The theme of human agency is explored in “There Will Come Soft Rains.” More specifically, it is the lack of human agency that propels this futuristic tale. This is a world in which humans have been destroyed. The method of destruction is a nuclear explosion created by people with the power of science. After humanity has been killed, technology lives on without human interference.

The house also completes tasks that most humans, including Bradbury’s readers, accomplish themselves. Making breakfast, putting children to sleep, and even cleaning up dust are all taken care of by the house. When the humans were alive, what did they do? The house’s mechanization prompts us to ask questions about what role humans played—if any—when all their household tasks were delegated to a machine. In other words, what does it mean to be human in a world of machines?

It is worth noting, too, the personification of the house. Though it is mechanical and automated, Bradbury characterizes the house with typically human descriptions. It sings, sighs, disposes of waste with a “metal throat,” shudders, and shakes its “bared  skeleton” in the heat of the fire. For all intents and purposes, the house is what is left of humanity. Even the fire is “clever,” as if ascribed some of the same agency commonly associated with people. When humans are gone, human traits are assigned to nonhuman objects. In this way, an uncanny imprint of humanity remains, even in its absence.