There Will Come Soft Rains Literary Devices

Sayuri Fuchise

9.4

Wednesday, February 15

Through descriptive literary devices, Ray Bradbury expresses the theme of technology that is produced is taking over our daily lives and destroying us in “There Will Come Soft Rains”. The story is set in Allendale, California, in the future (August 4, 2026), in a house that is run on technology that it is doing daily routines like making breakfast, by itself so the owners of the house doesn’t have to do them. Already, newly made technology is doing jobs that people used to do by hand. For example, people are trying to make self driving cars and trucks, so then there will be no need for truck drivers. If humans develop more and more new technology like this, soon there will be no jobs left for humans,

Personification is when the author gives human characteristics to describe the action that is happening. The futuristic house in the story is given a lot of human traits so that we can understand better. “The house shuddered, oak bone to 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….” (lines 202-216). The characteristics that are given to the house is making the house more and more human like, as if the house can function on its own. And Ray Bradbury is trying the express this by following the theme how technology is taking over our daily routines and lives are are destroying us. Another way he gives human characteristics to the house is when the house talks and announces the time, place, and the agenda of what the owners of the house are suppose to do. “The voice said at last, ‘Since you express no preference, I shall select a poem at random.’ Quiet music rose to back the voice. ‘Sara Teasdale. As I recall, your favorite….” (lines 146-148). The house is almost like a talking, more technologically advanced planner for the whole family, so they don’t have to worry about forgetting what to do at what time or important things they have to do that day. In the story, technology is doing mostly everything for them, including some thinking that humans are suppose to

Foreshadowing is when the author hints and mentions what is going to happen later on in the story. It is often used to create suspense for the reader and to get them more engaged in the story. Sentences in the story like “Until this day, how well the house had kept its peace.” really grabs the reader’s attention because they want to know what is going to happen next (line 63). When it says “Until this day” that means that before the day, it was peaceful, however that is changing. The reader will want to know why and how that is going to change, and how the house is not going to be peaceful anymore. Also, the first couple of sentences in the story hints what the story is going to be about. “The clock ticked on, repeating and repeating its sounds into the emptiness. Seven-nine, breakfast time, seven nine!” When it said that the repeating sounds ticked on into the emptiness, the reader can tell about how there is no one in the house and something about the emptiness is not right. The technology is still running and doing its daily routine of making sure the family knows what to do and even do some household chores for them, even though the family is nowhere to be seen and is not in the house. The technology of the house is taking over the family’s daily lives and doing most of the things for