Kellie Stokes

February 15th, 2016

Phillips

English 101

Power of Nature Compared to the Power of Technology 

Technology was created by humans to supply convenience in everyday life, but once it begins to control every aspect of life it loses its benefits and leads to tragedy. Bradbury conveys this idea in his story, There Will Come Soft Rains. This cautionary tale, where the main character is a house, warns of the harm and false overconfidence that comes with replacing nature with technology. Without humans, technology serves no purpose and is left alone with nothing but nature.  By using techniques and filling the story with numerous literary devices, Bradbury expresses the implication that the demise of the human race will result from the desire to replace nature with technology. Unintentionally mankind will be destroyed by the technology that they created and bringing harm to themselves, but nature will remain unaltered.

Demise is a reoccurring theme throughout the story. The story begins with a futuristic house that fears the abandonment of the people who lived there, but it is clear that the house is already empty " repeating and repeating its sounds into the emptiness" (Bradbury 1). Soon it becomes understood that its owners have been annihilated by a nuclear war, and all that remained of the family was their silhouettes on the exterior of the house. Showing there final moments as being ordinary, it seems as if the family was unaware of their upcoming death. Without any owners to give it a purpose, the house becomes frantic and paranoid and begins to overly remove all impurities from the house, including nature. Soon the family dog, who is sick and starving, returns home. Desiring perfection, the house is annoyed by the mess brought in, "Behind it whirred angry mice, angry at having to pick up mud, angry at inconvenience" (Bradbury 2). The dog dies soon after and the house is inconvenienced once again to remove the dog's body and rid the house of decay. With all life now being gone, the house remains alone with nothing but nature surrounding it. Conflict arises as nature tries to seek its revenge on the house and a war breaks out between the two. Fire, nature's most uncomplicated weapons, begins to fill the house. It is angry and hungry like and animal, being described as "licking, and eating" (Bradbury 3), almost as if it has had enough of the damage brought onto it by technology. Fighting back, the house frantically begins using all of its resources. But it is not powerful enough to fight back and the house goes chaotic and demise takes over. By the end of the story, the house was destroyed and only a "heaped rubble and steam" (Bradbury 4). 

 Conflict between nature and technology arises early in the story and builds up until the end. Both of theses concepts oppose each other and are unable to exist together. Ironically, this technology in the houses mimics nature. When comparing the two, it is clear that nature is smarter than technology and does not require mankind to have a purpose. After the demise of the family that once lived there, the house continues its routine without recognizing its abandonment. But when the family dog, who represents nature, arrives home, he instantly realizes the family is gone and shows sorrow. It is evident that the dog misses the family that once lived there, but the technology in the house was completely unaware of is desertion even though both of them saw humans as being their master. After the dog's death, it took only fifteen minutes for the house to remove the body. The house showed no remorse but displayed a tone of victory when "the incinerator glowed suddenly and a whirl of sparks leaped up the chimney" (Bradbury 2) after eliminating the body. Technology now is begging to look cold and emotionless. 

Throughout the story Bradbury uses many literary devices. Largely, the whole story displays an extended metaphor of both the technology in the house and the elements of nature as being an army. Once mankind is destroyed, nature is pushed over the edge and war arises. Many events throughout the story foreshadow this war. Beginning with the death of the family dog when he turns on himself by "biting at his tail" (Bradbury 2), which also represents the humans who died due to their own harm and the upcoming demise of the house becomes implied. Foreshadowing really stands out when just moments before war breaks out, the house reads a poem that mimics the plot of the story while demonstrates the never-ending power of nature and its success over war. The poem chosen was There Will Come Soft Rains by Sara Teasdale, and begins to set a victorious tone for nature when it says "not one will know of the war ... when Spring herself, when she woke at dawn/ Would scarcely know if we were gone" (Bradbury 3) and implying that after the war nature will still continue unaffected. Bradbury also builds his story using strong juxtaposition. Contradictions of nature and technology are most evident. Both elements are opposites, yet some of the technology in the house was inspired by nature. "The rooms were acrawl with the small cleaning animals, all rubber and metal" (Bradbury 2) and along with this the house has a nursery that represents a whole wilderness scene. The concept of nature differs from rubber and metal and almost builds irony that the house duplicates the thing it wants to destroy. Along with this, the house is described with a lot of personification, giving it more of a natural feeling even though it mostly made of metal. Outside of the house is disaster and rubble, which clashes with the perfection inside the house. Without anyone to serve, the house continues to serve humans, which contradicts with the emptiness. The devotion the house has for its masters is similar to the worship of a god, "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" (Bradbury 2). Even though the humans are no longer present the house continues its rituals to serve. All the technology in the house begins to resemble an army with "Regiments of mice" (Bradbury 2) that is preparing for war against nature, which shows the extended metaphor. Once fire breaks out, it does not take long for the house to surrender and it begins yelling, "Help, help! Fire, Run, run!" (Bradbury 4). Near the end of the story and the house dies, it is described with characteristics of a human who "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). The story ends in irony. Destroyed by fire all the house need was water to be saved. However, it has been pointlessly using its water to service humans who no longer live there. With its water supply being depleted all it really needed was rainfall, which it asked to go away at the opening of the story, "Rain, rain, go away" (Bradbury 1). East represents a fresh start, such as the new dawn that comes when the sun rises in the east. Once the things started to settle down, morning time began to come, just like as predicted in the poem, and the rubble of the house's remains is shown and nature was able to outsmart all. The idea of west and east become symbolic near the end as well. On the west side of the house is where the silhouettes of the family remain and the majority of the tragedy that occurs with house take place at night, when the sun sets in the west.

Bradbury warns of what will happen if humans let technology outlast their existence and in essence this temporary convenience will hurt them. Nature is powerful and opposes technology, and the conflict that they create leads to a war between the two. Outsmarting technology and having a larger purpose, nature will always continue even without humans or the convenience of technology. Even though technology could outlast humans, it would never outlast nature.

Works Cited

Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles (Toronto: Bantam Books, 1985), 166-172.
