Student Question
What's intriguing about the start of "There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury?
Quick answer:
The start of "There Will Come Soft Rains" is intriguing due to its depiction of a futuristic, automated house operating without humans. The personification of the clock and stove, suggesting sentience, highlights the eerie emptiness of the home. This absence raises questions about the missing family, creating a sense of mystery and foreboding. The advanced technology continuing its routine amidst the silence hints at a post-apocalyptic setting, engaging readers in the unfolding mystery.
The opening paragraph of "There Will Come Soft Rains" is intriguing firstly because of the singing clock, and secondly because of the mysterious emptiness of the house. This story was first published in 1950, when the idea of a singing alarm clock would have been more unusual, and so more intriguing than it would perhaps be today. The alarm clock is also personified. It is described as singing the time "as if it were afraid" that nobody would hear it. Personifying the clock in this way is intriguing because it makes it seem as if it is sentient, just like an ordinary, human character. The fact that the alarm clock has seemingly been set to go off also makes the emptiness of the house more conspicuous. It seems that there should be somebody in the house to hear the alarm clock and to wake up.
In the second...
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paragraph of the story, thepersonification of inanimate, electrical items is continued when the stove gives "a hissing sigh." This further suggests that the house has some sort of artificial intelligence. This impression is compounded shortly after by the one-line paragraph, "Somewhere in the walls, relays clicked, memory tapes glided under electric lights." The house seems to be alive in its own way, and the more the house is personified, the more conspicuous and intriguing the absence of any human presence becomes.
What is intriguing about how "There Will Come Soft Rains" begins?
The opening paragraphs of Ray Bradbury's short story "There Will Come Soft Rains" are particularly intriguing in the way he portrays a silent, futuristic smart home without any family present. While Bradbury depicts the convenient voice clock and overhead speakers informing the residents of the time and their daily reminders, he also emphasizes the emptiness of the home.
As the technologically advanced kitchen stove prepares a full breakfast and the memory tapes play their routine messages, the absence of the family is particularly intriguing. The reader is immersed in the setting and the mystery surrounding the family's absence is rather disturbing and ominous. By illustrating the glaringly empty technologically advanced home, the reader is intrigued to learn where the residents have gone or what might have happened to them. It is only after the various mechanisms inside the house clean up breakfast and the sun begins to rise when the reader learns that it is the only home standing in the wake of a nuclear attack.