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Juxtaposition In There Will Come Soft Rains By Ray Bradbury

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There Will Come Soft Rains Analysis Taking place in a suburban town in California in the year 2026, Ray Bradbury's science fiction story, There Will Come Soft Rains, tells about a technologically advanced house that survives a nuclear holocaust. With the absence of human life, the automated house carries on it’s everyday tasks until all chaos ensues. While in a state of paranoia, the house in unable to maintain itself and is ultimately consumed by disaster. Mostly displaying an anti-technological basis in his work, Bradbury focuses on the belief that technology will outlast humans. By saying this, he uses personification, similes, and metaphors in various instances to give this story a post-apocalyptic type atmosphere. Another common literary device that he uses is juxtaposition, the act of placing two or more ideas, places, characters, and their actions side by side for the purpose of developing comparisons and contrasts. Uses of Juxtaposition There Will Come Soft Rains was published in 1950, a year in which citizens of the U.S. were frightened by the use of nuclear weapons. In this story it is juxtaposed to the fact that all of the humans in this story were destroyed by an atomic bomb. This uses another figure of speech, irony. Irony is the use of words the express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning. “In the kitchen the breakfast stove gave a hissing sigh and ejected from it’s warm interior eight pieces of perfectly browned toast, eight eggs sunnyside up, sixteen slices of bacon, two coffees, and two cool glasses of milk” is a quote on page 471 that is used to introduce the house’s tidy and proper manner. The explanation of how this automated house goes through it’s chores thoroughly everyday on a set schedule adds to this effect. It is only later revealed on page 472, that this once peaceful neighborhood is now “of rubble and ashes.” The paragraph continues with, “This was the one house left standing. At night the ruined city gave off a radioactive glow which could be seen for miles.” This is implying that an atomic bomb had exploded at a previous date. Another use of juxtaposition is used when Bradbury writes about the fire breaking out during the climax of the

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