DIMENSIONS - Approaches: A society study

The current issue deals with science and technology or more precisely caused chances and risks. This is why we want to investigate and explore how humans within our high-tech world perceive our culture, morals and values within it as well as what priorities they are setting every day. What is important to them and how do they accomplish their goals? Do they condemn the government on moral grounds or is there no cause for alarm to their experiences? Asking these and further questions we want to take a close look at Ray Bradbury’s outstanding short story “There Will Come Soft Rains”, first published in 1950, which conveys an incredibly truthful image of our world.

“There is but one God”, “Man proposes and God disposes” were phrases well-known in the past, but society since then has changed drastically. Science has pushed the boundaries of fantasies. In this day and age boundaries are not to be found anymore. It seems as though everything is possible and everything that is will most likely be put into practise as well. Have we become insatiable or have we even always been? According to Ray Bradbury regulations are needed. His message becomes apparent in his short story “There Will Come Soft Rains”:

Setting: Allendale, California; Year 2026.

Kind of conflict: Man vs. Man.

Characters: the house (protagonist), nature (antagonist); the dog, ”domestic robots” (in support of the house)

Theme: In the end, nature prevails over technology.

Stylistic devices (selection): imagery: religious metaphor: “The house was an altar with ten thousand attendants, big, small, servicing, attending, in choirs.  But the gods had gone away, and the ritual of the religion continued senselessly, uselessly” (ll.83-86), “(…) which sat like evil Baal in a dark corner” (ll.101-102), irony: the poem, plot: “The house tried to save itself. Doors sprang tightly shut, but the windows were broken by the heat and the wind blew and sucked the fire." (ll.195-197), personification: the fire; the house (e.g.: “as if it were afraid” (l.3)), symbolism/ symbol: the sun for nature (cf. l. 278).

Ray Bradbury tells an educational story of mankind’s downfall when technology outpaces humanity, ultimately confirming that nothing of man or machine can prevail over nature.

Despite lack of inhabitants, the house conducts all daily activities religiously without any human interaction. It shows no emotion or understanding of its surroundings and occurring events. Its motives are portrayed as extremely rigid and unemotional and to some extent illogical. So, the house represents a warning: If we continue along the current path, that is to say that technology will continue to evolve faster than our humanity; we will eventually even be obsolete to our own houses.

At the beginning of the short story, the important theme already becomes evident: the consistent conflict between the house and nature. The house seems to be obsessed with hygiene: On a daily set schedule it releases “small cleaning animals, all rubber and metal” (ll.41-42), to clean its unused rooms which as well makes the house appear somewhat paranoid. Also, as a bird had been about to touch the house, the artificially intelligent house snapped a window shade to displace the bird. This “mechanical paranoia” (l.78) as well as the “old-maidenly preoccupation with self-protection” (l.77) shows further dangers arising from allegedly useful human inventions.

The house as well recognized the dog of the family, who had died from starvation and neglect, and in answer to that sent out “regiments of the mice” to dispose of the dog. The description of these robots in combination with the described length of that process, which took the house only fifteen minutes, creates a vivid image of the event. In other words the reader is meant to draw the conclusion that the dog, or nature, becomes easily and readily disposable in a world with uninhibited technological advancement (“The dog was gone. In the cellar, the incinerator glowed suddenly and a whirl of sparks leaped up the chimney” (ll. 119-121)). To put it in another way technology accomplished to defeat the untidiness and disorder of nature in this case.

What strikes particularly is as well that the author is using a lot of irony to convey his impression. In the first place, the favourite poem of Mrs. McClellan, the former owner of this highly advanced home, is read by the house on a daily basis. The poem (“There Will Come Soft Rains” by Sara Teasdale (1920)) deals with the destruction of mankind through technology and is about the indifference of nature concerning this extermination. It is also ironic that the poem indicates that nature will benefit from mankind’s destruction. In the wake of this extinction nature will be restored and strengthened (e.g.: “And frogs in the pool singing at night, And wild plum trees in tremulous white” (ll. 3-4).

Additionally, by giving the fire and the house human characteristics, the author emphasizes the absence of human beings.  Hence, this creates the impression of a conflict between two living things or rather a struggle for life. The personification of these human achievements also shows that these are not as perfect as its creators might have assumed. The same is true of the destruction of the house as a tree falls into it and causes a fire. Fire as a natural power symbolizes really and truly destructive power in contrast to human inventions of any kind.

It goes without saying that the main element being absent in the story are human beings. The author only depicts traces, shadows and echoes of them.

The tone of a story portrays the attitude of a writer towards the audience, character and subject matter: In this short story the author provides an ironic reflection of the advantages and disadvantages of human nature advising against the limits and dangers of technology. The tone of the story is grave and frequently ironical. Moreover, the author often uses elaborate language to create as vivid, realistic and pictographic images as possible.   

In summary, the short story describes how human technology outpaces our humanity. Finally all things will be reclaimed by nature. And while not as much of a threat nowadays, nuclear weapons are still a force to be noticed, and Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” still procures the same prevailing message just as one hundred years ago:

“It's not going to do any good to land on Mars if we're stupid.” - Ray Bradbury