Journal Entry 35: Chronological Order

Review the story by listing, in chronological order, the main events that take place in the house on August 4, 2026. Now, look at the little digital clocks that indicate the hours. From the beginning of the story, how long does it take for the house to be destroyed? Do you think that the speed in which the house is destroyed has any significance? What do you think the author is trying to say by causing the house to live on after the people are gone, but then eventually be destroyed?

It took quite a short amount of time for the house to be destroyed. The speed in which the house is destroyed is definitely very important. I think that the author is trying to show us "nature is and will always be stronger than men no matter how hard we try" by making the time it took the fire to destroy the house so short. The way the house lives on after all the human destroys themselves seem to show how happy nature will be without the humans. And it shows how even without the humans the house and nature will carry on as if nothing happened. I think the house gets destroyed because the author is also trying to tell us that technological development is thoughtless and it won't really solve our problems, so that's why the nature "destroys" is too. Humans can't live among themselves and that's why nature watched them destroy themselves and it gets rid of the things we created after they destroy themselves, but it is still polluted by radiation and many other animals were sick and wounded.

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.