Friday 16 October 2015

What was the last voice to die saying in "There Will Come Soft Rains"?

In Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains," the house is the last voice to speak as it continuously says, "Today is August 5, 2057, today is August 5, 2057, today is ...," as it burns down. This voice at the end is extremely haunting to the story as it demonstrates the absolute absence of humanity after a nuclear holocaust destroyed much of life in 2057.


Throughout the story, Bradbury creates images that demonstrate this...

In Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains," the house is the last voice to speak as it continuously says, "Today is August 5, 2057, today is August 5, 2057, today is ...," as it burns down. This voice at the end is extremely haunting to the story as it demonstrates the absolute absence of humanity after a nuclear holocaust destroyed much of life in 2057.


Throughout the story, Bradbury creates images that demonstrate this absence of humanity while the robotic "life" continues to operate. The story's first paragraph demonstrates this: "The morning house lay empty. The clock ticked on, repeating and repeaing its sounds into the emptiness."


Perhaps the most haunting image in the story comes when Bradbury captures the moment a nuclear bomb detonated, killing each member in the household (except for the dog):



"The entire west face of the house was black, save for five places. Here the silhouette in paint of a man mowing a lawn. Here, as in a photograph, a woman bent to pick flowers. Still farther over, their images burned on wood in one one titanic instant, a small boy, hands flung into the air; higher up, the image of a thrown ball, and opposite him a girl, hands raised to catch a ball which never came down."



The purpose of this image is to show that the only life that's left is the artificial computerized house life. However, the house, without humans, is unable to solve problems. So when a tree crashes into the kitchen and starts a fire, the house is unable to save itself.

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