How does Bradbury explore the dangers of technology in There Will Come Soft Rains?

by ikaharifin (student)

Q. How does Bradbury explore the dangers of technology in “There Will Come Soft Rains”?

Ray Bradbury’s ‘There Will Come Soft Rains’ is a story which serves as an admonition for humanity’s rapid modernization and the detrimental effects that follow. At the beginning of the story, technology is shown as being faithfully helpful to its owners, albeit the fact that the inhabitants are long gone, but things gradually deteriorate. Bradbury’s perspective on technology is that it possesses dehumanizing effects should we misuse it and this is conveyed through the story’s personification, metaphors and sound devices.

Bradbury’s dystopic world of 2026 depicts not only the dehumanizing effects of technology, but also its threat to the world if we misuse it. Whereas his story features many domestic activities which are familiar to households in the developed world, none of these is performed by human beings. We assume that we control our own world; however, in this story, it is the house that regulates and controls the daily routine of its inhabitants. For example, just as it prepares a breakfast to order at the beginning of the story, it also does so at the end. Similar to the personificated ‘hissing sigh’ of the stove, which is a sinister hint at technology’s exasperated emergency away from human control, the ‘hysterically hissing’ stove at the end features alliteration and assonance to compare technology’s power to that of a demonic serpent. Bradbury’s point here is to warn that just as technology may serve us, it may also destroy us should we seek to abuse it. This warning underscores the central irony in Bradbury’s story: that which serves us may eventually master us.

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One of Bradbury’s principal concerns in his story is the extent to which humanity has become detached from the natural world because of technology. Although his story contains various references of what is seemingly known as nature, through his clever use of strong connotations, even nature has been replaced by artificial man-made creations, built so as to become a sufficient substitute for the original. For instance, Bradbury makes use of the ‘electrical wind’ to emphasize on the absence of nature in the modernized world. Another example of strong connotations featured in Bradbury’s story, is when the panic-stricken house made a desperate attempt at extinguishing the fire with ‘mechanical rain’, something of the natural world, replaced by a synthetic, instead. The house also substitutes the animals in the nurseries with artificial animals such as ‘lilac panthers’ and ‘pink antelopes’, animals which are otherwise absent from the natural world, perhaps as means to control young minds when they can still be molded. The point Bradbury is trying to make here is that technology may also control us, if we try to control technology. This warning stresses the vital question present in Bradbury’s story: do we control technology, or does technology control us?

Bradbury’s story is conveyed so as to caution humanity about its misplaced faith in technology. The family is quick to believe that technology can bring only good, incorporating their daily lives with it, so much so that it controls their lives entirely, resulting in an unfortunate end. In the beginning, technology is portrayed as being helpful to the family, creating useful leisure time for them to play outside. Ironically, it is because of technology that the family was also destroyed by it. The extended metaphor in Bradbury’s story helps to emphasize this point; ‘The house was an altar with ten thousand attendants…But the gods had gone away, and the ritual of the religion continued senselessly, uselessly.’ An altar is normally a place of worship and sacrifice, so it can be assumed that humanity is worshipping technology. Ironically, the sacrifice refers to us, such as the fate of the family who were killed. Through this, Bradbury tries to convey his warning that too much of a good thing can be bad.

Ray Bradbury’s story illustrates the critical lives of humanity’s misplaced faith in the modernized world and his attempt at conveying his warning. This is suggested through a number of connotations, sound devices and metaphors successfully featured throughout the story.

(670 words)