Tone Of There Will Come Soft Rains

Ben Luo

James

Honors English 9, Period 4

24 January 2023

How Ray Bradbury wrote the saddest story

There will come soft Rains is one of the most famous short stories of all time. But what elements make the story there will come soft rains by Ray Bradbury so great? The story is set in the aftermath of a nuclear war, and it features a lone house with no inhabitants. With no human life, the house operates daily until it breaks down. This story is often referred to as Bradbury's saddest piece of literature. The main reason for this is its depressing tone. Ray Bradbury uses personification, imagery, and irony to achieve a depressed tone.

Bradbury uses the personification of unliving objects to give the story a depressing feel. While the house rested alone without interaction for months, it detects motion. The house “carefully [inquires], Who goes there? What's the password? and, getting no answer from lonely foxes and whining cats” (Bradbury 2). The voice gives the impression of someone asking who was at the door. The house gets no answer except for the whines from animals showing the emptiness of the atmosphere. Another example of the depressing tone is after the house

The significance of irony is shown when “In the living room the voice-clock sang, Tick-tock, seven o'clock, time to get up, time to get up, seven o'clock! as if it were afraid that nobody would” (Bradbury 1). This is ironic because the clock shouts as if there was no one there when there in fact was no one there. This gives the story an empty tone because the house doesn’t know that it's empty and still functions. The nuclear disaster has left all life dead or dying, however “Out of warrens in the wall, tiny robot mice darted” (Bradbury 1). It is ironic how all life died but there are still robotic animals thriving. The artificial life attempting to replace real life gives the story an empty tone because, without humans, artificial life is