Comparative Essay: There Will Come Soft Rains and “The Pedestrian by Bradbury

“There Will Come Soft Rains” and “The Pedestrian” are two short stories written by Ray Bradbury that develop a common theme using literary elements found in the texts. Bradbury wrote both of the stories, so they are in the same genre and coincidently have the same point that he is trying to get across. Through examples of imagery and figurative language shown in “The Pedestrian” and “There Will Come Soft Rains”, Bradbury is able to inform the audience that when humans are dependent on technology, they lose their independence and uniqueness of individuality. 
Imagery is used in both stories to help describe the human race’s reliance on technology, as well as the drastic advancements. While applying inhuman qualities in the imagery, human details can be reflected from it. The narrator of “The Pedestrian'' explains to the audience about all the houses Meade sees as he is on his nightly walk. He describes it as if he is walking through a graveyard due to the fact that everybody is inside with their “...[curtains] … still undrawn against the night…” when “Sudden gray phantoms seemed to manifest upon inner room walls …”(Bradbury 1). The gray phantoms represent people's shadows on the walls cast by the light of the television. Every night the people stay inside and watch TV because they rely on it as their source of entertainment. This is the same every time Mr. Meade walks through the neighborhood. Everyone has closed their curtains and shut themselves off from the outside in order to be virtually engaged, and live like every other member in society. Bradbury introduces “There Will Come Soft Rains” by presenting a house that starts it’s morning by cooking some breakfast. It then speaks announcements about the date, and reminders for the owner of the house. He then shows that this is a robotic house because “Somewhere in the walls, relays clicked, memory tapes glided under electric eyes” (Bradbury 1). It does every task and job for the residents that used to live there. Bradbury, uses the term “electric eyes'' which combines a human trait with a technological twist. He provides this in vivid imagery to present the idea how the house is excessively human-like. The people have made a technology to rely on doing all of their manual labor for them, as well as being responsible for remembering important dates and times. The imagery presented from both short stories have resulted in showing how humans don’t do a lot of things for themselves, but alternatively program a device to do it for them. Consequently leading to lack of variety between humans, and lack of control in their lives.
Figurative language is used in the stories to show how humanity has given a sense of life to modern technology to an extreme measure. By letting technology gain a human perspective, humans are giving up their own spirit. In “The Pedestrian”, the police are curious about Mr. Meade’s profession, so he explains that he is a writer. Books don't sell anymore due to movies and TV shows. People are in their houses “...where [they] [sit] like the dead, the gray or multicolored lights touching their faces” (Bradbury 2).  A simile that compares people watching TV to people who are dead justifies that when humans have attached their attention to a device, they appear lifeless. People are hooked on technology, so they miss what is going on in the world around them. Individuals are losing control of their life because of their addiction to doing nothing. The house in “There Will Come Soft Rains” has caught ablaze and it’s spreading uncontrollably. It’s slowly being burned to the ground, so “The house shuddered, oak bone on bone, its bared skeleton cringing from the heat, its nerves revealed as if a surgeon had torn the skin off…”(Bradbury 4). The house is being personified to a wounded human being, it's so alive-like that it could’ve had skin and bones. This is because humankind has advanced technology to the level where a house could be treated as if it were organic. The simile and personification  presented in Bradbury’s stories are a warning sign that if the world makes technology too alive-like, humans themselves could lose their animated qualities. Conversely, every person would act and look the same, they would all appear empty.
As a result, through the imagery and figurative language in Bradbury’s two short stories, the audience can learn the importance of not letting technology take control of their lives because it can lead to lack of individuality and independence. Society's addiction to devices leads to no variation between individuals. Everyone evolved into the same robot-like person. Nevertheless, both stories present the topic about how humanity won’t be able to do anything for themselves if they make technology do it for them. If society doesn’t realize these issues now, the world could potentially develop into the ones in the stories.