Ray Bradbury, “There Will Come Soft Rains” Response

Ray Bradbury’s story, There Will Come Soft Rains, is devoid of human characters and deals with with failed technology while presenting several themes that explore the dark side of the relationship between humans and the machines they create.

In this dark vision of the future of modern society, by the year 2026 humans have advanced to the point where they can control their environment, but they cannot control their own destructive tendencies. The implication is that the nuclear blast is the result of an act of aggression against the West Coast of the United States. Whether war or a nuclear meltdown is responsible for the devastation, however, human beings’ unique ability to use science for their own benefit is shown in stark contrast with mankind’s powerlessness to control their scientific developments in their more destructive forms.

The end of the story also illustrates mankind’s powerlessness in the face of natural forces. The way the house dies emphasizes the ability of nature to endure despite human beings’ attempts to control it. The wind blowing down a tree branch starts the series of events that end in the destruction of the house. Dawn breaks in the east as the destruction is complete. The Earth’s natural cycles go on regardless of whether there is a single human being left alive to witness it. A human’s recorded voice calls out that a new day has begun, but the sun shines only on a heap of rubble.

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