Ray Bradbury was a notable pioneer in the science fiction genre. His story, “There Will Come Soft Rains”, published in his novel The Martian Chronicles is an example of one of his numerous short stories. In the story, a nuclear war has eliminated all of the people and buildings in the world. The only thing left is a house standing on its own. However, this house is fully self sufficient. Even though humans are long gone, the house still completes all of the daily tasks as if humans are living there. Each morning, the house makes breakfast, and each night, it draws a bath for the owner. At the end, the house burns down, showing that it isn’t fully as self sufficient as it seemed. “There Will Come Soft Rains” carries many parallels to Bradbury’s real life experiences and …show more content…
Bradbury was born in 1920, before the onset of the Great Depression. During the Depression, his family moved west for multiple short periods of time during the year. They would go to Arizona, in hopes of finding more work for Bradbury’s father. Living in Arizona inspired Bradbury with thoughts of Mars, as the desert looked similar to the Mars’ surface (Wolfe). When not in Arizona, Bradbury spent most of his childhood in Waukegan, Illinois. His family was very poor, so he could not afford very much and had to work jobs throughout high school. In 1934, his family moved to Los Angeles in hopes of finding more work than there had been in Illinois and Arizona. In Los Angeles, he worked at a radio station and performed small roles in radio dramas there. In addition to inspiring him with the setting of Mars, Bradbury’s family also set him up for success as a writer. Many of his relatives were involved in literature, including being in the newspaper business. Although his grandfather and great grandfather founded a publishing company, Bradbury’s father was an