.
Nothing could be heard in the desolate town except for the steady and distinct droning of a single house. In the enlightening short story, “There Will Come Soft Rains,” Ray Bradbury used personification to give embodiment and essence to all of the inanimate objects inside the abandoned house. For the period of the short story, the single, lonely house in the city of Allendale, California, continued its busy, endless routine. Not knowing about the nuclear bomb that destroyed the entire city of Allendale in the year 2026. While the house was still running smoothly, “In the kitchen, the breakfast stove gave a hissing sigh,” (Bradbury 215).
In the short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury, Bradbury develops upon the theme that nature will always prevail against human made technology by using literary devices such as personification. To build upon this, early on in the story Bradbury uses personification to display the truth of the house’s weakness to nature. This shows early on that nature is already winning against technology. This is shown in the story when Bradbury writes “It quivered at each sound, the house did” (Bradbury 15) and “No, not even a bird must touch the house!”(Bradbury 15). In these excerpts of the story Bradbury depicts the house as scared to show its fear of nature.
In the Ray Bradbury's short story, the world has been heavily influenced by nature, the point he is trying to get across with the destruction of everything, is that nature will greatly outlast, even the last building left standing. While Sarah Teasdale's version has a much more lively take on the nature scene; creating scenarios in her poem with singing frogs. Sarah;s version also has some themes in hers as well. The quote “Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree, if mankind perished utterly.” This suggest that Sarah Teasdale's incorporates darker scenes in her poem like Ray bradbury.
Draft for the essay: In the short story, there will come soft rain ray Bradbury sets a somewhat post-apocalyptic and chaotic mood .He uses different literary devices to help us understand better what the atmosphere of the world is at the time. In there will come soft rain, Bradbury uses personification "The house shuddered, oak bone on bone, its bared skeleton cringing from the heat, its wire, its nerves revealed as if a surgeon had torn the skin off to let the red veins and capillaries quiver in the scalded air.” He uses this as a way to tell the reader about how the world is at this time.
By 1950, Americans were afraid of the idea of a nuclear holocaust, and Bradbury uses this in his story to focus on the irony that the technology originally meant to be used to make life more comfortable could also bring about destruction. Ray Bradbury uses symbolism in “There Will Come Soft Rains” to express transcendentalist ideals that connect with the theme of the American Nightmare. At the heart of the story’s symbolism is the poem selected by the house for Mrs. McClellan, since she is no longer alive to express a preference. The title of the short story itself is taken from the first line of the poem, which states, “There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,” (Bradbury 2).
Rainer Maria Rilke was a Bohemian-Austrian writer known for his contributions in German literature. Several of his poems and novels have been regarded by critics as “mystical” as he is also recognized to be intense when it comes to lyrical structure. The subjects he addresses in his works often involve existential themes. Because of this, he is considered to be a transitional figure between traditional and modernist writers. Rilke’s poem
The narrator claims, that beauty is essential to give us a purpose of life. It has the ability to transform our surroundings, and get us to a higher spiritual level. He explores
