There will Come Soft Rains By Ray Bradbury

What is it about?

1. What has happened to the family in who once occupied the house? How do you know?
2. Explain 3 ways that the family had used technology to make their lives easier. For each, find a quote to support
your idea.
3. What happens at the end of the story?

Study of literary techniques

Imagery

The author uses imagery of emptiness to make a point. Read the PEC paragraph below:

P: In the story, the author uses imagery to create a sense of loneliness.

E: An example of this imagery is in the line The empty chairs faced each other between the silent walls.

C: In this example, the absence of people, symbolised by the empty chairs, creates a poignant image and reinforces the
fact that humanity has been destroyed. The use of the word silent creates an eerie atmosphere, reminiscent of a ghost
story and indeed, the people have become ghosts.

Note how the (C)omment and further analysis of the image and the words used, is much longer than the P and E!

Now, create your own PEC paragraph based on imagery of emptiness. Find another quote and COMMENT upon it.

Onomatopoeia

1. Highlight the onomatopoeia in each of the lines below.

the breakfast stove gave a hissing sigh
They thudded against chairs, whirling their mustached runners
Behind it whirred angry mice
2. Identify two further uses of onomatopoeia from the story.
3. Why do you think the author has included so many words which focus on sound, in this story? Think about what
is missing.

Metaphor and similes

Read the PEC paragraph below:

Throughout the story, the author uses imagery to suggest destruction, first of the people, and then of their monument to
technology, the house. At the end of the story, both are destroyed. The author uses a simile the line Deep freeze,
armchair, film tapes, circuits, beds and all like skeletons thrown in a cluttered mound deep under. In this line, the author
first lists many conveniences associated with humans armchairs, beds etc and then, by comparing them to skeletons,
shows how they have met their destruction, and finally lie abandoned to their disorder. It is ironic that the humans in the
story tried so hard to manipulate and control their environment, yet in the final analysis, their legacy is reduced to a
cluttered mound.

In the paragraph above, identify each of the elements of PEC. Use a different colour to highlight each feature.

Use PEC to analyse the metaphors or similes below. For each, say what technique is being used, explain what two things
are being compared, explain the effect of the comparison and suggest a reason for the comparison.

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 There will Come Soft Rains By Ray Bradbury
1. The house was an altar with ten thousand attendants
2. an incinerator which sat like evil Baal in a dark corner.
3. At four oclock the tables folded like great butterflies back through the paneled walls.

Personification

In the last part of the story, both the house and the fire are personified (given human attributes). Identify a line for each
which captures the personification. Explain how it works using PEC.

Irony

A subtle perception of inconsistency in which an apparently straight-forward statement or event is undermined by its
context so as to give it a very different significance.

Explain the irony in the following lines:

It was the childrens hour.

The beds warmed their hidden circuits, for the nights were cool here.

Theme/message

Write a paragraph in which you explain what you think is the main message in the story, and how you think the author
has tried to achieve his message.

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