"August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains"
By Lasse Lundqvist

What would the world look like in the future, if nuclear bombs were dropped in the United States of America? One option for that answer is to find I the short story “There will come soft rains - August 2026” by Ray Bradbury. This essay will deal with the human technology development, which is a threat for the. Nevertheless, the nature will always recover from the destruction of technology.
Through the narrative we get to know the routine of the everyday life in an empty house, with the only purpose of serving the gods; the humans. The story takes place in the year 2026, and mankind has invented a house that is capable of working on its own. In the town of Allendale, a house stands alone in a city of rubble an ash. The city is the outcome of an exploded nuclear bomb and lies in ruins. The atmosphere is very cold due to the lack of humanity, but the narrator manages to make the reading experience energetic by giving the robots human characteristics. “An aluminium wedge scraped them into the sink, where hot water whirled them down a metal throat which digested and flushed them away to the distant sea.”(Bradbury l.20 p.1). By using the word “digested” the story becomes more alive.
With its humanlike features, the house has become controlling and demanding. Everything has to be done in an exact point of time. All the tasks the house has, must be carried out to the fullest. “In the kitchen the breakfast stove… eight pieces of perfectly browned toast, eight eggs Sunnyside up, sixteen slices of bacon, two coffees, and two cool glasses of milk.” (Bradbury l.5 p.1). Before the bomb was dropped, a family lived in the house. The house is an altar for all the technology to worship the family. The worship of the humans is like a religion and the robots proceed their rituals even though their gods are gone. The