The Future in There Will Come Soft Rains and Meteor Essay

Question:

Compare the ways in which Bradbury and Wyndham powerfully present a vision of the future in There Will Come Soft Rains and Meteor.

Answer:

There Will Come Soft Rains is a story written in 1950 by Ray Bradbury, set in the future August 4. 2026. The story is about the only house which still stands after a nuclear disaster. The house is shown to be very futuristic by giving the house a voice of its own. The house also does all the chores around the house itself.

On the other hand, Meteor is a story written in 1956 by John Wyndham and its about two planets Forta and Earth. The story is set in the present, and it talks about the creatures (aliens) living on Forta who come to planet Earth in order to find a better place to live in. The story is split into two parts, one being from the point of view of the humans, and the second from the point of view of one of many aliens that came onto Earth. It juxtaposing two separate but connected narratives. The story is about the humans killing the aliens without realising they were not originally from Earth.

Both the stories show a Nature versus Human conflict.

In the story, There Will Come Soft Rains, Bradbury shows the destruction, and death of a large part of the human race, The house stood alone in a city of rubble and ashes. This was the one house left standing. At night the ruined city gave off a radioactive glow which could be seen for miles. It talks about the devastation of the whole city and also tells us that the disaster which took place the night before, was very severe, and most probably, no one survived. We can also infer that the damage caused was due to a man-made mistake, as it seems to be that a nuclear bomb had blown up in that city. For the audience then, in America, where the industrial revolution was in its midst in 1950, all the people were very worried about a nuclear attack, and hence the story, was a view of the possible destruction in the future.

In the other hand, in Meteor, Wyndham shows the possibility of an alien attack, which could have already taken place in the present. His story, like most of his others, seems to be directed to the middle class of England. He shows a Nature versus Human conflict with the aliens coming onto Earth for a possible place to live in, as their former home, Forta was getting destroyed. This shows how easily and effortlessly, the humans were able to wipe out all the little aliens with the help of pesticide. It also shows how inconsiderate humans were. He shook the tin, and sent a cloud of insect?killer over them. The three people watched as the little creatures crawled more and more slowly. Some of them turned over, weakly waving their legs in the air. Then they lay still. We won't have any more trouble from them,' Graham said. `Horrible little creatures! I've never seen anything like them these lines also tell us that the humans Graham, who represents the humans, couldnt care less about those horrible little creatures. It also shows us how the humans, us, we couldnt care less. This end makes the reader feel guilty almost, and it also generates a grief for the little creatures.

Both the stories create some a kind of fear in the reader.

In the first story There Will Come Soft Rains we can see that house is empty and its the only one standing alone in the town in the ashes after a nuclear bomb. This makes it spooky as the reader wonders about all the possibilities that may have led to the bombing. After author describes the house we can see that its really modern and well programmed, instantly making it futuristic. When the story was written, in 1950, the people were very afraid of the Earths future with nuclear power. It also tells us that the story may have created a lot of fear in the audience at that point of time as the people in America, were already very scared of a nuclear attack. Also the author uses personifications like fire was lying in beds or attic brain by that Ray Bradbury makes the house feel more alive and a lot scarier. Moreover, the robotic house also creates fear in the reader as it shows that the house could have gone out of control any time, and the people living in it couldnt do anything until the wiring was fixed as the house was completely automatic. The entire west face of the house was black, save for five places... The rest was a thin charcoaled layer. These lines also generate a lot of fear as the people had just disappeared, as there is no mention of the bodies of the dead family. Death is one of the top things that make the reader afraid, and Bradbury uses it very well in his short story to make the reader afraid.

The second story, Meteor, the author, John Wyndham creates fear of the unknown. Aliens and a new planet generally create a sense of the unknown, which scares a lot of people. As a reader, the planet Forta, and its tiny pink creatures creates the fear of the aliens being too dangerous, and being able to harm humans with their weapons. By giving the point of view from Onn, an alien, the author creates sympathy for the aliens as the pieces from his diary show how harmless they were, also it shows the reader that just because they were aliens, they meant no harm to humans; leading to the reader feeling worse for the actions of Graham. The story gets spookier when the aliens killed the cat just because it looks big, and fierce. This makes the reader scared of the aliens, as if they got very scared of the cat, and killed it for that very reason; it makes the reader wonder what they could do to humans, which were much larger, and probably much scarier than the cat. This makes the reader feel frightened from the alien, as well as feel a sort of sympathy for them, as they were just very scared creature, on a new planet.

One story is set in the future, and the other is based on the present.

The story by Bradbury There Will Come Soft Rains is set in the future, August 2026. The story talks about a robotic house, which makes gives a great idea of the future. It allows the people to see a possibility of how the future could be. It also shows the people (audience) an alternative to the future. The story is also trying to warn the people about the hazards of war, and nuclear power, as he talks about a whole city getting destroyed, dude to a nuclear bomb, not leaving any humans alive. This related to the audience that Bradbury wrote for, making the people more concerned. It also helped make the people more aware of the dangers of nuclear power.

The second story, by Wyndham, Meteor talks about the present. It shows the possibility of there already being a human-alien interaction, which creates a lot of interest in his audience, the middle class of Britain. Since Wyndham describes, in great detail, the possibility of aliens being amongst us, at this very point, he makes the people more aware of everything around them. This also makes the reader think twice before killing something as in the story; Graham kills the aliens, which he mistook for insects. It also makes the people, to a small extent, care more about the other living things around them, as they see the point of view from the second creature as well.

The two stories, using the above techniques, help make the reader get a view into the future, according to the different authors points of view, making them more aware of something around them. Both stories make their audience more aware of some issue, which affects them, in a life threating way. Both the writers, make very good stories, science-fiction, which help keep the readers glued onto the stories as both the stories relate to humans, ourselves, making the stories easily understandable by any, and every person who reads the story.