Critical Analysis Of There Will Come Soft Rains

The twentieth century has been characterized by the continuous progression of technological development. This was perhaps one of the defining features of the Cold War’s beginnings; the technological race that initiated during the 1950s was the byproduct of a bipolar competition for world domination. Most believe that technological innovation has been essential for the positive transformation of modern societies, but there are those who are wary of the negative effects that technology may produce on society and nature in the more general sense. Among them was Ray Bradbury, who in his short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” implicitly proposes that technology will bring about the destruction of both man and the world. Published in 1950, “There

Fear mongering was a typical practice of McCarthyism, and this is precisely what can be found throughout Bradbury’s story. The story does not limit itself to warn society about the dangerous of irresponsibly pursuing technological innovation, but goes above and beyond to intimidate and scare the public into resisting the natural progression of scientific pursuits and technological innovation. This is perhaps most clear when observing the manner in which the story presents a future in which the world has been utterly destroyed and the only remnants of nature comes from automated machinery. In the house presented in the story, robot mice did the cleaning and even while the house burned these robot mice attempted to clean: “In the last instant under the fire avalanche, other choruses, oblivious, could be heard announcing the time… a scene of maniac confusion, yet unity; singing, screaming, a few last cleaning mice darting bravely out to carry the horrid ashes away!” (Bradbury 106). Natural instinct would dictate for animals and for humans to flee in search of survival. These robot mice, however, lacked that natural (animal) instinct and that is why they continued to try to clean in the midst of the