The spectacular way in which the house was destroyed is a comment on mankind's pending demise. A tree branch falling through the kitchen window and knocking over some cleaning solution sets the room ablaze. The house tried to save itself. It turned on sprinklers and sent mechanical mice with water to put out the flames, but it was no use. Even though the house is prepared for fires and began pumping water, the solvent spread, as did the flames. It eventually leaks under the kitchen door and into the rest of the house. The house knows what to do to save itself, but the closing doors and pumping water do no good when the windows break and the wind sucks the fire throughout the house. The pump eventually stops showering the fire because the reserve water had been used up. The house was entirely consumed by flames before anything significant could be done. The fire then worked it’s way upstairs, where the final “reinforcements” stepped in from the attic. These were robots that pumped chemicals onto the fire. The flames then reached the “brain” running the house and there was a large explosion. Then onwards, the fire continues to seep back into ever corner and closet of the house. As the fire spreads, the “voices” die. Every single computer and automated system that was running in the house began to frantically, do their programmed jobs. This continues until the house simply crashed flat onto the basement, and there is one lone wall left standing, repeating the same message over and over again. The way that Bradbury explains in detail all the facts about how the fire is spreading from place to place keeps the reader hooked thus building the tension and chaos of the situation.
Bradbury effectively uses the metaphor of the burning house to show what will happen to the human race. The house, set in its ways, continues on with the daily routine despite the humans being gone. While continuing the routine, the house uses up all the water that would eventually be needed to save itself. Here, Bradbury is warning that mankind is using up all its resources during our "daily routine" and that those resources may be needed in the future. Bradbury also uses irony to great effect in the story. Irony in this case means presenting an outcome of a situation that is the opposite of what one would expect. Thus, it is ironic that the same technology which created a house that can cook and clean for itself is also the technology which destroyed the house itself. Furthermore, it is Ironic that such a sophisticated example of technology, the computerized house, can be destroyed by nature, represented by the tree limb which crashes through the window and starts the fire. The use of metaphors and the irony makes the reader think about the way they are living their own life, which then leads to the reader thinking more about the story, thus their entire mind-set is focused on the plot and that builds tension, chaos and confusion.
Another way in which Bradbury creates a sense of chaos and confusion is his effective use of punctuation. Throughout the description he uses simple, short sentences to make the audience read faster through the story, thus building and building on the sense of chaos. Examples of these short sentences are: “In the nursery the jungle burned. Blue lions roared, purple giraffes bounded off”, “Ten more voices died”, “The crash” and “Smoke and silence. A great quantity of smoke”. Not only does Bradbury build tension through the use of short sentences, he also uses long, detailed sentences to enhance the process of imagery. Examples of these sentences are: ‘The house shuddered, oak bone on bone, its bared skeleton cringing from the heat, its wire, its nerves revealed as if a surgeon had torn the skin off to let the red veins and capillaries quiver in the scalded air”, “The panthers ran in circles, changing color, and ten million animals, running before the fire, vanished off toward a distant steaming river”, and “In the kitchen, an instant before the rain of fire an timber, the stove could be seen making breakfasts at a psychopathic rate, ten dozen eggs, six loaves of toast, twenty dozen bacon strips, which, eaten by fire, started the stove working again, hysterically hissing!”. Due to these detailed sentences, the audience can create an accurate picture of what is happening in the story, thus they empathize more with the characters and pay closer attention to the occurrences of the plot. This will help the audience understand what is going on, and make them more willing to find out what will happen as an outcome. This means that a sense of chaos and confusion is effectively created.
Word count: 989
