What is the author's message in "There Will Come Soft Rains"?

In "There Will Come Soft Rains," Bradbury wants to draw the reader's attention to the amount of technology that they use. He wants them to realize that technology, although it has many advantages, can be very dangerous and potentially bring about our own demise.

To show this, Bradbury portrays life, or a lack of life, after a nuclear blast in 2026. The victims are a typical American family, tragically killed while enjoying time together in their garden. Their automated house, filled with technology to make life easier, is the only thing that has survived, and the house has not noticed that they are no longer here.

To really emphasize his argument, Bradbury includes the poem, "There Will Come Soft Rains," in the middle of the story. Placing it here ensures that the reader cannot ignore it, and the text of the poem reinforces his message. See these lines, for example:

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
If mankind perished utterly;

In other words, as Bradbury's futuristic scenario shows, life will carry on when people are gone. However, if they are to avoid their annihilation, they must realize that the technology which makes their life so easy can also be a source of their own destruction.

What is the author's message in "There Will Come Soft Rains"?

In the short story "There will come soft rains" Ray Bradbury basically warns society against its worst enemy: society itself.

We learn about what happens in the year 2026, in what seems to be an uninhabited world where only the machines and computers continue to operate. The setting is a typical American home, where we find a technology that surpasses our own. For example, a breakfast of bacon and eggs makes itself in a timely manner. However, there is no sense of human agency as the machines seem to operate in isolation, completely separate from humans. Yet, where are the humans?

The intended message is that humans have the potential and the capability of destroying themselves as a race if they use their intelligence to make poor decisions. Yet, if this happens and we do not take control of our own potential capabilities, they will run out of control, and we will be at the losing end. Being that Bradbury wrote this story in the year 1950, he witnessed the end of World War II and the start of the Cold War. He warns us how war is ultimately what will end our civilization. That war is not humane in any way, shape, or form. That war might be the end of everything.

Perhaps the most poignant moment in the story comes at the end. After we witness a perfectly well-managed home in which things materialize thanks to technology, we do see that the world does need human urgency. When the now-extinct humans do not control the pre-set programming of the computers, the house catches on fire, and everything becomes chaos.

This is when we hear the chilling voice of the house speakers repeating themselves over and over. The world is officially over in the story by then:

Dawn showed faintly in the east. Among the ruins, one wall stood alone. Within the wall, a last voice said, over and over again and again, even as the sun rose to shine upon the heaped rubble and steam:
"Today is August 5, 2026, today is August 5, 2026, today is…"

What is the most important moral lesson in "There Will Come Soft Rains"?

I think that what you are asking is whether or not There Will Come Soft Rains has a moral to it?

Yes, yes it does!

The story by Bradbury as well as the poem by Teasdale (both with the same title) teaches humans that technology, while we love it and depend upon it, can be our ultimate downfall unless we are careful.

Technology is great in the story and makes life for the family very easy--the house cooks them breakfast, entertains the children and keeps intruders out so the family can stay safe.

However, this same technology when used for the wrong reasons ends humanity as we currently know it.

We can move forward with what we know and make life easier, but we have to be cautious that we do not misuse our new discoveries.

This idea is very relevant for today--Obama is allowing stem cell research--imagine the great things it can do in the right hands and the awful things that can happen if humans misuse it.

What is the moral of "There Will Come Soft Rains"?

There always seems to be a cautionary note in the way that science fiction writers like Bradbury construct their future worlds. They offer us a glimpse of one possible future which we could be heading towards, and by so doing hope to correct the various excesses or attitudes that could be responsible for leading to that future. In a sense, they act as fortune tellers by tantalising us with visions of the future, but then empowering us to be able to change ourselves now to prevent destruction later.

Let us consider what Bradbury might be trying to warn us about in this excellent story. What is notable in this tale is the complete absence of any human characters. The only mention of any humans in the story is the outline that they left against the wall of the house when they were consumed by flames:

The five spots of paint--the man, the woman, the children, the ball--remained. The rest was a thin charcoaled layer.

We are presented with a house that demonstrates the incredible scientific advances of man with its technology. Human beings almost have to do nothing because the house does it for them. And yet, it is the same minds that have reached this level of technological sophistication that have also created weaponry capable of annihilating the entire species of humanity. The irony of this is evident.

Bradbury therefore seems to be suggesting that this technology and scientific advancement that we are achieving (after all we are progressing so rapidly) is great, but that if we do not have wisdom to know how to use such science correctly, then what is the point? We are not as safe and secure as we think we are, and by presenting us with a picture of nature carrying on perfectly happily without us, Bradbury tries to highlight our vulnerable position.