There Will Come Soft Rains what happens to the dog

A common saying is "a dog is a man's best friend." Dogs represent the virtues humans want them to have in their role as the first domesticated animal: loyalty and protection. However, in this story Bradbury uses situational irony by showing what happens to this partnership when one party (humanity) is removed. The house recognizes the dog and lets it in the house—the only animal it admits—but its programming is too rigid to care for the dog. It makes and destroys food automatically rather than giving the food to the sick and starving dog. In the end the purely rational house can do nothing more for the dog than dispose of it once it dies.

The House

The smart house in this story is both a character and a symbol. As a character, it fights the forces of chaos and entropy to maintain the routine for which it was designed by the now extinct humans. It is ultimately unsuccessful, and by the end of the story the house is "dead." The house's meaning as a symbol is closely related. The Dictionary of Symbolism indicates houses are sacred and represent the universe. In therapy based on the work of Swiss psychologist Carl Jung (1875–1961), houses represent the people who live in them, and the structure of a house can reflect the people who live in it. This house bears the mark of the people who lived in it—they are charred into it with fire—but a second fire obliterates that mark by destroying the house. Bradbury specifically indicates that the house collapses from the attic down into the cellar, suggesting the highest levels of consciousness collapse into the lowest, most primal and unconscious levels at the story's end.

The Fire

Traditionally, fire is a two-sided symbol: it warms and comforts, but it also burns and destroys. When it burns and destroys, it symbolizes passions that have gone out of control. Both sides of fire make their appearance in this story. The house cooks breakfast for its absent people, incinerates the body of the dead dog, lights a fire in the hearth, and provides cigars; all of these demonstrate fire's wonderful domestic possibilities. However, the negative side of fire plays an even larger role in this story. Though it happens before the story starts, there are the firestorms started by nuclear war. Within the story a fire destroys the house just as the fire of nuclear war destroyed civilization. This burning demonstrates another of fire's common symbolic meanings: purification.

The Poem "There Will Come Soft Rains (War Time)"

Bradbury's story takes its title from a poem by Sara Teasdale. Published in 1920, this earlier work, titled "There Will Come Soft Rains (War Time)," is just 12 lines long. The house claims to select it at random for the lady of the house, but if it is random, it is exceptionally good chance. Teasdale was born in 1884 and died (of suicide) in 1933. Her poetry was known for its classical form, lyric beauty, brevity, and passion. She wrote a number of anti-war poems in response to World War I (1914–18). This poem comments on war, but its focus is still broader: it suggests that if humanity completely vanished from the world, nature would not just go on—it wouldn't even notice. This happens in the story; readers get to witness nature reclaiming the last vestige of human technological civilization. By including the poem, Bradbury makes the story reflect on itself. He also foreshadows the fact that the house will end.

Breakfast

The cybernetic house in this story follows its programming around the clock. It prepares all the meals of the day, including a snack for the bridge game it tries to host. However, Bradbury gives far more attention to breakfast than any other meal in the story. The story starts in the morning, and breakfast is the first meal prepared—and the first not eaten. When the dog is searching the house for its humans, it smells pancakes behind a closed door and goes wild with frustration. When the fire is raging, it isn't steak or sandwiches the stove is making at a "psychopathic rate"; it is breakfast: 120 eggs, 240 pieces of bacon, etc. Breakfast is everywhere throughout this story. Breakfast, associated with morning, symbolizes the start of a new period or venture. In this story the new venture is hollow and empty: there are no people to eat the breakfast or take part in the new day. The new venture is life on Earth with only a vestige of humanity.

In August of 2026, in California, a fully-automated house announces that it is time to wake up. Yet the house is empty. Breakfast is automatically made, but there is no one to eat it. Outside, where the automatic sprinklers come on, a wall can be seen where the paint has all been burned off except for a few silhouettes. There is a silhouette of a man and woman doing yardwork and of a boy and a girl throwing a ball. The rest of the neighborhood is charred and flattened, and a radioactive glow hangs over the city. A dog enters the house, covered with sores, and dies. The robotic mice that automatically clean the house take the dog away to the incinerator. As evening comes, the house automatically reads the woman's favorite poem, "There Will Come Soft Rains." The poem describes how, once man is utterly destroyed because of a war, nature will go on without man, as if nothing had happened. Later that night, a tree bough falls on the house, causing a fire that consumes all of the house but one wall.

In October of 2026, a rocket lands on Mars. It carries a husband and wife and three boys. They have a stockpile of food. They head down a canal in a boat. The Dad has a mysterious smile on his face, and his eldest (but still young) son Timothy tries to understand what is happening. Suddenly, they hear an explosion, as their rocket self-destructs. The Dad explains that he has brought them away from Earth to start a new life on Mars. The next day, the Edwards will arrive with their daughters, and together they will start life anew. The Dad lets his boys pick out a city to live in, and he burns a number of papers he brought from Earth, even a map of Earth. He then takes his boys to see some Martians. He has them look into the canal at their own reflections.

Commentary

The irony of the story "There Will Come Soft Rains" is strong. The poem within the story describes how happy nature will be when man has destroyed himself, but the truth is that nature has been decimated by the war. The dog that comes in to die is lean and covered with sores. The rest of the city is "rubble and ashes." Radiation hangs in the air. Yet nature lives on in a mechanical form. Mechanical mice scurry about the house. The closest thing to soft rains that fall are the mechanical rains of the sprinkler system that goes off when the house catches fire. The poem, which seems pessimistic, is actually very optimistic compared to the reality. In this penultimate story, Bradbury shows his final example of the folly of thoughtless technological development. It is no wonder that some in the Science Fiction community accuse him of being anti-science.

If "There Will Come Soft Rains" brings Bradbury's criticisms of heedless advancement to a climax, then "The Million-Year Picnic" is a fitting denouement, or conclusion following the climax. It is his alternative to the pioneering style criticized in the rest of the book. Instead of making Mars as much like Earth as possible, Timothy and his family will adjust to Mars. The Dad tries to convince his boys that they will be Martians, and he symbolically burns a map of Earth. They decide to live in a Martian city instead of building a wooden, American town. They are fleeing Earth because they do not like it and want to be somewhere else. To Bradbury, this is the correct way to be a pioneer.

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The irony of the story “There Will Come Soft Rains” is strong. The poem within the story describes how happy nature will be when man has destroyed himself, but the truth is that nature has been decimated by the war. The dog that comes in to die is lean and covered with sores.

What is ironic about the houses treatment of the dog?

What is ironic about the house? … The house recognizes bark and lets him in but other than that lets the dog starve.

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What is ironic about the dogs death in There Will Come Soft Rains?

Once the dog’s remains have gone, all traces of the previous occupants are removed. Every member of the family is now deceased and the house becomes the sole survivor. Even an accidental fire cannot completely destroy it: the story closes with one remaining wall, standing alone among the rubble.

What is the significance of the dog in There Will Come Soft Rains?

In “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury, the dog in the story is the last remnant of the house’s inhabitants. Its death symbolizes the house’s ultimate loss of purpose.

What is ironic about the survival of the house in There Will Come Soft Rains?

This excellent story by Rad Bradbury presents us with a society that has attained a ridiculous level of technological sophistication – the house is shown to do everything necessary, making the need for humans absolutely redundant – which is ironic in itself because there are no humans now and the house continues on …

What are some examples of figurative language in There Will Come Soft Rains?

Terms in this set (32)

• “At eight-thirty the eggs were shriveled and the toast was like stone.” …
• “It quivered at each sound, the house did.” …
• “Now there were 20 snakes whipping over the floor, killing the fire…” …
• “In the nursery the jungle burned.

Why does the house let the dog in?

The dog—the story’s only living character—appears on the house’s doorstep at noon, shivering. The house recognizes it and lets the dog in, which suggests that it was once the family pet. As soon as the house discovers that the dog is dead, it quickly disposes of the body. …

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What does the breakfast symbolize in There Will Come Soft Rains?

Breakfast is everywhere throughout this story. Breakfast, associated with morning, symbolizes the start of a new period or venture. In this story the new venture is hollow and empty: there are no people to eat the breakfast or take part in the new day. The new venture is life on Earth with only a vestige of humanity.

What is ironic in There Will Come Soft Rains?

There are no humans present in the story, only traces, shadows, echoes. Bradbury explores an ironic reflection on the strengths and weaknesses of human nature, while warning against the limits and dangers of technology.

What happens to the dogs remains?

Cremation. Cremation — burning to reduce the body to ashes — is the most common way of handling the bodies of small animals after they are euthanized. This is done in a special incinerator that renders the ashes sterile if the dog had a contagious disease.

What caused the fire in There Will Come Soft Rains?

The fire in “There Will Come Soft Rains” is initially caused by a tree that crashes through a window in the house. This crash spills a flammable bottle of cleaning fluid over a hot stove, and this provides the catalyst that sparks the fire.

What appeared in the city at night in There Will Come Soft Rains?

Allendale is the fictional name given to the city where the automated house—the main character of Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains”—is located. … At night the ruined city gave off a radioactive glow which could be seen for miles. Allendale has been the victim of a nuclear attack.

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What are some things the house does to try to save itself in There Will Come Soft Rains?

10. What are some things the house does to try to save itself? Doors spring shut, water rats spray water.

How does the house begin to die?

Around ten o’clock, Bradbury writes that the “house began to die.” During a violent storm, a tree branch crashes through the kitchen window and sparks an uncontrollable fire. … Unfortunately, the smart home cannot extinguish the fire and the flames rapidly consume the entire house.

What happens to the house in There Will Come Soft Rains?

The house is destroyed at the end of “There Will Come Soft Rains” when a tree branch breaks through the kitchen window, setting off a fire. The house attempts to fight the fire, but the fire spreads too quickly, overwhelming its defenses. In the end, the house collapses in on itself, leaving only one wall standing.

What happened to the city in There Will Come Soft Rains?

The city was ruined from some sort of nuclear blast. It describes the rubble and ashes and the radioactive glow. On lines 41-45 “Ten o’clock. The sun came out from behind the rain.