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Tracy Wysock
Mr. Hackney
English 101: Rhetoric
13 November 2014
If Mankind Perished Utterly
What will become of this world when mankind ceases to exist? In There Will Come Soft
Rains, Ray Bradbury attempts to answer this question by twisting his traditional sci-fi genius
with extensive use of literary language. While the storys surface is simple, featuring a self
sufficient smart house, Bradburys infusion of many literary devices adds deeper meaning to this
post-apocalyptic fiction. There Will Come Soft Rains weaves suggestive parallelism, subtle
irony, and heavy personification to suggest that upon collision between mankind and nature,
nature will prevail.
Bradbury parallels his short story to the poem There Will Come Soft Rains by Sara
Teasdale to put emphasis on the theme that nature will exist beyond man. Many aspects of
Teasdales writing are mirrored within the plot. The poem begins with the phrase there will
come soft rains which is also the title of Bradburys sci-fi tale. Within the text there is also
many references to rain including ...the wall sprays let down showers of mechanical rain as the
house attempts to combat the raging fire consuming the house (Bradbury 3). The next stanza of
the poem features the line Robins will wear their feathery fire which is easily referenced by the
dynamic fire that plagues the house. The poem goes on to say and not one will know of the war,
no one will care at last when it is done. Bradbury references this line throughout the whole story
with how the smart house continues on its daily routine despite the fact that the residents are
absent. Even with a clear vacancy, the home attempts to exist ordinarily. Teasdales poem ends

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with [a]nd spring herself when she woke at dawn would scarcely know we were gone. Much
like the poem, the end of the Bradburys fiction is the standing wall of the house that, like spring
within the poem, continues to read date and time as it always had before, unknowing of the fate
of its long dead family and the crumbled ruins of the rest of the house. The poem refers to the
fact that upon the extinction of the human race the earth will continue on as it always will. By
comparing his short story, Bradbury twists the theme to fit the idea that nature shall outlive the
war of humans. Parallelism to the poem emphasizes this theme. Bradbury utilizes many other
literary devices to define his theme.
Hints of irony written into the story enhance Bradburys meaning that even the greatest
and smartest inventions of man can not fight against nature. There Will Come Soft Rains
presents a house smart enough to take care of all aspects of work in a persons daily routine. The
house has tiny robot mice that intelligently clean the house and a kitchen that diligently cooks
breakfast for its residents (Bradbury 1). The house provides entertainment of poems and playing
cards and even has a nursery wall that shows images to resemble a crisp, cereal
meadow(Bradbury 2). However when a tree crashes into the window, and accidentally catches
ablaze, the house isnt victorious in helping itself. Although [t]he house tried to save
itself(Bradbury 3) fire, a basic element of nature, was all it took to take this self-sufficient house
down. Bradburys ironic twist is shown through this house that is equipped with the highest
levels of human technology but is unable to save itself from a natural force of the earth. This
battle between mans technology versus nature takes on very humanistic qualities within the
story.
In There Will Come Soft Rains Bradbury personifies a force of nature: fire, and human
creation: the house, to present that in the clash of man against nature, nature will win. The fire is

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personified as ten billion angry sparks [moving] with flaming ease from room to
room(Bradbury 3). The flame is given human characteristics. But the fire was clever,
Bradbury writes, [i]t had sent flames outside the house, up through the attic to the pumps
there(Bradbury 4). The blaze is written as offensive, it rushed back into every closet and felt
all of the clothes hung there and burst the house and let it slam flat down, puffing out skirts of
spark and smoke(Bradbury 4). In contrast, the house is characterized as weak and defensive.
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
the scalded air(Bradbury 4). In the end, the house was left frantic [the house] wailed fire, fire,
run, run, like a tragic nursery rhyme, a dozen voices, high, low, like children dying in a forest,
alone, alone(Bradbury 4). Bradburys short story essentially portrays nature as the strong
character and mans technology as an inferior force. The personification of these two entities
livens their battle against one another. Although it isn't a direct battle, Bradburys personification
transforms their interaction into one, and leaves nature as the clear victor between the two.
There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury is a lasting piece in American literature.
This short story is no better described than [i]ts meaning is as objective as its physical existence
on the page, for it is constructed of words placed in a specific relationship to one another
specific words placed in a specific orderand this one-of-a-kind relationship creates a complex
of meaning that cannot be reproduced by any other combination of words(Tyson 137).
Bradburys use of literary language is what ultimately leaves There Will Come Soft Rains as
successful as it is. Bradbury, knowing that the complexity of a text is created by the multiple
and often conflicting meanings woven through it(Tyson 138), incorporated his use of literary
device to elevate the overall effect and meaning of his writing. Because of his, Bradbury also

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leaves room for objective criticism to focuses on each texts own formal elements ensured that
each texteach object being interpreted would itself dictate how it would be
interpreted(Tyson 148). In other words, the text itself is up for interpretation by the reader. In
my close reading of There Will Come Soft Rains I cited Bradburys literary devices to back up
the recurring theme of man vs nature.
Exploring the result of nuclear fallout, the short story There Will Come Soft Rains by
Ray Bradbury address a possible result of a nuclear war of the human race. Featuring
parallelism, irony, and personification, Bradburys story touches on the lasting clash of nature
and man, and natures true force and victory over humankind.

Works Cited
Bradbury, Ray. There Will Come Soft Rains." The Oxford Book of American Short Stories. Ed.
Joyce Carol Oates. New York: Oxford UP, 1992. Print.
Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today. New York: Garland, 1999. Print.

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