There Will Come Soft Rains Influences

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Ray Bradbury is yet another author whose writing was influenced by the events happening around him. His story “There Will Come Soft Rains” was written in an era where people were worried about the effects a nuclear war could bring (“There Will Come”). Nuclear weapons were becoming more popular within various countries and the damage they could bring frightened people to no end. Bradbury witnessed the atomic bombing in Hiroshima and was horrified at the devastation it brought. Not to long after the bombing, Bradbury wrote “There Will Come Soft Rains”, making readers believe that it was influenced by his terror (Hicks). Another influence Bradbury may have had is Sara Teasdale’s poem “There Will Come Soft Rains”. This influence is clear not only …show more content…
The absence of humans in the story forces readers to look at the world through natures point of view, showing what humanity has done to it. Instead of humans doing anything that requires thinking, machines do it for them. An example of this is the house reading a poem to the people who live there, making the reader see that the people have lost all connection to thinking for themselves or even having a thought about anything other than themselves (Peltier). Humanity has tried to recreate nature, but in the form of technology, making it dull and lifeless. An example of this would be the nursery that provides the sounds of nature to the children, but are not nearly as relaxing as the real sounds. Another image of nature in the form of technology is the walls reaching out to fold the tables “like great butterflies”, showing Bradbury’s concern that nature and technology can not strive together. Continuing Bradbury’s ideas of nature and technology not being able to live together is the dog that enters the story. When the dog enters the house it is covered in sores and boney, but was once healthy and strong, representing what human creations have done to nature (Hicks). The dog dies not to long after arriving in the story; “it lay in the parlor for an hour” before the mechanical mice start to clean it up (Bradbury 399-403). The man-created mice are angry and annoyed that they have to clean up the dead