There Will Come Soft Rains

It's August of 2026. A house in Allendale, California, had just woken up. It broadcasts that it is seven o'clock and time to wake up, but the house is silent. The house has started to make breakfast, but there's no one there to eat it. Soon after, the sprinklers came on and outside on the house, all the paint has been burned off, except for five silhouettes; a woman and a man, doing work in the yard, and two children, a boy and a girl, playing with a ball that never reached its destination. The rest of the neighborhood has been burned to the ground and a radioactive glow shines all over and around it. The family's dog returns covered with cuts and sores, finds out he's the only one left, and dies. Little mechanical mice come out from all over the house and clean up the dog's remains. As it gets dark, the house starts to read the woman's favorite poem, "There Will Come Soft Rains". The poem portrays how nature can still live on if there is no one there to prove it. Late in the night, a tree falls on the house causing it to burn down. The only thing standing is the talking wall. And, for on last time, it says "Today is August 5, 2026." "There Will Come Soft Rains", by Ray Bradbury is a short story written in the 1940's predicting what the future will be like. The central idea of this story is that there is a delicate balance between the good and the evil of technology in our lives. Bradbury proves this through setting, imagery, and the author's point of view.