The short Sci-Fi story “There Will Come Soft Rains” by the author Ray Bradbury shows the importance and advancements that technology will have in the future, it will become so independent that it will control itself, without the need of humans making us useless and could even lead to our destruction.
Throughout the story I could identify two elements that makes the story fit in the category of Science fiction. The first one is a technologically advanced house, which is the only house standing in all the city and no humans are living in it. However it continues working perfectly and doing all the labors that in modern day a human need to do, such as making breakfast, "In the kitchen the breakfast stove gave a hissing sigh and ejected from its warm interior eight pieces of perfectly browned toast, eight eggs sunny side up, sixteen slices of bacon, two coffees, and two cool glasses of milk;" and cleaning the house, "Out of warrens in the wall, tiny robot mice darted. The rooms were acrawl with the small cleaning animals, all rubber and metal. They thudded against chairs, whirling their mustached runners, kneading the rug nap, sucking gently at hidden dust. Then, like mysterious invaders, they popped into their burrows. Their pink electric eyes faded." It shows that the house is capable of doing things humans did before but without their help. Basically the house works as a real human.
The second element was a city destroyed by radioactive bomb and as a result the city glows at night. "The house stood alone in a city of rubble and ashes. This was the one house left standing. At night the ruined city gave off a radioactive glow which could be seen for miles." As you can see in the quote technology is so advanced that a radioactive bomb powerful enough to destroy a whole city was built. It is a good thing since technology had evolved but it´s also a bad thing since it shows that technology could kill us some day if we are not aware of its risks.
The story also included narrative techniques time and personification. Due to the use of the time in the story, Bradbury make us feel as if we were living what is happening. Also it helps a lot in the understanding of the story and it's like if you go by the hand of the time as your read, if you go on, the time as well, goes on. Some examples are: "Today is August 4, 2026", "In the city of Allendale, California.", "Eight-one, tick-tock, eight-one o'clock, off to school, off to work, run, run, eight-one!", "Ten o'clock.", "Four-thirty".
The last element but not least important is personification in which the house acts as a real person. Because of all the abilities it has, as you can see in the quotes below. "An aluminum wedge scraped them into the sink, where hot water whirled them down a metal throat which digested and flushed them away to the distant sea. The dirty dishes were dropped into a hot washer and emerged twinkling dry.", "It quivered at each sound, the house did." And "At ten o'clock the house began to die." Since there are no people the author represents the house as a character but also as a person. It makes you imagine the house as something else than a house which can also connect with the idea that due to the technology it had become more than an object.
Ray Bradbury in his story “There Will Come Soft Rains” took us to a completely different time that was affected by technology. We can see how due to this a house can become more than what it really is and that technology (radioactive bomb) finally destroys the whole city. It make us reflect about the importance of technology in the world but that we also need to be aware of its risks, if we don’t want to end as the Allendale city.
Throughout the story I could identify two elements that makes the story fit in the category of Science fiction. The first one is a technologically advanced house, which is the only house standing in all the city and no humans are living in it. However it continues working perfectly and doing all the labors that in modern day a human need to do, such as making breakfast, "In the kitchen the breakfast stove gave a hissing sigh and ejected from its warm interior eight pieces of perfectly browned toast, eight eggs sunny side up, sixteen slices of bacon, two coffees, and two cool glasses of milk;" and cleaning the house, "Out of warrens in the wall, tiny robot mice darted. The rooms were acrawl with the small cleaning animals, all rubber and metal. They thudded against chairs, whirling their mustached runners, kneading the rug nap, sucking gently at hidden dust. Then, like mysterious invaders, they popped into their burrows. Their pink electric eyes faded." It shows that the house is capable of doing things humans did before but without their help. Basically the house works as a real human.
The second element was a city destroyed by radioactive bomb and as a result the city glows at night. "The house stood alone in a city of rubble and ashes. This was the one house left standing. At night the ruined city gave off a radioactive glow which could be seen for miles." As you can see in the quote technology is so advanced that a radioactive bomb powerful enough to destroy a whole city was built. It is a good thing since technology had evolved but it´s also a bad thing since it shows that technology could kill us some day if we are not aware of its risks.
The story also included narrative techniques time and personification. Due to the use of the time in the story, Bradbury make us feel as if we were living what is happening. Also it helps a lot in the understanding of the story and it's like if you go by the hand of the time as your read, if you go on, the time as well, goes on. Some examples are: "Today is August 4, 2026", "In the city of Allendale, California.", "Eight-one, tick-tock, eight-one o'clock, off to school, off to work, run, run, eight-one!", "Ten o'clock.", "Four-thirty".
The last element but not least important is personification in which the house acts as a real person. Because of all the abilities it has, as you can see in the quotes below. "An aluminum wedge scraped them into the sink, where hot water whirled them down a metal throat which digested and flushed them away to the distant sea. The dirty dishes were dropped into a hot washer and emerged twinkling dry.", "It quivered at each sound, the house did." And "At ten o'clock the house began to die." Since there are no people the author represents the house as a character but also as a person. It makes you imagine the house as something else than a house which can also connect with the idea that due to the technology it had become more than an object.
Ray Bradbury in his story “There Will Come Soft Rains” took us to a completely different time that was affected by technology. We can see how due to this a house can become more than what it really is and that technology (radioactive bomb) finally destroys the whole city. It make us reflect about the importance of technology in the world but that we also need to be aware of its risks, if we don’t want to end as the Allendale city.