There Will Come Soft Rains Questions and Answers
There Will Come Soft Rains
What are examples of personification in "There Will Come Soft Rains," and how does that personification affect the...
Personification refers to the ascribing of human characteristics on non-human objects. Given that Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains" is centered around an automated house as its main...
There Will Come Soft Rains
There Will Come Soft Rains Symbolism
The final showdown, so to speak, between the mechanized house and the casual act of nature symbolizes the fact that nature is, without even trying to be, far more powerful than anything human...
There Will Come Soft Rains
What are some examples of imagery in the story "There Will Come Soft Rains"?
When it comes to Ray Bradbury’s eerie short story “There Will Come Soft Rains,” there’s an abundance of imagery to discuss. In the first paragraph, imagery can be found in the sentence “The morning...
There Will Come Soft Rains
What is an example of a metaphor in the story "There Will Come Soft Rains"?
The house is compared to an altar, and the house itself is a metaphor for the dangers of over-relying on technology. A metaphor is a common type of figurative language where something is referred...
There Will Come Soft Rains
By the end of the story, what happens to the house in "There Will Come Soft Rains"?
In Ray Bradbury's short story "There Will Come Soft Rains," the completely automated smart home is the only structure still standing in the middle of a nuclear wasteland in Allendale, California....
There Will Come Soft Rains
What are some examples of personification in the story "There Will Come Soft Rains"?
Personification is a form of figurative language in which an author attributes human qualities to something that is not human. There is a great deal of personification in Ray Bradbury's short story...
There Will Come Soft Rains
How does Sara Teasdale's poem of the same title relate to the story "There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury?
The very fact that Bradbury's story takes its title from Teasdale's poem serves as a powerful confirmation that the story is very much in conversation with it. Indeed, not only does Bradbury...
There Will Come Soft Rains
What has happened to the rest of the houses in the neighborhood?
The story "There Will Come Soft Rains" is set in the wake of a nuclear explosion, which has flattened the city of Allendale, California. Among the ruins of the city stands a solitary home, and the...
There Will Come Soft Rains
What literary devices are used in "There Will Come Soft Rains"?
One prominent literary device that Bradbury uses in “There Will Come Soft Rains” is symbolism. For example, consider how the dog who dies from radiation poisoning was once “huge and fleshy” and is...
There Will Come Soft Rains
Simile In There Will Come Soft Rains
In this story, a house goes on functioning for awile and then "dies" in a fire after all the human inhabitants are killed in a nuclear war. Similes likening the house to nature, magic and children...
There Will Come Soft Rains
What tone, or attitude, does the automated voice use to address the missing inhabitants?
The voice or tone of the automated home system in addressing the "inhabitants" is neutral and not conscious of the situation. The inhabitants—two adults and two children—have died a long time ago...
There Will Come Soft Rains
Describe how the house is finally destroyed in "There Will Come Soft Rains."
As the previous educators have noted, the house is destroyed by a fire after a tree branch goes through the kitchen window, knocking a bottle of cleaning solvent onto the stovetop. What is really...
There Will Come Soft Rains
What is the central conflict of "There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury?
On the broadest level, the main conflict of the story is human technology versus nature, but this can be understood more specifically as human pride coming into conflict with the natural world. The...
There Will Come Soft Rains
What are the allusions in "There Will Come Soft Rains"?
An allusion is a reference in a piece of literature to another work of writing or to a cultural or historical event. The main allusion is to Sara Teasdale's poem "There Will Come Soft Rains." Part...
There Will Come Soft Rains
Who are the gods who have gone away in the story "There Will Come Soft Rains"?
Ray Bradbury is known for having a very lyrical writing style, rich with the use of metaphor and poetic turns of phrases. "There Will Come Soft Rains" is no exception to this trend, and the passage...
There Will Come Soft Rains
What does the rain symbolize in "There Will Come Soft Rains"?
The title of Bradbury's short story "There Will Come Soft Rains" is borrowed from Sara Teasdale's poem of the same name. In both the poem and the story, rain symbolizes the way nature goes about...
There Will Come Soft Rains
Irony In There Will Come Soft Rains
The biggest irony in “There Will Come Soft Rains” is that technology is supposed to make life easier for people, yet it has led to the destruction of the human race. The automated home demonstrates...
There Will Come Soft Rains
What is the daily routine of the automated house in "There Will Come Soft Rains"?
The house serves to provide friendly reminders that mirror the family's movements throughout the day. First, it provides a welcoming invitation to rise from bed at 7 a.m. A few moments later, it...
There Will Come Soft Rains
What is the significance of the repeated references to rain throughout the story?
The rain signifies nature's way or function of cleansing itself. And, following this nuclear explosion and the decimation of the human population, there is the sense that nature is cleansing itself...
There Will Come Soft Rains
In "There Will Come Soft Rains," how does the house exhibit "a mechanical paranoia"? What does this mean?
In Ray Bradbury's celebrated short story "There Will Come Soft Rains," a completely automated smart home in Allendale, California continues to perform its routine mechanical functions in the wake...
There Will Come Soft Rains
What are three examples of similes in the story "There Will Come Soft Rains"?
The west side of the house is burnt black except for five white spots. One of these spots is the silhouette of a woman bending to pick flowers "as in a photograph." Similes most often use "like" or...
There Will Come Soft Rains
In "There Will Come Soft Rains," how does the author describe the nursery, and what is significant about the way the...
The author describes the nursery as a place that feels alive with animals and insects and plant life. The floor is woven to feel like a "crisp, cereal meadow," and the walls teem with moving films...
There Will Come Soft Rains
In "There Will Come Soft Rains," what do we learn about the society as a whole based on the home's many automated...
From examining the automated home in Bradbury's “There Will Come Soft Rains,” it's possible to conclude that the society which created it was technologically advanced. The home is a truly...
There Will Come Soft Rains
What happened to the occupants of the house?
The family-two parents, a son, and a daughter are dead as a result of an atomic bomb blast. The only thing that remains of them are five splotches against the house. The family dog arrives at the...
There Will Come Soft Rains
What happens to the dog's remains in "There Will Come Soft Rains"?
In "There Will Come Soft Rains," the dog survives the nuclear blast but later dies of radiation sickness. Its body lies in the parlor for an hour and, by two o'clock, the "regiments" of mechanical...
There Will Come Soft Rains
What is the point of the dog in "There Will Come Soft Rains"?
The science fiction short story "There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury tells of a single house still standing in a decimated city after a horrifying atomic war. The house goes through its...
There Will Come Soft Rains
In "There Will Come Soft Rains," how is the house described?
Bradbury personifies the technologically advanced smart home by describing its voice, eyes, and behaviors. The empty automated home is the last remaining house in a city of rubble and ashes...
There Will Come Soft Rains
What does the description of the house tell you about the family and their relationship to nature?
Although we know that the family plays outside in the yard—as images of them throwing a ball, picking flowers, and otherwise engaging in outdoors activities is etched on the wall of the house after...
There Will Come Soft Rains
In "There Will Come Soft Rains," Bradbury describes the house as "an altar with ten thousand attendants." Who do you...
The entire context of this quote is as follows: 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...
There Will Come Soft Rains
Why does Bradbury include the exact times of specific events in "There Will Come Soft Rains"?
The chronology is important in this story because it creates suspense and helps the reader understand the effect of no longer having humans. Is time important when there are no longer people around...
There Will Come Soft Rains
What symbolism is used in "There Will Come Soft Rains" in The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury?
The house left standing after a nuclear war symbolizes the human worship of technology. In the story, the house is pictured as a god. For example, Bradbury writes: The house was an altar with ten...
There Will Come Soft Rains
What is Bradbury's main purpose in "There Will Come Soft Rains"?
In Ray Bradbury's dystopian short story "There Will Come Soft Rains," a single house is left standing in the year 2026, after an atomic blast kills the inhabitants of the house and the rest of the...
There Will Come Soft Rains
What view of the future does Ray Bradbury describe in "There Will Come Soft Rains"?
At first glance, Bradbury seems to portray a positive view of the future. In his version of the future, people have an easier life because technology has taken over all of our domestic chores. The...
There Will Come Soft Rains
In the short story "There Will Come Soft Rains," if you were to think back to the story in the days and weeks to...
In terms of broad geographical perspective, the image that stands out is of this one remaining house amidst a city that has been destroyed. The house is the only one left, and is surrounded by...
There Will Come Soft Rains
Who had lived in the house in "There Will Come Soft Rains"?
The house was inhabited by a family of four before the nuclear blast killed them. The house in the story is fully automated. Its job is to take care of its family, which consists of a mother, a...
There Will Come Soft Rains
What is the mood as the house in "There Will Come Soft Rains" is destroyed by fire? Does the author present wild...
In "There Will Come Soft Rains," the house is an unthinking, emotionless machine, so the story's mood stays, for the most part, as being matter-of-fact. However, in the moments leading up to the...
There Will Come Soft Rains
What is the setting of "There Will Come Soft Rains"?
Bradbury's story is set in an empty house. All the humans who once lived in it have been killed, but the house, which behaves almost as a human character, continues functioning as if the owners are...
There Will Come Soft Rains
What were the five spots of paint in "There Will Come Soft Rains"? What happened to the people?
The spots of paint are all that is left of the people who lived in the house. There are no people alive to tell the story in “There Will Come Soft Rains.” There has been some kind of recent...
There Will Come Soft Rains
Why does the house continue its activity even when it no longer makes sense?
In Bradbury's story "There Will Come Soft Rains," the house continues its activity even when the family members have died and no one is living in it any longer, because that is what it has been...
There Will Come Soft Rains
Why does Ray Bradbury include the poem of the same name in his short story "There Will Come Soft Rains"?
Sara Teasdale's poem was an inspiration for Bradbury's story of the same name. In part, he includes the poem as tribute to Teasdale, but more importantly, because it underlines his main theme or...
There Will Come Soft Rains
What do the silhouettes on the wall suggest about the family?
In "There Will Come Soft Rains," Bradbury describes five silhouettes of a family on the wall. We can infer information about the family, based on the type and nature of these silhouettes. Firstly,...
There Will Come Soft Rains
Based on "There Will Come Soft Rains," how do you think Bradbury views our culture's legacy to the future?
In accord with the previous posts, Bradbury sees life going without a mere whimper, as does T. S. Eliot. The danger of technology, Bradbury warns, is that it does not care that the harm comes to...
There Will Come Soft Rains
What caused the fire in "There Will Come Soft Rains"?
After spending a day attempting to serve humans who no longer exist in this house, the house begins "to die" at ten o'clock p.m. Outside, a storm increases in intensity, and a tree crashes through...
There Will Come Soft Rains
In the short story "There Will Come Soft Rains," what evidence suggests that the fire is personified?
Because there are no human beings in this story—they have all been killed in a nuclear holocaust—Bradbury personifies the house and nature. At the end of the story, Bradbury personifies the fire, a...
There Will Come Soft Rains
In the story "There Will Come Soft Rains," what unusual qualities and appliances does the house have?
The clock in the house has a voice which calls out the morning wake up call as well as breakfast and other events and reminders. This is not very unusual to us because these reminders are given to...
There Will Come Soft Rains
What are the metaphors in the story by Ray Bradbury "There Will Come Soft Rains"?
The breakfast stove churns out a lovely breakfast for the people who are no longer there, and a while later, it disposes of the food, which has been left uneaten. The narrator says that "hot water...
There Will Come Soft Rains
What happens to the dog that visits the house?
Ray Bradbury's anti-war science fiction short story "There Will Come Soft Rains" was first published in Collier's magazine in May 1950. The story was published later that year in a revised version...
There Will Come Soft Rains
How is allusion used in "There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury?
The significance of the allusions to two great artists deserves a further look: The fire crackled up the stairs. It fed upon Picassos and Matisses in the upper halls, like delicacies, baking off...
There Will Come Soft Rains
Why did the house continue to serve food and clean up after itself ?
The house continues to serve food and clean up after itself because it is nothing more than a mechanical object that has been programmed to behave in this way. It has no way of knowing that the...
There Will Come Soft Rains
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....
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