Ray Bradbury: Short Stories

"There Will Come Soft Rains": From Poem to Story 8th Grade

In a futuristic world, what part will technology and nature play? Back in the 1950s, during the Cold War, Ray Bradbury published a story about life in 2026. In the story, Bradbury describes a day in a house full of technology but no humans. Bradbury used Sara Teasdale’s poem “There Will Come Soft Rains” in his story and for his title because the poem contains similar themes of nature will always prevail, destruction of humanity, and man (technology) versus nature.

One evident theme that both literary works show is that nature will always prevail. In order to illustrate this theme, the Teasdale writes, “And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn/ Would scarcely know that we were gone” (Teasdale, stanza 6). In this quote, Spring, a symbol of nature, has awoken, but humanity is gone. From the viewpoint that the victors are the last ones standing, it can be inferred that Nature has won, as mankind is gone but nature still remains. To further emphasize that nature will always win, Bradbury describes a fierce battle between nature and technology in which nature wins: “And then, reinforcements…The fire backed off as even an elephant must at the sight of a dead snake. Now there were twenty snakes…killing the fire…But the fire was...

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