Discussion Topic
Children's Life on Venus in Bradbury's "All Summer in a Day"
Summary:
In Ray Bradbury's "All Summer in a Day," children live on Venus because their families are part of a pioneering effort to establish a civilization on the planet. Bradbury describes Venus as a perpetually rainy world where the sun only appears once every seven years, creating a dismal and oppressive environment. The children, who have grown up without sunlight, are depicted as envious of Margot, a girl who remembers life on Earth. The story explores themes of isolation, memory, and the human yearning for sunlight and warmth.
Why do the children live on Venus in "All Summer in a Day"?
Ray Bradbury does not go into detail about why the children and their families are living on Venus in his short story "All Summer in a Day" and only offers this brief piece of information regarding their motivation to inhabit the planet by writing,
And this was the way life was forever on the planet Venus, and this was the schoolroom of the children of the rocket men and women who had come to a raining world to set up civilization and live out their lives.
According to the brief information provided in the story, the rocket men and women were simply motivated to establish a civilization on the distant planet, where they successfully build underground tunnels and cities in order to survive the treacherous environment. The colonists may have been motivated by glory, adventure, or financial gain to colonize the distant, rainy planet. The fact that Margot's...
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parents are willing to return back to earth reveals that the colonists on Venus were not escaping something dangerous or deadly on earth. The majority of the information in the short story focuses on Margot, and there is not much information given in theexposition of the story.
What is the description of planet Venus in Bradbury's "All Summer in a Day"?
Ray Bradbury's "All Summer in a Day" is set on the planet Venus. The description of the planet is not based on scientific evidence; rather, it is as Bradbury creates it for the foundation of the plot and conflict of the story. The description of the story's imaginary setting is as follows:
"It had been raining for seven years; thousands upon thousands of days compounded and filled from one end to the other with rain, with the drum and gush of water, with the sweet crystal fall of showers and the concussion of storms so heavy they were tidal waves come over the islands. A thousand forests had been crushed under the rain and grown up a thousand times to be crushed again. And this was the way life was forever on the planet Venus . . ."
Since the planet has only seen rain each day for seven years, then it can also be inferred that the sun has not shone during that time, either. For the human children who were born on Venus, and don't know what life on Earth is like, they also don't know what the sun feels like on their skin.
When the sun does come out, however, further details are given as to what the planet looks like outside of the human dwellings. For example, "The childrenlay out, laughing, on the jungle mattress, and heard it sigh and squeak under them, resilient and alive." The descriptions from the story also say that the children run around trees. Therefore, it can be inferred that not only does Venus experience a lot of rainfall, but as a result, the terrain is like a tropical jungle—green, lush, and full of life.
How does Bradbury describe Venus and its child inhabitants in "All Summer in a Day"?
In the short story "All Summer in a Day" by Ray Bradbury, the author describes the planet Venus as a place where clouds cover the sky, rain falls almost continually, and frequent huge storms surge over the landscape. Tropical forests grow continuously in the constant rainfall. Only once every seven years, the clouds part and the sun comes out for a few hours. Bradbury begins this description early in the story in a paragraph that begins, "It had been raining for seven years." In this paragraph, he writes of "the concussion of storms" and of forests that are crushed under the rain but then grow up again.
When the rain abruptly stops and the children run outside, Bradbury describes the brief interval of sunlight on Venus. The sun is "the color of flaming bronze," the sky is "a blazing blue tile color," and the jungle shines in the sunlight. The air is warm. The jungle is thick, tangled, and drab. Bradbury compares it to "a nest of octopuses" with "the color of rubber and ash" because of "the many years without sun." Soon, rain begins to fall again, the children hear "a boom of thunder," and lightning strikes closer and closer. The continuous rainfall has begun again.
The nine-year-old children in the story have grown up in a world without sunlight. They have to use sunlamps to simulate the sun's rays. The sun came out once when they were two, but they do not remember it. Bradbury introduces Margot, who came from Earth and remembers what sunlight is like, as a contrast to the children born on Venus. They don't like her, because they are envious of her memories of the sun on Earth, while they are used to only rain and storms. This causes them to bully her and treat her cruelly. As Bradbury writes,
And then, of course, the biggest crime of all was that she had come here only five years ago from Earth, and she remembered the sun and the way the sun was and the sky was when she was four in Ohio. And they, they had been on Venus all their lives, and they had been only two years old when last the sun came out and had long since forgotten the color and heat of it and the way it really was. But Margot remembered.
After the children lock Margot in the closet and the rain stops, for them, the silence is "immense and unbelievable," because they do not remember ever experiencing a silence so complete. They run and play outdoors in the sun. When the rain starts again and they have to go indoors, only then do they realize how cruel they have been to Margot in denying her the opportunity to experience the rare sunshine.