Transcription
[Music] [Music] [Music] okay shall we start? I'm ready. Yeah, okay. Cho, so today I am going to be explaining, hello, namashkar. I'm going to be explaining, uh, this rather fascinating story called "There Will Come Soft Rains." Uh, this is written by Ray Bradbury, and, uh, I would always advise all my students to definitely go through the note which is put in a box before the story starts. This is on page 153 on this edition of Prism textbook.
So, Ray Bradbury was essentially an American fiction writer, science fiction writer, whose works were translated in as many as 40 languages. So that means, what it means, is that his stories had a lot of universal appeal, that people even in other countries, other civilizations, other backgrounds could relate to the kind of story that he put out. Now, this particular story, as I will explain before we get into the text, is rather interesting because it was written in 1950, and the year that he's talking about, the futuristic year, is 2026. And we are recording this particular video in 2024. So it's pretty much close to the kind of world that he imagined. But is the world that he imagined in the story, is that the way modern world is? Not exactly, but there are some similarities. Maybe we will get there in, let's say, 20 to 25 years from now, given how artificial intelligence seems to be taking over so many functions, uh, of, you know, day-to-day functions, the way we behave, creative functions, everything, you know, from ChatGPT to AI tools for, uh, doing different kinds of work. Our world has really changed at a fast pace in the last two decades in particular. So let's get started with the basic theme of the story, and then we will, I will do the line-by-line, word-by-word explanation of the story. Okay, so enjoy, sit back, and relax, and enjoy. Okay. Happ.
[Music] Okay, so this story, as I said, was published in 1950, and it is set in a futuristic world of 2026. It means that it was written just five years after the atom bomb was dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. So you will see that kind of a mindset with which Bradbury has written this particular story. So the setting is in America. It's of a neighborhood that has been destroyed in Allendale, California. But despite the destruction that you see, an automated house. It's a house which is automated, which means everything is operated by machines, everything is pre-programmed. So even though the McClellan family is not there anymore, the house continues its pre-programmed routines even in the absence of the inhabitants. So that is the rather spooky and eerie atmosphere of the particular, of this particular short story. The story unfolds through these routines. That means at 9:00, this happens. At 9:30, this happens. At 9:53, this happens. So it's as precise as that. So, and that offers you a lot of chilling clues about what kind of world Bradbury is essentially looking at. He thought that having the atom bomb being dropped on Japan in 1945, it will only be a matter of time before the whole world is kind of consumed by this mindless destruction and violence.
Okay, so the house, in this particular case, the house is a character in itself, and that's what makes the story very fascinating. It's a character in itself. It cooks its meals, it takes care of the garbage, it plays music, uh, it kind of sets a table for, you know, the meals and playing cards, etc., etc. Everything is in an empty room. There's only a family dog which is injured, and it returns to the house to die. So there's also the theme of death that I will talk to you after, after we have gone through the entire story. So what happens is that these automated routines eventually turn destructive. Eventually, they kind of end up destroying the house itself. The house catches fire, the fire rages, and the nursery actually plays a recording of a bedtime story because that's what it has been programmed to do. It does not care whether the house is on fire. It has to play a bedtime story at a particular time, and so it does. So that makes for a rather disturbing kind of an ending. So the story ends with the house burning down, consumed by the very technology that was, you know, operating the house even in the absence of the inhabitants, though it should not have. So the messaging of the story is that war, nuclear war, and technology, in the end, will not protect us. It will only destroy us.
So the significance of the title, what is the title about? "There Will Come Soft Rains." I mean, so far, whatever I have said has nothing to do with soft rains. So the title is taken from a poem written by another person, a poet called Sara Teasdale, who actually wrote this poem in 1918. Now, why is 1918 significant? Because that was the year the First World War came to an end. The actual fighting ended, though of course, the treaty was signed, uh, in June 1919. So in this particular poem, Sara Teasdale, and the poem has also been included in the story, she had spoken about an ideal kind of a world in which nature operates beautifully. But here, the nature does not operate beautifully. It's all the machines which are operating. Okay, so that's what her story, her poem talked about. So Bradbury chose the title when he wrote the story in 1950, five years after the atom bomb was dropped on Japan. Bradbury projects what is called a dystopian world. A dystopian world. In fact, there is a story in the Class 10 syllabus also written by Ray Bradbury, which is also a dystopian story, and that story, you would be interested to know, it's called "The Pedestrian." Um, it is set in the year 2053. So, so Bradbury had this fascination for, you know, looking ahead in time. So, you know, whenever I post it, please do have a look at the, uh, explanation video of that particular story. You will find it. It's also a very fascinating kind of story. Again, here there is no human being. There is only one human being in "The Pedestrian." There is only one human being. Here, there is no human being. There's only one living being in the form of the dog, okay, which also is a little confusing because there are many people, people who think it's a robotic dog. No, it's not a robotic dog. So robots and machines have taken over, and very weirdly enough, there is no sign of human beings. So the characters in the story are survivors, are robotic cleaning mice, aluminum cockroaches, and iron crickets. Now, obviously, you would want to know, what is this dystopian? The dystopian. So this is the opposite of utopian. Utopian, have you heard this word? Utopian describes an ideal society. This is Utopia, where everything happens the way it should happen, perfectly, in an ideal environment. So that's called Utopia. Dystopian, dystopia is the opposite of Utopia. So that refers to an imaginary society which is undesirable, which is frightening, as is the case in this particular story. So elements like environmental disasters, like what has happened, collapse of societal orders are depicted. And this is an image that I took, uh, just to kind of give you an idea about what the house may have looked like. What it may have looked like. You would see that the walls are all dark because of whatever has happened outside, because of which the inhabitants were killed. You would see some kind of greenery around the house, but it's a house that looks, from the outside at least, full of soot, and, you know, it does not look like it's a very, it doesn't look like an inviting kind of a house.
Okay, so now let's get to the script, the text of the story, and I will give you the word-by-word explanation. In the living room, the voice clock. I have taken it a PDF because it was very difficult to get it otherwise. So if there are any words which are different from that, don't mind. Keep your book with you. I mean, don't make it a big issue. Know words, kind of things. So just see, there could always be different edits, some words may be changed. Okay. In the living room, the voice clock sang, "Tick-tock, 7:00. Time to get up. Time to get up. 7:00." As if it were afraid that nobody would. So the voice clock is actually feeling tense. The voice clock is feeling tense that nobody would wake up, even though it is constantly kind of announcing the time to get up. Okay, because that is what it had been programmed like by the inhabitants, by the people who used to live there. The morning house lay empty. The clock ticked on. So that hasn't stopped repeating and repeating its sounds into the emptiness. So we get an idea once again that the house is empty. "7:9. Breakfast time. 7:9." So it's constantly repeating, I mean, talking about the time. 7:9. I'm assuming it could be 7:45. Okay. 7:9. So the first paragraph is written as if people still reside there. The machines are used to a routine, and the sounds into the emptiness tells us that there is no one at home. In the kitchen, the breakfast stuff gave a hissing sigh. You know, the food is being prepared and ejected from its warm interior. "Eight pieces of perfectly brown toast." So this gives you an idea about the perfection which is being maintained in the empty house. "Eight eggs, sunny side up. 16 slices of bacon. Two coffees and two glasses of milk." So the entire breakfast has been prepared for all the people in that particular house, which shows that the machines are perfectly programmed. That's what is the big takeaway that you get from there, and it is a rather, uh, filling and sumptuous kind of a breakfast which has been prepared without knowing the machines know to prepare the breakfast. Okay, elaborate breakfast. However, they don't know this, that there is no one to consume that breakfast. Okay. So the machines lack that brain. Okay, please make a note of it. That the machines lack brain of that kind. They, they, they have the brain to prepare the breakfast, but they lack the brain to understand there's no one to eat this breakfast. So what are you making this for? B machines, they don't have those kind of brains. Okay. "Today's August 4, 2026." So the date has been announced. A second voice from the kitchen ceiling in the city of Allendale, California. It repeated the day. It repeated the date three times for memory's sake. "Today's Mr. Featherstone's birthday, even though Featherstone may well have been dead. Today is the anniversary of Tiita's marriage, even though Tiita may well have been dead." So would have been her spouse. "Insurance is payable." How very ironic. How very ironic. Insurance. The guys are dead. What are you going to claim the insurance for? What are you paying the premium of the insurance for? So just, just look at the very, you know, the little details that he has put. All of them to do with life and death, which is what I told you is one of the themes of the story. So please make a note of this. The themes of the story. Someone's birthday, to do with life. Someone's anniversary, to do with, you know, celebration, marriage, which is all about life. Insurance, to do with life and death. Okay. As are the water, gas, and the light bills. So these are the daily routine, monthly bills which have to be paid, which have to be taken care of. So all these dates, the location, okay, and things to do, the reminders. So it was an existence that was to help the residents of that house remember everything, so that they don't forget to pay their gas bills, so that they don't forget to pay the life insurance. So that's what it was programmed to make them, make their lives easier. But they, now all dead. Somewhere in the walls, relays clicked. Memory tapes glittered under electric eyes. Now, electric eyes are like CCTV's. Everything is recorded in memory, memory tapes, and they are programmed to help the residents of the house. They do not know what to do when there is no one there in the house. So, um, you know, it's like, have we seen in, I mean, in five-star hotels, etc., you find this more often, that is the taps. And this is to prevent wastage of water. Homes, we don't keep it because we are, I mean, we are trained and we are kind of disciplined to keep the taps closed when we are not using the water, so that the water wastage is not there. But in hotels, etc., not everyone would be careful. So what do they do is to install sensors wherein only when you keep the hand below the tap will the water be ejected. Will only when the water, that's when the water will start running. So those are sensors. But here, maybe at that time, Bradbury did not know about something called sensors. So here they don't have the sensors to understand that there is no human being out here. "8:1. 8:8. Tick-tock. 8:1. Off to school. Off to work. Run, run. 8:1." So that's a time when people of that house would have had to go to work, would have had to leave for school. But no doors slam, because there's nobody. So no doors were open, no doors were shut. No carpets took this soft tread of rubber heels, that is people walking. Soft tread means tread means to walk. It was raining outside. The weather box on the front door sang quietly. So there's a weather box. So you realize it's a very, very automated house. "Rain, rain, go away. Umbrella's, raincoats for today." So, you know, it's kind of singing that nursery rhyme. And the rain tapped on the empty house, echoing. So it even has a song for the rain. So it highlights, as I said, a truly automated house. Outside the garage chimed. You know, there's a chime, the sound, and lifted its door to reveal the waiting car. Because if they have to go to work, if they have to go to school, the car has to be taken out. So it's programmed that, okay, at this time, the garage door will also open, revealing the waiting car. After a long wait, the door swung down again. So it kind of calculated how much time it would take normally for the car to exit, and then it shuts down again, without realizing that, okay. Chime, like a bird, is the use of sound imagery by Ray Bradbury. One of the poems that I'd done for Class 10, somebody commented, you know, it's too serious. That story was about ghosts, it was about haunted houses. So I don't understand how a serious poem cannot, should not be taught in a serious manner, because it is, it is a very complicated point, very complicated point. Um, so I hope you are finding this interesting because I found this story very interesting. At 8:30, the eggs were shriveled. That is, they kind of were no longer fresh to be consumed, and the toast was like stone, you know, because they had become hardened because of the effect of time on the breakfast. And an aluminum vat scraped them into the kitchen sink. So they were kind of disposed of. Where hot water washed them down a metal throat. Like a metal throat means like a pipe which digested and flushed them into the, to the distant sea. So it was disposed of. So even the leftover breakfast, which is obviously not consumed, they had a system wherein it used to get disposed of. The dirty dishes were dropped into a hot washer and emerged twinkling dry. The dishwasher did its work. We are kind of used to that. "9:15. Sang the clock. Time to clean." Out of vents in the wall, tiny robots darted. Darted means rushed out. The rooms were a crawl with the small cleaning animals, all rubber and metal. They thudded against chairs, whirling their mustached runners, kneading the rug nap, sucking gently at hidden dust. Then, like mysterious invaders, they popped into their burrows. Their pink electric eyes faded. The house was clean. Now, what does this paragraph indicate? What Warren? What does Warren mean? Warren is essentially a system or rather a network of interconnecting. It is used in the context of rabbits. Burrows is where rabbits live. Okay. So out of vents in the house, it's like in an interconnected system of burrows in which these mice are there. So the mice, they are in charge of cleaning the house. Okay. So it is rather, I find it a distortion of natural reality because normally we do not associate mice with cleanliness. You know, we generally find mice in rather dirty kind of surroundings. You know, they are not, they're yuck, you don't like them, right? Unless it's a Tom and Jerry cartoon show. Dated conveys a sense of speed. It conveys a sense of energy, of vitality. The rooms were a crawl. Now, doted, and then immediately he uses the word crawl. Now, crawl is like, you know, conveys a room with several mice which are crawling all over the place. They are kind of moving all over the place. So it conveys a sense of movement. The thudded. Thudded means, you know, it's using the, the, the, the, the act of striking against a chair, you know. So it's using the sound imagery to convey a particular movement. Whirling their mustached runners, you know, so it kind of, the mice have mustaches. So that's what. And they're running all over the place. Kneading the rug nap. Now, knead means to massage, you know. So they are going over the rug almost as though they're giving a massage to the rug. Sucking gently at hidden dust. So they are kind of sucking away the dust. Then, like mysterious invaders. Now, this is the use of personification. So they have kind of, you know, he has personified by calling them mysterious. Mysterious means suddenly they come out, you did not expect them, because otherwise you wouldn't see them. So there's a sense of mystery associated with them. They are called invaders because they have attacked the entire house, attacked in order to kill the dust, take care of the dust. So they are invaders. So it's a personification. They popped into their burrows. So once the work was done, they went back into their burrows. Their pink electric eyes. So they had pink electric eyes. They faded, and the house was absolutely clean.
"10:00. The sun came, uh, from behind the rain." The house stood alone in a city of rubble, in a city of rubble and ashes. This was one house left standing. So this was the only house which was there in that particular town, in that particular city. All around was rubble and ashes. So destruction had happened in that particular city, Allendale, as a result of which there was no other building standing. This was the only house left standing. At night, the ruined city gave off a radioactive glow, which could be seen for miles. Now, this radioactive glow is the hint that a nuclear bomb may have been dropped on Allendale, which is why he has used the word radioactive. So it indicates the aftermath of the disaster as a result of the dropping of a nuclear bomb.
"10:15. The garden sprinklers whirled up in golden fountains, filling the soft morning air with scatterings of brightness." Now, uh, the water pelted window panes. Pelted means with a lot of force. So outside the sprinklers started doing their work, and they kind of filled the morning air with scattering. So it was very bright outside. Running down the charred western side. Now, charred means the effect on the house that it was full of soot, it had become all dark, as I showed you in that particular photograph where the house had been burnt. Evenly free of its white paint. So there is no more white paint. It was all dark. The entire west face of the house was black, except for five places. So only in five places it was not black. The rest of the house was completely black. Here, the silhouette in paint of a man mowing a lawn. Here, as in a photograph, a woman bent to pick flowers. Still further over their images burnt on wood. In one Titanic instant, a small boy, hands flung into the air. Higher up, the image of a thrown ball. And opposite him, a girl, hands raised to catch a ball which never came down. So this kind of indicates life which had ended just when they were actually playing, you understand that? So let me explain this in detail. So these were the remnants of the house which was burned to death. So you had a man, you had a woman, and you had the children and the ball. Now, these were the five spots which were not dark because it's a chilling picture of a family which was destroyed as a result of the nuclear bomb being dropped on Allendale. One second, yeah. I generally got it out. City name was Allendale. Okay. So, uh, the five spots of the, um, paint are remnants of a once, a scene which was once very vibrant. He refers to as in a photograph, means it is frozen in time. And it's an important indication because the photograph, photograph is something which is frozen in time. You take a photograph of a particular year, let's say 2020, and it stays there, right? It is frozen in time. It reminds you of the month of June of 2020, that this is what happened when I visited this particular place, right? So it's frozen in time. So this particular remnants are also frozen in time. Okay. So what have been frozen in time? The image of a woman bent, who was bending to pick flowers when the nuclear bomb was dropped. So burnt on wood. The images burnt on wood is a rather disturbing kind of an image because a small boy with his hands flung high in the air, okay, and then there is the ball. And opposite him is the girl with whom he is playing, and hands are raised to catch a ball, but the ball never came down. Okay. He has thrown the ball up. The ball is there, but the ball has not come down, and the girl is waiting in anticipation. That's when the nuclear bomb was dropped, and the girl died. So the girls, so Titanic instant. Instant, obviously, conveys the suddenness of the tragedy, the sudden impact of the tragedy. The girl's action, an unfinished kind of an action, you know. A, okay. The girl opposite him reaches for the ball that never came down, and that kind of reinforces the very tragic moment at which the tragedy struck, and the explosion, what it has done, it has frozen them in time. You know, they are frozen in time. That particular moment has been frozen in time, and leaving the girls, you know, it is the girl is hoping for the ball to come down so that she can catch the ball. So the emotion that she has at that point in time, her last alive moment, is one of hope, but that hope is never fulfilled. The hope is never realized. Okay. So the hope remains incomplete. The five spots of paint, the man, the woman, the children, the ball remained. The rest was a thin charcoal layer, as the photograph that I showed conveyed to you. The gentle sprinkler rain filled the garden with falling light. Now, you realize that it is a rather, you need to use this particular word, it's a rather idyllic kind of an image. Idyllic means something which is absolutely perfect, very utopian. So the family is enjoying its time together when the explosion has occurred. So it kind of conveys the suddenness. It also conveys the brutality of their death. So the five remnants are, in that sense, a very chilling reminder of the way their life came to an end. And Bradbury uses these lines to convey, uh, a very powerful image about one, the destructive nature of the nuclear bomb, and the fragility, uh, of human life, that it can come to an end just like that.
"Until this day, how well the house had kept its peace. How carefully it had inquired, 'Who goes there? What's the password?'" So you realize that even to enter, etc., into the house, you need a password. Okay. And getting no answer, and in today's day and age of, you know, thumb impressions instead of a card, etc., much of it is automated to a large extent, right? And getting no answer from lonely foxes which are still there in the area, and whining cats, it had shut up its windows and drawn shades in old maidenly preoccupation with self-protection. So the house was kind of protecting itself. Without a password, a fox or a cat would not be able to get in, right? Because obviously, you need to. So it was a very well-protected modern kind of a house. Okay. So because that was not breached, it used to keep itself very safe by using all the gadgetry. So, you know, the keeping itself protected was some kind of a paranoia. Paranoia means, you know, an obsession, mechanical obsession with keeping itself safe. That is what is being talked about. Bed on mechanical paranoia means that, you know, it was obsessed with keeping itself absolutely safe. It quivered at every sound. You know, any sound which has made the house kind of shook up. The house did. If a sparrow brushed a window, the shade snapped up immediately. The shade will come up in order to protect the house window. The bird will startle, it will get kind of surprised, and it will fly off. Fly off. So not even a bird must touch the house. And that's irony because later on, it catches fire. Okay. So it is not able to keep itself safe completely against all the elements. It's able to keep the birds and the animals, the foxes, and, uh, the sparrows, and the whining cats away, but is not able to keep away the fire.
"12 noon. A dog whined, shivering on the front porch." So now you see a dog. The front door recognized the dog's voice and opened. Which means that it must have been the dog of the inhabitants of the house. The dog was once huge and fleshy. So it was once a healthy dog. It's not a robotic dog. But now it had gone to bone and covered with sores. Moved in and through the house. So now it had become weak because there was no one to feed the dog. Tracking mud. So along with that, it brought in mud into the house because it is coming from outside. Behind it, now you may say, why didn't it say the password? Because the house was programmed to understand the voice of the dog. So the front door recognized the voice of the dog. It did not have to feed anything, whereas it would not be programmed to allow a fox or a cat to enter. Understood? So behind it, were angry mice. Now, the mice were angry because now they will have to clean up this mud footprints of the dog. Angry to have to pick up mud. Angry at the inconvenience. So they were also camore. So they're having that kind of an attitude. They were not very happy with this dog which had come, uh, into the house. For not a leaf fragment blew under the door, but what the wall panel flipped open and the copper scrap rats flashed swiftly out. Now, Bradbury, what does it indicate? The sprinkler rain that he spoke about, it kind of, you know, speaks about like gentle rain. It creates a sense of peace. It kind of conveys a sense of innocence because sprinkler rain is kind of associated with life and growth because it's very gently falling water. But the twist comes with the phrase "falling light," which he uses. Falling light. Here, when he's talking about, where is it? Yeah, here. Sorry, forgot to explain that. Falling light. Falling light kind of indicates that it is not sunlight, but the reflection of the sprinkler water. And maybe he's kind of giving a hint that there is fire going to catch on, you know. It's a subtle hint that something may go wrong. What is this falling light being spoken about? Okay. Uh, so that is something, uh, we need to speak about, you know. Is it, uh, some kind of a hint that Ray Bradbury is dropping about falling light? So while the house is full of technology, the dog which enters it, kind of gives, is a symbol of the real world. It is a symbol of this suffering because now it is not fleshy, it's just all bones, affected by the nuclear fallout. And it emphasizes the loss of life and the breakdown of the natural order. So, um, the mice are angry. For not a leaf fragment blew under the door, but what the wall panel flipped open and the copper scrap rats swiftly flashed out. So they came out quickly. Uh, copper was also, is also used, I mean, in terms of the metal that they are, you know, made of. Their the rats are also made of copper scrap. Copper is, was also at one point in time, was the actual word for police, and that became cop later on. So it could mean in that sense also, you know, people who are keeping vigil on any kind of dust that enters the house. So, and they kind of took care of all the dust and they put it into an incinerator which will kind of take care of the burning. And he's referring to evil Baal. Now, this is a god, a devil kind of a god, you know. It was associated in Christianity. Baal is associated with evil. So that's what he's referring to. The dog ran upstairs, historically, yelping. Yelping means, you know, the kind of sound created by a, a pleading dog. At last, realizing he, he, the dog is thinking that somebody is at home. But then he realized that nobody was there. It's all only silence. It sniffed the air, scratched the, uh, kitchen, uh, door. Behind the door, the stuff was making pancakes, which filled the house with a rich baked odor and the scent of maple syrup. So food was being prepared at that point in time. The dog frothed at the mouth. So it's feeling, it's salivating, you know, it wants the food. Lying at the door, sniffing, its eyes turned to fire. It ran wildly in circles, biting at its tail, spun in a frenzy, and died. But those were its last moments. It kind of got into a frenzy and died. It lay in the parlor for an hour. "2:00. Sang a voice, delicately sensing decay." At last, you know, that's when it realized that because obviously people don't, I mean, the mice don't have the nose. But then they programmed to sense decay. But that happened only after some time. The regiments of mice hummed out as softly as blown gray leaves in an electric wind. "2:15. The dog was gone." Gone 15 minutes. They took care of the body of the, uh, dog in order to dispose it off. So, uh, those were its dying moments. In the cellar, the incinerator glowed suddenly, and a whiff of sparks leaped up the chimney. So in the chimney, it was burnt, and then the thing came out, the smoke. "2:30. Bridge tables sprouted from the parlor walls. Playing cards fluttered onto mats in a shower of pips. Marshmallows manifested on an ocean bench with egg salad sandwiches. Music played." So now it was cards playing time. Post lunch is when the family would play cards. So the entire thing was laid out. Till 4:00 PM is when they would do that. So the entire thing was programmed. So the table was there, the bridge tables where they would play cards, but the tables were silent, and the cards were untouched. Obviously. At 4:00, the tables folded because they used to finish off the game by 4:00. Like great butterflies back through the paneled walls. "4:30. The nursery walls glowed. Animals took shape. Yellow giraffes." Now, this entire paragraph that is there, I'm not going to read out the entire thing because it's the children's entertainment hour. Are you know, that's what it says right at the end, that it was the entertainment hour for the two children of the house. And this particular, you see a lot of mention of different kinds of animals. So they would enjoy animals. Now, this Okapi, which you may not be familiar with, that's an African animal which is related to the family of giraffes, but it is brown in color. Okay. So, uh, the rest of it, you would know. Hoofs means, you know, the feet. And, uh, this was the thing, the nature along with the animals that the children would get entertained with. Uh, every afternoon after 4:00. "5:00. The bath filled with clear hot water." "6, 7, 8:00. The dinner dishes manipulated like magic tricks." And in the study, a click in the metal stand opposite the hearth where a fire now blazed up warmly. A cigar popped out, half an inch of soft gray ash on it, smoking, waiting. So this was for the man of the house. So, uh, you know, this was the usual routine that the dinner would happen, and thereafter he would smoke a cigar. "9:00. The beds warmed their hidden circuits for nights for cool here." So the nights were a little cold, so the beds were kind of warm. So there were electrical circuits as a result of which the beds were made warm and comfortable. "9:5. A voice spoke from the ceiling. 'Mrs. McClellan, which poem would you like this evening?'" The house was silent. So it is programmed to play a poem every day. The voice said, "At last, since you express no preference, it's all automated recording. I shall select a poem at random." Quiet music rose to back the voice. "Sara Teasdale, as I recall, your favorite." So it was a favorite poem of the lady of the house. "There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground and swallows circling with their shimmering sound." So you see, this is a much more of a hopeful poem. "And frogs in the pool singing at night, and wild plum trees in tremulous white." So, um, it, it kind of paints a picture of a perfect world where the world of animals and birds is in contrast to the one in which the dog just died. Here you see the frogs are singing, the trees are kind of, uh, moving around. The robins are in their white. Robin is a bird. Whistling their whims on a low fence. Fire. So they are whistling away. "And no one will, not one will know of the war, not one will care at last when it's done." So it's talked, even though the war has ended, so everybody is feeling happy. Unlike here, where the war has ended, but it has left in its way complete destruction. "Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree, if mankind perished utterly. And spring itself." So what it says is that even though if mankind perishes, even if man comes to an end as a result of the war, of the war, no one would mind, neither the bird nor the trees. So nature has its own way of continuing, is what the poem talks about. Okay. "And spring itself, when she woke up, woke at dawn, would scarcely know that we are gone." So even nature will not know that we are not there. So this is also a poem which is talking about the destruction of the war after the First World War. But she talks about how nature will take care of itself. Okay. So life will continue, nature will continue, is what she speaks about. So the contrast between the poem and the story is one of the questions that you could possibly get in your question paper. That is, you know, because it's very obvious, there are two poems with the same title, poem and the story, but they are presenting a slightly contradictory kind of an image between Sara Teasdale and Ray Bradbury. "The fire burnt on the stone hearth, and the cigar fell away into a mound of quiet ash on its tray." So the smoking was over, the cigar was over. And then empty chairs faced each other. So once again, kind of conveying the emptiness and the silence of the entire house. "10:00. 10:00. The house began to die." Means that was the time for all the inmates to go to bed. The wind blew, and that's when something else takes place. A fallen tree bow, means a part of a tree like a shrub, or, you know, part of the vegetation, crashed through the kitchen window. Cleaning solvent bottle shattered over this tub. The room was a blaze in an instant. So that's how it caught fire. Okay. So this, you see, if you recall the thing about the falling light, and here he uses the phrase falling tree, which is why I had said that was some kind of a hint which he had possibly dropped. So the same phrase, falling, same word, falling, being used. "Fire!" screamed a voice. So it had kind of got alert to the fact that the house was now on fire. The house lights flashed. Water pumps shot water. So immediately it was automated in a way that it could take care in the event of a fire. But the solvent spread on the linoleum, clicking, eating under the kitchen door, while the voices took up in chorus, "Fire! Fire! Fire!" The house tried to save itself. Now, you see, this is very important. It's almost like personifying. Try to save. You normally use it for people. The people try to save themselves. But now it says the house. So the house, as I said, is a character in the story, is like a character. Doors sprang tightly shut. You know, when you try to protect yourself, that's what you do. But the windows were broken by the heat, and the wind blew and sucked upon the fire. The house gave ground as the fire in 10 billion angry sparks moved with flaming ease. So the house was kind of giving way, in the sense it was kind of collapsing from room to room, and then up the stairs, while scurrying water rats, scurrying means moving very fast, moving very swiftly, squeaked from the walls, pistol their water, means like a dart shooting the water, and ran to get more water. And the wall sprays let down showers of mechanical rain. So the walls also were programmed in such a way that when there is a fire, even the walls would let down water. Okay. But too late. Somewhere, a pump shrieked to a stop. The quenching rain seized the reserve water supply, which had filled baths and washed dishes for many quiet days, was gone. So the water supply was over because whatever water was there, it was all used. But if it could still not control the raging fire. The fire crackled up the stairs. It fed upon Picassos and Matisses in the upper halls, like delicacies, baking off the oily flesh, tendering crisply the canvases into black shavings. So the paintings were completely destroyed in the fire. Now, the fire lay in bed, you know, so the beds were kind of taken over by the fire. Student windows changed the color of drapes. So the drapes which may have been yellow, blue, red, whatever, they all became absolutely black. Please note down all these small, small, small details that he has spoken about. And then reinforcements came from attic trap doors. Blind robot faces peered down with faucet M. Faucet with like, like a jet spray. They've put out green chemical. The fire kind of backed off. So it's almost showing a battle between the water and with the mice like soldiers and the fire. Okay. As even an elephant must at the sight of a dead snake. So the fire and the water were having a battle. Now, there were 20 snakes whipping over the floor, you know, trying to get over the thing, killing the fire with a clear gold venom of green frost. So that green particular chemical was there to kind of take care of, to extinguish the fire. So there was this battle. So he has, what he has done is to personify the fire, the water, and the chemical, everything as though there's a major war going on. But the fire was clever. It had sent flame outside the house, up through the attic to the pumps. There, an explosion. So it's almost like, you know, it is an attack by the fire. The attic brain which directed the pumps was shattered into bronze shrapnel into the beam. So you see, because of the nuclear explosion, the war, etc., is at the backdrop of the story, which is why he has kind of personified the war as though somebody's coming over, personified the fire as though it's coming and taking over the house. You understand the kind of language in which Ray Bradbury has written this particular story. The fire rushed into every closet and fell off the hot clothes hung there. So all the clothes also caught fire in the, uh, house. The house shuddered. Oak bone on bone, you know, as though, you know, the bones of the house, you know, made of oak, they were all kind of quivering and shaking. It's bare skeleton cringing from the heat. Its wires, the heat of the fire. Its nerves revealed as if a surgeon had torn the skin off to let the red veins and capillaries quiver in the scaled air, you know. So in that kind of atmosphere, it is like, you know, the house, the outside layers were all taken off. So the inside of the house, the bones, the capillaries, the veins of the house were all being shown. The wires, everything. Okay. "Help! Help! Fire! Run! Run!" Heat snapped mirrors like the first brittle winter eyes. So the mirrors were kind of cracked, as though they were like winter eyes. And the voices wailed, "Fire! Fire!" So that was the automated voice which was playing on like a tragic nursery rhyme. It doesn't voices high, low, like children dying in a forest alone there. So, you know, he has created an imagery as though the house has been on fire, and it is very possible that this is possibly the way the people must have reacted when the bomb was dropped, right? They must also have kind of struggled in their dying moments. And the voices fading as the wires popped their sheathings like hot chestnuts. "One, two, three, four, five." Voices died. And it's exactly the four children, and maybe even the ball has been personified. So all those voices died in the nursery. "The jungle burned blue. Lions roared." And this is talking about the children's entertainment package. Okay. Purple giraffes, blue lions, the panthers, the 10 million animals running before the fire vanished off. "10 more voices died." In the last instant, under the fire. AV lunch. Other choruses oblivious could be heard announcing the time, cutting the lawn by remote control mode. So there is, you know, the fire was now taking charge of the garden also, where, you know, all that activity of sprinkler, etc., was set up. Of setting up an umbrella frantically out and in, in slamming and opening. So all that, you know, very mechanical way of the door open, door happening. The sprinklers, a thousand things happening like a clock shop when each clock strikes the hour insanely before or after the other. Like, you know, if you go to a clock shop, ding-dang, different clocks, you know, because they will not be all at the same time. Slight difference would be there. So they'll all be clinging at the, you know, just one after the other. So there is some kind of a maniac confusion. Maniac means some kind of a mad, crazy kind of confusion. Yet, unity singing, screaming. The last few cleaning mice darting bravely out to carry the hardened ashes away. So till the last moment, the mice were trying to take care of the fire. And one voice, with sublime disregard for the situation, read poetry aloud in the fiery study. So there was a poem being read, oblivious to whatever was happening around in the house, until all the films, pulls burned, until all the wires withered, and the CC circuits cracked. Which means at the end of it, the voices were all drowned out because the electrical circuitry was completely destroyed and damaged in the fire. The fire burst the house and let it slam down flat down, puffing out skirts of spark and smoke. So the fire completely smashed the house. In the kitchen, an instant before the rain of fire and timber, this stuff could be seen making breakfast at a psychopathic rate, tender. So it's as if the work was going on of the breakfast again, oblivious to the fact that. So six loaves of toast, 20 dozen bacon strips, which eaten by fire, started the stuff working again, hysterically hissing. The crash. And then the attic smashed into the kitchen and the parlor, and that also completely got smashed. There was smoke and silence. A great quantity of smoke. Dawn shone, showed friendly the East. So it was the fresh morning. Okay. Only one wall remained of the house. By everything was completely destroyed. Within the wall, a last voice said over and over again, you know, and it kind of only said the date. "Today is August 5, 2026. Today is August 5, 2026." So that's how the story ends. So it kind of has a lot of frenzy built up towards the end of the story to show the enormity of the fire and the destruction, and the parallel with which, with the manner in which the family itself may have been killed in the first instance. So let's now do one thing. Let's now look at the themes of the story, so that it kind of rounds it up for you, so that when questions come, you can use those points and this understanding of the story. Use the keywords from the story. Now, what are the keywords? The keywords are the words which are used to describe. Keywords are usually adjectives. So you use those adjectives which have been used in order to make your, uh, story, your answers better. For instance, smoke and silence can be a keyword, right? Heap rubble can be a keyword. So anything which kind of adds value and shows the examiner that you are familiar with the text, you have read the text over and over again. So now let's take a look at the, uh, themes of the story. Okay. So the first theme is of life versus technology. The first theme is of life versus technology. The story presents, as I said, a chilling contrast between the automated house, which is a marvel of technology, and the absence of human life. The technology kind of continues its routines mindlessly, highlighting the absurdity. It's, it's frankly quite absurd, but there's also highlighting the danger of over-reliance on technology.
Then the death. The dog's death, the birth silhouettes, the five silhouettes are constant reminders of death. And the automated routine sticking by every hour, you know, even the next day, it's just announcing the date without Ann, without realizing that the house is completely out. So it kind of, you know, emphasizes the march of time and the lack of human control. There's no human control over any of the machines. The machines are ruling us. There's no human to rule those machines. Then there is the theme of war and devastation. The entire theme of what has happened after the war. The fact that there are no residents there. The only life that we see out there is that of the dog, okay, who also dies. So there is that constant reminder of death and devastation that there's no one to look after the dog, and that also perishes.
Then there is the theme of nature versus technology. That nature, which is symbolized by the gentle rain and the poem by Sara Teasdale about enduring beauty, that continues its cycle even after the technological marvel of the house is destroyed. You know, the house, technology, everything, automation is all destroyed as a result of the fire. So what it shows is the ultimate power of nature. So the poem is very important, which is woven into the story. So the power of nature over creations of human beings, and the possibility that the Earth may heal even after humans have destroyed it. I mean, in today's context, we keep talking about, you know, climate change, you know, we are destroying Mother Earth in many ways by building mindlessly, by result, I mean, by not caring about global warming. So glaciers are melting, you know, things will all change. We may not be around, but we are not leaving a safe planet for the future generations, right? So in that context, what happens is that, you know, nature has its own way of healing, even after mankind, the selfish, greedy mankind, essentially ends up destroying everything for his or her own selfish need. So that's what is the, are the themes all about. So I hope you have understood what the story largely is. It's an interesting story, slightly complicated in terms of the themes. Later in the Academic Year, in the second half, that is after September, I will be doing, uh, some test papers in which I will write out some of the answers so that you get an idea. It makes it easier for you to understand how an answer is to be structured, how do you kind of include the keywords, how do you answer for a five-mark answer, how do you answer for a 10-mark, uh, question, question, how do you do the reasoning questions and the MCQs? All that will be there as part of the test papers which we will put on the Studyb of the app. Okay. Tata. Bye-bye. Thank you very much. God bless you.