Jia Pan

Christina Phillips

English 101-022

February 13, 2016

Analysis of "August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains"

In the story of "August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains", narrates a short story of a post apocalyptic time where a smart house which has been left standing, due to a fallout caused by nuclear bombs annihilating the city and its surrounding, including humanity. Constantly in a cycle of chores to take care of its residence; serving breakfast, cleaning the floors, watering the garden, and protecting the family of intruders, to a family that is no longer there. Ultimately, after the constant cycle of chores the house fell under the destruction of a fire that the smart house could not combat leading it to its own downfall, and soon the surrounding of the house and the house itself became one. Using symbolism, irony, and imagery the author argues that the technological advances that once benefitted humanity could soon lead to the destruction of Man, humanity, Nature and the rest of its creations. 

In the story, the downfall of Man was not only occurring after the annihilation of the city and the house falling into the destruction of the fire, but also during Man's time when it was amidst with its own creations. The house, a smart house capable of doing tasks that most people could easily perform, which eliminated not only the need to do anything, but also the elimination of uniqueness of a family. Thus, the house symbolizes for the destruction of humanity, however at a smaller scale. For example, taking away the menial things including breakfast, an element of a household that brings families together at the table, " ...  the stove  ...  ejected from its warm interior eight pieces of perfectly browned toast, eight eggs sunny side up, sixteen slices of bacon, two coffees and two cool glasses of milk", the chores of cleaning left to robotic mice, " ...  kneading the rug nap, sucking gently at hidden dust" (Bradbury). Tasks that once made a house, home, however, the "home" is now no more of a building that eliminates the requirement of interaction, giving it a cold feeling, an "empty house" as Bradbury called it. What further indicate this abandonment of humanity were the tasks performed by the house. The house, and like all robotics imbedded into the programming of the house, constantly performed under the inescapable cycle of tasks, always on a set schedule, which gave insight to how the family lived; constant monotonous cycle with no true escape, which eliminated the uniqueness of individuals and the family. " ...  Seven o'clock, time to get up ...  Nine-fifteen ...  time to clean ...  Two thirty-five. Playing cards fluttered onto pads ... "(Bradbury). Another was the use of the robotic mice and how its task was to clean the house, and later afterwards, the dog.  The dog, which can be symbolized as Nature due to the fact that it itself was part of the outside world for a long period of time and the creation of Nature and not of man, starved to death because it smelled the aroma of food cooked by the house, Man's creation, which developed a sort of madness, knowing it couldn't achieve in obtaining the food, which then led to it's death. Like Nature, the dog's downfall was of Man. After death, the mice, again, Man's creation, with no humanity, no thought, no emotion however contrary to that they were capable of being angry, and like the house, empty and cold, took the dog to incinerator to burn. Another symbolization was the aftermath of Man's creation and the destruction of their surroundings because of it. One example includes the garbage disposer in the sink of the house; this garbage disposer symbolizes the benefits of what life was like to live in the smart house, however, this creation was also symbolized as a contaminator of nature, " ...  eggs were shriveled and toast was like stone. An aluminum wedge scraped them into the sink ...  digested and flushed away to the distant sea"(Bradbury). Another symbol in the story was the silhouette of the family outside on the charred west face of the house, "save for five places"(Bradbury). Here the silhouettes represent the aftermath of nuclear fallout, which resulted in a nuclear shadow. Annihilation of a family out of many due to Man's desire to build weapons that could potentially hurt society and the world in a whole. "The five sports of paint -- the man, woman, the children, the ball -- remained." "At night the ruined city gave off a radioactive glow which could be seen for miles"(Bradbury). An area that has been completely obliterated for no animal or creature to thrive This can also be reference back to the use of the atomic bombs that was set off in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which also produced a similar scenario and environment set in the short story. Ultimately, these symbols within the story served not only as an imagery to portray the results of a nuclear fallout, but also as a warning almost from Ray Bradbury to take another path of technological advances that will not result the people of other countries to meet the same fate as the Japanese did in WWII. 

Another way for Ray Bradbury to demonstrate that technological advances of man will not only impact humanity, but also nature was through irony. The most discernible irony was employing of the poem There will Come Soft Rains. The poem tells of an era of which "mankind perished utterly", and that Nature and the animals of Nature will not care for the extinction of humans, but merely flourish and thrive as if they never existed. The poem, however, portrays a scenario more utopian-like than dejected as one would think. In comparison to the poem and the reality of the surroundings of the house, the nature of the aftermath that has been impaired because of its gluttony for power and domination, that nature cannot and will no longer thrive as a utopia predicted in the poem. The dog, once owned by the residing family of the house, symbolizes Nature, and its condition, " ...  now gone to bine and covered with sores" (Bradbury). " ... once huge and fleshy", like Nature, has been stripped of any life force left in it, and taken down to almost like hell into the incinerator much as Man has brought down humanity. Nature can no longer serve as a utopia such that the poem prospected it to be, but simply a place where life can no longer thrives even if humans were extinct. 

Bradbury was also capable of portraying the outcome of the technological creations that happened to benefit the world, however would later destroy it. "And the rain tapped in the empty house, echoing"(Bradbury). This imagery develops a sense of eeriness, a mood of loneliness. "At night the ruined city gave off a radioactive glow which could be seen for miles", provides an image of what the result was, however Bradbury was also capable of portraying of what the advances were capable of on a smaller scale, which includes the family of four; " ...  their images burned on wood in one titanic instant, a small boy  ...  image of a thrown ball ...  a ball which never came down". It stimulates a sort of hollow tone for the narrator, however resigned and not objective, but also in a tone of apathy, no care, just left emotionless. Then came the house catching on fire, "The fire crackled up the stairs. It fed upon Picassos and Matisses in the upper halls, like delicacies  ... ", " ... the solvent spread on the linoleum, licking, eating, under the kitchen floor"(Bradbury). Then personifying the house, like if it were human, "The house shuddered, oak bone on bone ...  its nerves, its wires revealed as if a surgeon had torn the skin off"(Bradbury). Amplifying the details of the destruction of Man's creation, and like Man, comes to an end with the rest of Nature, because of the path that Man leads, the path of power. 

Bradbury's short story tells the story of how Man's creation, the smart house, soon becomes subject to it's own demise because it was Man who brought it in this world, and it was Man who created the very thing that destroyed humanity and Nature itself. The irony of the poem of a world, a utopia, precipitated because of the inexistence of humans, is laughable as the reality of the world that Bradbury portrays is that it no longer exists if the world doesn't cease its ways and change its course towards a better future. 

Work Cited

Bradbury, Ray. "August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains by Bradbury.pdf." The Martian Chronicles. Toronto: Bantam, 1985. 166-72. Google Docs. Web. 13 Feb. 2016.
