In There Will Come Soft Rains , the Use of Techniques Such As Symbolism, Characterisation
Essay Question
In ‘There Will Come Soft Rains’, the use of techniques such as symbolism, characterisation and setting are vital to the success of the text. Explain how the writer employs these techniques and why, in your opinion, they are important to your appreciation of the text as a whole
The success of this text relies on our understanding of the theme and the message the writer is trying to deliver.
-Chilling views of what the future might hold as a result of our arrogance.
-Central paradox of modern man’s existence – we use technology to simplify life, these robots make life more convenient, allowing us more free time to enjoy nature and the ordinary pleasures.
-However, by relying so heavily on technology to do our bidding, we block out the natural world and create a sterile, soulless and artificial environment – robotic mice, tables that fold up like butterflies, wildlife projected on to the nursery room walls, the house scares away the animals outside.
-In this future we see a world where technology has taken over, it was given the responsibility to look after mankind but really all it has done is managed to sustain itself.
-A sense of menace pervades the house as it obsessively goes about its daily routine. –However in the climax we see how nature ultimately reclaims its territory over machines and concrete, serving as a reminder that even our technology will be succeeded eventually.
-Race against time, not long before time runs out, the clock is ticking.
It is a warning against relying too much on technology, forgetting we are mortal and of course, nuclear war.
Setting
Setting plays a big part in the success of the story as it gives us clues as to what has happened to the planet and why.
-Not only do we have the empty, haunted house but we also have the charred surroundings and the ghostly shapes on the wall of the house. The devastation we are presented with in the story reflects contemporary fear towards nuclear war and should resonate even today.
-The 21st century house is fully automated, performing actions mechanically, through robotic technology, it functions perfectly well without humans – message here?
-This setting has no living human presence - humanity has already disappeared or been destroyed “This is the one house left standing”- message here?
-Every day events contrast starkly with the empty setting “And the rain tapped on the empty house, echoing”– message here……?
-Does not blatantly tell the reader that some atomic holocaust has occurred until, “ At night the city gave off a radioactive glow which could be seen for miles”
-Reveals truth indirectly, description of the outside of the house and its charred surroundings.The silhouettes on the wall are all that remains of the people who lived in the house.
-Description of the moment the house was hit by atomic force is captured as it occurred, busy mowing, picking flowers, playing ball. Innocence in the garden, unaware of what was about to happen, small, insignificant details captured in one “titanic instant” – How is this image supposed to make us feel?
Characterisation
– The story doesn’t have any human characters. Instead the writer uses personification to give the house and the various machines that live there human traits, turning them into characters.
-The House is personified to the point that it almost has a personality.
-The house speaks and appears to think “as if it were afraid nobody would!” stove hisses and “sighs” – Why has the writer bothered to include so much personification of the house?
-As it becomes obvious that there are no humans it gets clearer that the house is the ‘main character’ of the story – it’s not really a character but what does Bradbury achieve with this kind of approach?
-House is afraid, a human emotion
-Obsessive cleaning, trying to regain order and control, made more manic as fear grows, actions serve no purpose “angry at inconvenience” as it cleans up after the dog to maintain its perfect environment – how does this personification effect the reader – how do we feel about the house?
Narrative structure
-Bradbury is skilful at juxtaposing the ordinary (domestic chores, everyday routines e.g. children off to school) with the fabulous, extraordinary (eg mechanical cleaning robotic mice) “ Then, like mysterious invaders, they popped into their burrows” army /war / repossessing territory connotations
-Absurd predicament: superior Man is defeated by his own inventions, narrative records the futile actions
-Reader passive observer, powerless, as impotent and ineffective as the mechanical mice are at putting out the fire.
Effective opening
-Exposition, no background information, plunged straight into the unfamiliar situation – A house of voices, the voice is afraid – afraid no one would get up, afraid of being alone.
-Voices (sound effect) provides narrative thread “…Tick – tock, seven o’clock, time to get up, seven o’clock”
-Talking clock, personification used to describe house’s actions
-Establishes the narrative method- charting the decline of the house as time passes over the course of a single day
-“But no doors slammed, no carpets took the soft tread of rubber heals” presents the reader with mystery, asking themselves questions, eg. Where are the humans? creates suspense
Narrative Style
-Continuous tolling of the clock indicates a household accustomed to order and routine, and efficiency “Two-fifteen.
-The dog was gone” single sentence paragraphs
-Reminiscent of childhood nursery rhymes “Rain, rain go away…”
-Voices drive the narrative, main action is the routine of domestic life, where toast is “perfect” and everything functions, smoothly, to plan
-Constantly reaffirming the idea that there was once a family living there, addressing the mistress of the house “ Mrs. McClellan, which poem would you like this evening?”
Metaphor
-Sacrificial temple or altar metaphor reveals the house as a relic of the race that used to rule the world. We can draw comparisons with Stonehenge or the Mayans – mysteries left behind by civilizations that might never be solved.
-Invading pieces of dirt are “offending intruders” offending the gods of the house “But the gods had gone away”. This confirms to us that the role of the robots in the house was to keep the humans happy.
-Especially at the end we have the word choice and imagery that describes the house burning down as a war between the technology and nature.
Symbolism
- The automated house and the machines that run it of course represent our obsession with technology and the convenience it can bring. The house is designed to provide everything the family could possibly need. However, it can’t protect them from nuclear war – as we see from the silhouettes on the wall of the house. As well as this, it can’t even tell when the family it is designed to serve are all dead and gone. It may seem intelligent but this reminds us that really the house is just obeying to its programming, never straying from its given schedule, not even to feed the dog.
-Despite the fantastic technology, the house cannot act outside of its programming – consequently the dog starves to death “The dog frothed at the mouth, lying at the door, sniffing, its eyes turned to fire. It ran wildly in circles, biting at its tail, spun in a frenzy, and died.”
-The dog itself is symbolic – ‘mans best friend’, the last living reminder of the family that lived here. The fact that the house cannot save it symbolises the warning Bradbury is trying to deliver that technology cannot be allowed to take over control of human life – machines cannot think outside of their programming, they don’t feel emotions.
-The moment when the dog turns upon itself is symbolic as it reflects what might have happened to its masters – driven by need into destroying ourselves (with our own creations).Foreshadows the demise of the house
-We are given no time to mourn the dog, “it lay in the parlour for an hour” and then the robots dispose of it in the incinerator. This moment one and for all separates any bond we have with the house as we realise just how cold and emotionless it is. We are supposed to feel compassion for the dog as it, like us is a living creature, we can relate to it. This contrasts with the house and the robots who despite the personification we find it hard to relate to.
Extended metaphor
-Metaphor which links the actions of the house and the mechanical mice to a military attack, a war against dust and decay, “Delicately sensing decay at last, the regiments of mice hummed out as softly as blown gray leaves in an electrical wind” unobtrusive forces, imitations of nature’s natural processes
ironically man has been turned to dust and ashes
Irony
-The story is full of irony. From the fact that man is succeeded by the inventions he created to make his life easier to the hints that man is destroyed by the technology he made to keep himself safe. It does seem ironic that the poem the house chooses at random is so fitting and poignant isn’t it?
-Shown by the nursery: Man has destroyed the forests and must replace them with artificial creations within the “walls of glass”, manufacturing “iron crickets” and the “aroma of animal spoors” – even smells reproduced – and the “walls lived” as the forest fantasy unfolds for the children’s hour,
-Message that we should take better care of originals
Poem
-Deliberately parallels the plot of the story, for “At ten o’clock the house began to die” as a tree crashes through the window causing cleaning solvent to scatter over the stove and start a fire.
-“Feathery fire” in the poem foreshadows the fire which eventually destroys the house
-Fire is one of the primitive elements in nature (earth, water, air, fire).
Climax
-Build up in tension, new type of descriptive diction is applied to the fire –animalistic “licking, eating under the kitchen door” as the word choice gives the fire an air of intelligence and animal hunger, Bradburry really hammers home the fact that this is natural, elemental power taking control again.
-“the fire in ten billion angry sparks moved with flaming ease from room to room” and has an animal intelligence, like an army of ants or a plague of locusts “ But the fire was clever”
-The imagery and word choice here creates a war like battle between technology and nature.
-The fire literally takes the place of the humans, lying in beds and changing the curtains and enjoying (!) the paintings.
-Personification intensifies as the house’s attic brain is under attack “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 scalded air”, but do we feel sympathy for the house?
-Syntax changes reflecting the mounting hysteria, sentences are long, full of phrase after phrase, joined together to create the image these “thousand things happening” all at once
Effective Ending
-“Smoke and silence” is all that remains from the battle. Man’s presence is almost completely eroded. All traces gone except for the mechanical voice of the clock, repeating in a loop “Today is August 2026,”. Extinction. Sense of menace
-“Dawn showed faintly in the east.” Reminds us that even after all traces of human life have gone, the sun will keep rising, nature will function as it always has evolving and adapting to its environment.
-The ending leaves the reader to make a final interpretation, our planet would survive quite well without us, in a short while, it would be almost as if we had never existed at all.
-The very real possibility of this becoming our future if our over confidence in our immortality persists should ring true with us as we become more aware of the negative effect we have on the planet and as the threat of nuclear war becomes greater.
-Warning of dire consequences for man if we choose to ignore our need to protect not just ourselves (anti technology, anti nuclear defence) but all creatures of the natural world – very relevant for today’s society.