The Nursery In Ray Bradbury's 'The Rocket'
Pre-AP English II Summer Reading Assignment
Mikell Sherman
The Veldt
Protagonist: The Nursery; a 40x40ft. room which can take someone anywhere their mind desires. Regardless to their commands, the nursery has begun showing George and Lydia Hadley images of Africa whenever they enter the room.
Main Characters: George Hadley; married to Lydia, father of Wendy and Peter. George purchased a high-tech house for his family, only to regret the decision when it began to pull them apart and ruin his relationship with his children. Lydia Hadley: Wife and mother. Became afraid when she realized her children were replacing her with the nursery. Wendy and Peter Hadley: Children of George and Lydia. After their father purchased the nursery, the children began spending more and …show more content…
more time in the room, until they lost distinction between the room’s wonders, and reality itself. David McClean: Psychiatrist, hired by George and Lydia to assist them in breaking the children of the Nursery.
Point of view: Third Person
Setting: Undefined time in the far future, probably taking place in America, as the parents refused to allow their children to go to New York
Descriptive Adjectives; Solemn, Intense, Heavy, Thought-Invoking, Sickening
Example of Irony: The home which George bought to please his family causes his own children to kill him in the end.
Theme Statement: Sometimes trying to please those around us can lead to our own downfall.
Statement of the authors purpose: Bradbury is criticizing our growing reliance on technology, implying that technology shall eventually perform all of our daily tasks for us, from tying our shoes to caring for our children.
Most Memorable Quote: “The more I see of the mess we’ve put ourselves in, the more it sickens me. We’ve been contemplating our mechanical, electronic navels for too long”
Bradbury, Ray. The Illustrated man: The Veldt. New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1967
Plot Summary: After purchasing an electronic marvel of a house of a family, as well as a Nursery, an electronic room which allows you to experience your wildest fantasies. One day George’s wife, Lydia, calls him into the nursery, claiming she had heard a scream just minutes before. The room had been configured into an African Veldt, and lions were in the distance, leaving behind a pile of unidentifiable bones. Lydia was worried about what the children had been viewing, and George comforts her, insisting that it would be only a short lived phase. Despite Georges statement, however, the room is continuously converted into the veldt by the children, finally forcing George to turn it off. In the middle of the night, the room is turned back on, and found the next morning as the African veldt again. George calls David McClean, a psychiatrist, to investigate the room. McClean tells him to shut the room off again, and make sure it stays off, promising that within a year the children would again be well behaved. When the children see their father turn the room off, they throw a fit, and even Lydia does not fully understand George’s actions at first. The next morning, the children call for George and Lydia’s help from the nursery, and the two parents rush to their aid, however upon arrival, they find only lions, and an untimely fate.
The Other Foot
Protagonist: Unnamed White Man, comes from Earth in a spaceship and tells the civilization on Mars of the happenings which occurred since they left.
Main Characters: Hattie, wife of Willie, calm in a state of confusion and rash decision making. One of the few that thinks intelligently when the spaceship comes to Mars Willie, fueled by a hatred carried over from the Martians time on earth, successfully starts a lynching mob against the white man.
Point of View: 3rd Person
Setting: Martian Community, sometime in the future, in a reality where civil rights were never validated.
Descriptive Adjectives: Vehement, Rabid, Zealous
Examples of Irony: The lynching mob ends up thanking the white man.
Theme Statement: Mistreating others without cause, be it by race, religion, culture or lifestyle, can only ever end badly for you and your fellows.
Author’s Purpose: Bradbury wrote this story both to ridicule the then overwhelming feelings of racism, as well as warn about its outcomes.
Most Memorable Quote: “Lynch him?”… “Why, bless you, child, no! We’re going to shake his hand. Ain’t we, everyone?”
Bradbury, Ray. The Illustrated Man: The Other Foot. New York, New York: Bantam Books, 1967
Summary: In an Ray Bradbury’s ‘The Other Foot’s alternate reality where racism was never suppressed, and the Black population has moved to Mars, a white man is said to be coming in a spaceship. Fueled by an age long hatred, and painful memories of their past, the Martians retrieve their guns and rope, and set up a lynching mob at his supposed point of arrival. Focusing on the married couple of Hattie and Willie, the story tells how the white man came to the Black community, and, after convincing them not to kill him outright, he tells of an Earth in which the white man has destroyed itself, as well as the world that housed them. Answering all of their questions with messages of destruction, the man quells the crowd. They realize that all they’re doing is what was done to them years ago, and realize the self destruction of it all. Then, they return home.
The Man
Protagonist: The Town. The entire residency of this settlement has seen what they know they’ve seen, and don’t care what others say to them, and don’t bother trying to convince them of it, knowing that words can’t describe their experiences.
Main Characters: Captain Hart, officer of an expeditionary flight to find life on other planets and gain their allegiances. Lieutenant Martin: Secondary officer to Capt. Hart, Martin believes the stories he is told by the residents of the town, until he is convinced otherwise by the Captain. The Man: The representation of every monotheistic religions Deity, the Man travels from planet to planet spreading faith and good-feeling.
Point of View: 3rd Person
Setting: Unnamed planet in a distant solar system, sometime in the future.
Descriptive Adjectives: Faithful, knowing, understanding, confused.
Example of Irony: Captain Hart’s plight, being convinced of the existence of the Man, and yet not being content without having proven it to himself with his own two eyes.
Theme Statement: Not everything needs to be proven to be positive.
Authors Purpose: Bradbury is commenting on religion, focusing on the fanatical lengths some people will go to prove to others that their religion it the only true one, as well as the lengths some will go to in order to prove to themselves that their religion is indeed true.
Most Memorable Quote: “Maybe we’re looking for some peace and quiet? There’s certainly none on Earth.”
Bradbury, Ray. The Illustrated Man: The Man. New York, New York: Bantam Books, 1967
Summary: In Ray Bradbury’s “The Man”, an expeditionary trip to a planet known to contain sentient life is met with an unexpected amount of enthusiasm. None. Wondering what’s wrong with the inhabitants of this town, the flight officer, Captain Hart, sends a scout to interrogate the residents. The scout, Lieutenant Martin, returns with astounding news, stating that the day before the ships arrival an almighty being, describable only as “the Man” had visited the settlement, dwarfing the arrival of the spaceship. Enraged, Hart is convinced that the his rival flight officer had landed before him, and spread word that he was the Man. Later, that rival lands, claiming that he had not been there before. Dumbfounded, Hart furiously interrogated the inhabitants himself, being met with only an absolute sureness of the happenings of the day before. Eventually resigning himself to belief, Hart goes mad with the need to know and understand the Man, and prove to himself the existence of the being, and decides to follow him throughout the galaxy, convinced that he must eventually get there first.
The Long Rain
Protagonist: The Lieutenant, an unnamed man with the perseverance to face insurmountable odds and come out on top, as well as the courage to go on even when those around him have given up hope.
Main Characters: Pickard, an angry man who takes punishment for as long as he can, then snaps, often hurting himself as well as those around him. Simmons: A simple man, not fully understanding his purpose, but willing to hope and give hope. When presented with a shattered version of that which he sought, however, he loses his optimistic outlook, and decides not to go on.
Point of view : Omniscient
Setting: Venus, an eternally raining planet, sometime in the distant future.
Descriptive Adjectives: Hopeless, Dejected, Desolate, Disheartened
Example of Irony: That a character without a name, seemingly unimportant in the grand plot, is the one that survives and achieves his goal.
Theme Statement: No matter the odds, perseverance will often give you victory, and the loss of hope will defeat you, whether you lose or not.
Authors Purpose: Bradbury is ridiculing the pathetic state of man, the state when he has nothing he is willing to fight for, nothing to live for, so horribly dejected, that he is willing to either kill himself, or do nothing about his predicament.
Most Memorable Quote: “Even as they stood over the body, it began to vanish, for the vegetation was edging in upon it, little vines and ivy and creepers, and even flowers for the dead.”
Bradbury, Ray. The Illustrated Man: The Long Rain. New York, New York: Bantam Books, 1967
Plot Summary: In Ray Bradbury’s “The Long Rain”, a group of men is lost on Venus, a planet which, in the future, never ceases to rain. Led by a man known as “The Lieutenant”, the group has been stranded in the downpour for over 4 weeks, and is searching for a Sun Dome, a building with an artificial solar body. After wandering ceaselessly through the rain, they come upon one of the domes, only to discover that it has been wrecked by an alien race. They wander on, but the insanity of their predicament causes two of the men, Simmons and Pickard, to give up hope and invariably, to die. After losing almost all of his senses to the rain, the lieutenant finally finds a working dome, and is saved.
The Visitor
Protagonist: Leonard Mark, a man with the extraordinary ability to allow you to experience whatever you want to experience.
Main Characters: Saul Williams, a man afflicted with an incurable disease, exiled to mars to live out the remainder of his life in a monotonous experience. Jealous mind.
Point of View: 3rd Person
Setting: Mars, the future.
Descriptive Adjectives: Jealous, uncaring, unfeeling, greedy, selfish
Examples of Irony: Everyone wanted Mark to use, but nobody received his gifts.
Theme Statement: One is bound to one’s own actions.
Authors Purpose: Bradbury is commenting on the greed of the average man, as well as the invariable fact that when a man attempts to do others a service, he will often be taken for granted and used.
Most Memorable Quote: “I’m going to sit right here until those men show up. You’re a little too possessive. My life’s my own.”
Bradbury, Ray. The Illustrated Man: The Visitor. New York, New York: Bantam Books, 1967
Plot Summary: In Ray Bradbury’s “The Visitor” an incurable sickness of the future has caused the world governments to send the afflicted to Mars, in essence, to die. One such afflicted man is Leonard Mark, a man with the ability to show you whatever your mind desires. Saul Williams is the first to encounter this remarkable man, and, after being shown New York as well as one of his childhood memories, becomes possessive of Mark, and kidnaps him to a cave. The other inhabitants of the planet find them, and a fight breaks out over the possession of the man. After attempted diplomacy on Mark’s part, one of the men pulls a gun and fires. The bullet pierces Mark in the heart, and the men are forced to go about their live in the same way as they always had.
No Particular Night or Morning
Protagonist: Space, the endless void Hitchcock has found himself to be so very drawn to. In the end, the void is the only “character” able to provide a solution.
Main Characters: Hitchcock, a philosophical soul whose ideas have invaded and taken over his mind, causing him to be misunderstood and outcast by the others on the ship. Clemens, Hitchcock’s friend and one of the few who will still interact with him. Worried for his friend, Clemens decides to find him help.
Point of View: 3rd
Setting: A spaceship a great distance from Earth, in the future.
Descriptive Adjectives: Philosophical, Dark, Conclusive
Examples of Irony: When Hitchcock is sent to the psychiatrist, a mistake causes him to not only miss his appointment, but to become “one” with that which he was so arrested by.
Theme Statement: Sometimes even the person who seems to have nothing to contribute is really the one with the most brilliant ideas.
Authors Purpose: Bradbury is commenting on the relevance of philosophy in society, and on how those who think in ways previously unperceived before by those around them are often alienated and outcast.
Most Memorable Quote: “Why should I hold onto things I can’t use?”
Bradbury, Ray. The Illustrated Man: No Particular Night or Morning. New York, New York: Bantam Books, 1967
Plot Summary: On a spaceship billions of miles away from our solar system, a man named Hitchcock has lost his sanity. His views of things around him have become convoluted and lost all sense of reality. When one of his co-workers or even an entire room does not go before his eyes within 24 hours, he assumes that that entity is no longer in existence and treats it as though it were destroyed. As a last resort, his friend Clemens takes him to a psychiatrist, where a freak accident causes him to be unceremoniously dumped into space itself.
Marionettes Inc.
Protagonist: None. There is no character in this story who is solving a problem. Each has his or her own selfish agendas, and none are going towards a good cause.
Main Characters: Braling, a man who has been controlled by his wife for their entire 10 years of marriage, who was looking for a way out when he discovered a company which creates copies of their clients for use as replacements in everyday life. Smith, smothered by his spouse to the point of physical injury, and wishing for time to heal, he looks towards his own marionette, only to find that his wife had been keeping a secret from him for some time now.
Point of View: 3rd
Setting: 1990, alternate version of an American city
Descriptive Adjectives: Betrayed, Elusive, Deceptive, Confused
Examples of Irony: When Smith plans to purchase a marionette, he finds that his wife has already done so. While Braling grows further from his wife, he finds that his marionette has fallen in love with her.
Theme Statement: When you are presented with life’s problems, you don’t have the option of running away, or finding someone else to help you. You need to adapt and overcome, coming out on top or being defeated, just so long as it was your attempt and not that of another.
Author’s Purpose: Bradbury is writing about how man is continuously creating ways to perform their work easier, trying to make things easier on themselves, instead of simply doing their work themselves, the good old fashioned way.
Most Memorable Quote: “… she tore her clothes and rumpled her hair and threatened to call the police unless you married her.”
Bradbury, Ray. The Illustrated Man: Marionettes Inc.. New York, New York: Bantam Books, 1967
Summary: In Ray Bradbury’s “Marionettes Inc.”, when a man named Braling has had enough of his wife’s over controlling attitude, he decides that it would be easier than divorce to purchase a mechanical copy of himself, a marionette. After going for a night out with one of his friend, Smith, his friend questions him on how he finally managed to get his wife to allow him a night out. Deciding it would be easier to show him, Braling brings his friend to his home and calls out the marionette, an exact replica of Braling, the only difference being the mechanical sound of the heart. Deciding he must get one for himself, Smith returns to his own home and accesses his bank account to purchase one for himself. Finding ten thousand dollars missing, he turns to his wife for an explanation, only to have a revelation and listen to her heart, hearing only a soft ticking noise. Braling’s marionette, requesting an audience with his master, rattles of a long list of the ways he’s been mistreated. In a final revelation, he says that he thinks he is in love with Braling’s wife, before locking Braling in the very box which he had been kept in, and then “loses” the key.
The Fire Balloons
Protagonist: Father Peregrine, a man that is not afraid to challenge the generic customs and beliefs of his peers and church. While this often leads to the questioning of his religious sturdiness, he continues with his philosophies, and plans to outreach to the strange new species on mars.
Main Characters: Father Stone, religiously the exact opposite of Father Peregrine, afraid an worried to change his own beliefs at all, and worried for Peregrine when he philosophizes about sin and virtue.
Point of view: Omniscient
Setting: Mars, the future, near a human settlement.
Descriptive Adjectives: Exploratory, Non-Conforming, Religious
Examples of Irony: None
Theme Statement: Often, reaching out to those outcast by society can be a rewarding experience.
Author’s Purpose: Bradbury is commenting on the drive of every religion to convert others to their faith, showing how each church will do many things to show that their way is the right way.
Most Memorable Quote: “Shouldn’t we solve our own sins on Earth. Aren’t we running from our lives here?”
Bradbury, Ray. The Illustrated Man: The Fire Balloons. New York, New York: Bantam Books, 1967
Plot Summary: In Ray Bradbury’s “The Fire Balloons”, a missionary trip to Mars causes two Reverends, Father Peregrine and Father Stone, to reach out to a race of floating blue orbs. After first contact, the orbs save the two reverends from and avalanche, convincing Father Peregrine of their having souls. Just to prove the fact, he attempts to commit suicide, only to have the orbs save his life, not only from jumping off a cliff, but also from shooting himself. Seeing them not as beings but as human beings, Father Peregrine brings his findings back to his superiors and convinces them to build a church, changing the symbols of Christianity, but not the meaning. When the church is built, the orbs come only to share a message. The orbs were, in fact, men. They had left their bodies behind and were now pure beings, free of sin, living in the glory of god.
The Last Night of the World
Protagonist: None. The people of this story are simply waiting for the end, knowledgeable to the finish that they are being presented with.
Main Characters: Unnamed man, with a feeling that he shared with his coworkers of the end of the world. Not a violent end, or really a calm one, just an ending as that of a film or an article. Unnamed woman, married to the man, who is told by him of the end. She had not had the premonitions shared by many around her, though she did believe the man when he told her.
Setting: One night before the end of the world, October 19th, 1969, in the home of a married couple.
Descriptive Adjectives: Final, Complete, Conclusive, Done
Examples of Irony: Even faced with an immanent ending to their lives, or perhaps because of it, the citizens do not change their schedules, or panic, or cry, or even bother to stay awake. They accept what is going to happen and sleep.
Theme Statement: Sometimes the ending is nothing but a simple change of venue, not to be feared or avoided, but accepted and conformed to.
Authors Purpose: Bradbury is admiring human resilience, and the ability of mankind to adapt to the happenstances about them, and overcome or accept the consequences of actions that may not be their own.
Most Memorable Quote: “Good night.”
Bradbury, Ray. The Illustrated Man: The Last Night of the World, New York, New York, Bantam Books, 1969
Summary: In Ray Bradbury’s “The Last Night of the World, It is one night before the end of the world. People all over the planet have the feeling that the end is about to happen. In one home, a man tells his wife of what is going to happen. They discuss what they believe the rest of the world is going to do, and then simply go to bed.
The Rocket
Protagonist: Bodoni, a father of many children and a man barely keeping his head over the waters of poverty. He has long dreamed of flying to Mars in a rocket, and wants the same for his family.
Main Characters: Bramante, a pessimistic old man who was alive when the rockets first began flying through the sky. He warns Bodoni of his idiocy in thinking of sending only one of his family to Mars.
Point of View: Limited Omniscient
Setting: Earth, the future, in Bodoni’s home and junkyard.
Descriptive Adjectives: Imaginative, Loving, Entertaining, Inventive
Example of Irony: Even after deciding that Bramante was right, Bodoni still tells his family of the possibility for one of them to go on a rocket, just to have them collectively turn him down.
Theme Statement: You do not need everything you want to be happy, or to make those around you happy.
Author’s Purpose: Bradbury is commenting on the ability for man to overcome his greed and give to others at his own loss. He also shows mans ability to create solutions to the problems he is faced with.
Most Memorable Quote: “When the toast jumped from its silver box, Bodoni almost screamed.”
Bradbury, Ray. The Illustrated Man: The Rocket. New York, New York: Bantam Books, 1967
Summary: In Ray Bradbury’s “The Rocket’s” future, the wealthy are able to purchase tickets to visit other planets, while the poor are forced to live in shacks and work jobs that can barely support their families.
One of these poor men, named Bodoni, has long dreamed of flying in one of these ships and has saved up the money to do so. When he tells his neighbor, Bramante, he is laughed at and cursed for his idiocy. Even after this encounter, he informs his family of the opportunity, trying methods from a popular vote to drawing straws in order to decide who would take the trip. It ends in a stalemate, and Bodoni goes to work in a depressed mood. One of his clients, Mathews, Brings him a 1-1 scale aluminum replica of one of the ships. Even with his aluminum furnace broken, Bodoni takes him up on his offer. After having a moment of insanity, Bodoni is given an idea. The next morning he brings his family out to the rocket, insisting that he has fixed it and that they should go on a ride. His children jump at the opportunity, and despite the urges of his wife, Bodoni takes the children it to the machine. They go on an imaginary trip to Mars, “returning” in the morning to a newly understanding
wife.
Mikell Sherman
The Veldt
Protagonist: The Nursery; a 40x40ft. room which can take someone anywhere their mind desires. Regardless to their commands, the nursery has begun showing George and Lydia Hadley images of Africa whenever they enter the room.
Main Characters: George Hadley; married to Lydia, father of Wendy and Peter. George purchased a high-tech house for his family, only to regret the decision when it began to pull them apart and ruin his relationship with his children. Lydia Hadley: Wife and mother. Became afraid when she realized her children were replacing her with the nursery. Wendy and Peter Hadley: Children of George and Lydia. After their father purchased the nursery, the children began spending more and …show more content…
more time in the room, until they lost distinction between the room’s wonders, and reality itself. David McClean: Psychiatrist, hired by George and Lydia to assist them in breaking the children of the Nursery.
Point of view: Third Person
Setting: Undefined time in the far future, probably taking place in America, as the parents refused to allow their children to go to New York
Descriptive Adjectives; Solemn, Intense, Heavy, Thought-Invoking, Sickening
Example of Irony: The home which George bought to please his family causes his own children to kill him in the end.
Theme Statement: Sometimes trying to please those around us can lead to our own downfall.
Statement of the authors purpose: Bradbury is criticizing our growing reliance on technology, implying that technology shall eventually perform all of our daily tasks for us, from tying our shoes to caring for our children.
Most Memorable Quote: “The more I see of the mess we’ve put ourselves in, the more it sickens me. We’ve been contemplating our mechanical, electronic navels for too long”
Bradbury, Ray. The Illustrated man: The Veldt. New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1967
Plot Summary: After purchasing an electronic marvel of a house of a family, as well as a Nursery, an electronic room which allows you to experience your wildest fantasies. One day George’s wife, Lydia, calls him into the nursery, claiming she had heard a scream just minutes before. The room had been configured into an African Veldt, and lions were in the distance, leaving behind a pile of unidentifiable bones. Lydia was worried about what the children had been viewing, and George comforts her, insisting that it would be only a short lived phase. Despite Georges statement, however, the room is continuously converted into the veldt by the children, finally forcing George to turn it off. In the middle of the night, the room is turned back on, and found the next morning as the African veldt again. George calls David McClean, a psychiatrist, to investigate the room. McClean tells him to shut the room off again, and make sure it stays off, promising that within a year the children would again be well behaved. When the children see their father turn the room off, they throw a fit, and even Lydia does not fully understand George’s actions at first. The next morning, the children call for George and Lydia’s help from the nursery, and the two parents rush to their aid, however upon arrival, they find only lions, and an untimely fate.
The Other Foot
Protagonist: Unnamed White Man, comes from Earth in a spaceship and tells the civilization on Mars of the happenings which occurred since they left.
Main Characters: Hattie, wife of Willie, calm in a state of confusion and rash decision making. One of the few that thinks intelligently when the spaceship comes to Mars Willie, fueled by a hatred carried over from the Martians time on earth, successfully starts a lynching mob against the white man.
Point of View: 3rd Person
Setting: Martian Community, sometime in the future, in a reality where civil rights were never validated.
Descriptive Adjectives: Vehement, Rabid, Zealous
Examples of Irony: The lynching mob ends up thanking the white man.
Theme Statement: Mistreating others without cause, be it by race, religion, culture or lifestyle, can only ever end badly for you and your fellows.
Author’s Purpose: Bradbury wrote this story both to ridicule the then overwhelming feelings of racism, as well as warn about its outcomes.
Most Memorable Quote: “Lynch him?”… “Why, bless you, child, no! We’re going to shake his hand. Ain’t we, everyone?”
Bradbury, Ray. The Illustrated Man: The Other Foot. New York, New York: Bantam Books, 1967
Summary: In an Ray Bradbury’s ‘The Other Foot’s alternate reality where racism was never suppressed, and the Black population has moved to Mars, a white man is said to be coming in a spaceship. Fueled by an age long hatred, and painful memories of their past, the Martians retrieve their guns and rope, and set up a lynching mob at his supposed point of arrival. Focusing on the married couple of Hattie and Willie, the story tells how the white man came to the Black community, and, after convincing them not to kill him outright, he tells of an Earth in which the white man has destroyed itself, as well as the world that housed them. Answering all of their questions with messages of destruction, the man quells the crowd. They realize that all they’re doing is what was done to them years ago, and realize the self destruction of it all. Then, they return home.
The Man
Protagonist: The Town. The entire residency of this settlement has seen what they know they’ve seen, and don’t care what others say to them, and don’t bother trying to convince them of it, knowing that words can’t describe their experiences.
Main Characters: Captain Hart, officer of an expeditionary flight to find life on other planets and gain their allegiances. Lieutenant Martin: Secondary officer to Capt. Hart, Martin believes the stories he is told by the residents of the town, until he is convinced otherwise by the Captain. The Man: The representation of every monotheistic religions Deity, the Man travels from planet to planet spreading faith and good-feeling.
Point of View: 3rd Person
Setting: Unnamed planet in a distant solar system, sometime in the future.
Descriptive Adjectives: Faithful, knowing, understanding, confused.
Example of Irony: Captain Hart’s plight, being convinced of the existence of the Man, and yet not being content without having proven it to himself with his own two eyes.
Theme Statement: Not everything needs to be proven to be positive.
Authors Purpose: Bradbury is commenting on religion, focusing on the fanatical lengths some people will go to prove to others that their religion it the only true one, as well as the lengths some will go to in order to prove to themselves that their religion is indeed true.
Most Memorable Quote: “Maybe we’re looking for some peace and quiet? There’s certainly none on Earth.”
Bradbury, Ray. The Illustrated Man: The Man. New York, New York: Bantam Books, 1967
Summary: In Ray Bradbury’s “The Man”, an expeditionary trip to a planet known to contain sentient life is met with an unexpected amount of enthusiasm. None. Wondering what’s wrong with the inhabitants of this town, the flight officer, Captain Hart, sends a scout to interrogate the residents. The scout, Lieutenant Martin, returns with astounding news, stating that the day before the ships arrival an almighty being, describable only as “the Man” had visited the settlement, dwarfing the arrival of the spaceship. Enraged, Hart is convinced that the his rival flight officer had landed before him, and spread word that he was the Man. Later, that rival lands, claiming that he had not been there before. Dumbfounded, Hart furiously interrogated the inhabitants himself, being met with only an absolute sureness of the happenings of the day before. Eventually resigning himself to belief, Hart goes mad with the need to know and understand the Man, and prove to himself the existence of the being, and decides to follow him throughout the galaxy, convinced that he must eventually get there first.
The Long Rain
Protagonist: The Lieutenant, an unnamed man with the perseverance to face insurmountable odds and come out on top, as well as the courage to go on even when those around him have given up hope.
Main Characters: Pickard, an angry man who takes punishment for as long as he can, then snaps, often hurting himself as well as those around him. Simmons: A simple man, not fully understanding his purpose, but willing to hope and give hope. When presented with a shattered version of that which he sought, however, he loses his optimistic outlook, and decides not to go on.
Point of view : Omniscient
Setting: Venus, an eternally raining planet, sometime in the distant future.
Descriptive Adjectives: Hopeless, Dejected, Desolate, Disheartened
Example of Irony: That a character without a name, seemingly unimportant in the grand plot, is the one that survives and achieves his goal.
Theme Statement: No matter the odds, perseverance will often give you victory, and the loss of hope will defeat you, whether you lose or not.
Authors Purpose: Bradbury is ridiculing the pathetic state of man, the state when he has nothing he is willing to fight for, nothing to live for, so horribly dejected, that he is willing to either kill himself, or do nothing about his predicament.
Most Memorable Quote: “Even as they stood over the body, it began to vanish, for the vegetation was edging in upon it, little vines and ivy and creepers, and even flowers for the dead.”
Bradbury, Ray. The Illustrated Man: The Long Rain. New York, New York: Bantam Books, 1967
Plot Summary: In Ray Bradbury’s “The Long Rain”, a group of men is lost on Venus, a planet which, in the future, never ceases to rain. Led by a man known as “The Lieutenant”, the group has been stranded in the downpour for over 4 weeks, and is searching for a Sun Dome, a building with an artificial solar body. After wandering ceaselessly through the rain, they come upon one of the domes, only to discover that it has been wrecked by an alien race. They wander on, but the insanity of their predicament causes two of the men, Simmons and Pickard, to give up hope and invariably, to die. After losing almost all of his senses to the rain, the lieutenant finally finds a working dome, and is saved.
The Visitor
Protagonist: Leonard Mark, a man with the extraordinary ability to allow you to experience whatever you want to experience.
Main Characters: Saul Williams, a man afflicted with an incurable disease, exiled to mars to live out the remainder of his life in a monotonous experience. Jealous mind.
Point of View: 3rd Person
Setting: Mars, the future.
Descriptive Adjectives: Jealous, uncaring, unfeeling, greedy, selfish
Examples of Irony: Everyone wanted Mark to use, but nobody received his gifts.
Theme Statement: One is bound to one’s own actions.
Authors Purpose: Bradbury is commenting on the greed of the average man, as well as the invariable fact that when a man attempts to do others a service, he will often be taken for granted and used.
Most Memorable Quote: “I’m going to sit right here until those men show up. You’re a little too possessive. My life’s my own.”
Bradbury, Ray. The Illustrated Man: The Visitor. New York, New York: Bantam Books, 1967
Plot Summary: In Ray Bradbury’s “The Visitor” an incurable sickness of the future has caused the world governments to send the afflicted to Mars, in essence, to die. One such afflicted man is Leonard Mark, a man with the ability to show you whatever your mind desires. Saul Williams is the first to encounter this remarkable man, and, after being shown New York as well as one of his childhood memories, becomes possessive of Mark, and kidnaps him to a cave. The other inhabitants of the planet find them, and a fight breaks out over the possession of the man. After attempted diplomacy on Mark’s part, one of the men pulls a gun and fires. The bullet pierces Mark in the heart, and the men are forced to go about their live in the same way as they always had.
No Particular Night or Morning
Protagonist: Space, the endless void Hitchcock has found himself to be so very drawn to. In the end, the void is the only “character” able to provide a solution.
Main Characters: Hitchcock, a philosophical soul whose ideas have invaded and taken over his mind, causing him to be misunderstood and outcast by the others on the ship. Clemens, Hitchcock’s friend and one of the few who will still interact with him. Worried for his friend, Clemens decides to find him help.
Point of View: 3rd
Setting: A spaceship a great distance from Earth, in the future.
Descriptive Adjectives: Philosophical, Dark, Conclusive
Examples of Irony: When Hitchcock is sent to the psychiatrist, a mistake causes him to not only miss his appointment, but to become “one” with that which he was so arrested by.
Theme Statement: Sometimes even the person who seems to have nothing to contribute is really the one with the most brilliant ideas.
Authors Purpose: Bradbury is commenting on the relevance of philosophy in society, and on how those who think in ways previously unperceived before by those around them are often alienated and outcast.
Most Memorable Quote: “Why should I hold onto things I can’t use?”
Bradbury, Ray. The Illustrated Man: No Particular Night or Morning. New York, New York: Bantam Books, 1967
Plot Summary: On a spaceship billions of miles away from our solar system, a man named Hitchcock has lost his sanity. His views of things around him have become convoluted and lost all sense of reality. When one of his co-workers or even an entire room does not go before his eyes within 24 hours, he assumes that that entity is no longer in existence and treats it as though it were destroyed. As a last resort, his friend Clemens takes him to a psychiatrist, where a freak accident causes him to be unceremoniously dumped into space itself.
Marionettes Inc.
Protagonist: None. There is no character in this story who is solving a problem. Each has his or her own selfish agendas, and none are going towards a good cause.
Main Characters: Braling, a man who has been controlled by his wife for their entire 10 years of marriage, who was looking for a way out when he discovered a company which creates copies of their clients for use as replacements in everyday life. Smith, smothered by his spouse to the point of physical injury, and wishing for time to heal, he looks towards his own marionette, only to find that his wife had been keeping a secret from him for some time now.
Point of View: 3rd
Setting: 1990, alternate version of an American city
Descriptive Adjectives: Betrayed, Elusive, Deceptive, Confused
Examples of Irony: When Smith plans to purchase a marionette, he finds that his wife has already done so. While Braling grows further from his wife, he finds that his marionette has fallen in love with her.
Theme Statement: When you are presented with life’s problems, you don’t have the option of running away, or finding someone else to help you. You need to adapt and overcome, coming out on top or being defeated, just so long as it was your attempt and not that of another.
Author’s Purpose: Bradbury is writing about how man is continuously creating ways to perform their work easier, trying to make things easier on themselves, instead of simply doing their work themselves, the good old fashioned way.
Most Memorable Quote: “… she tore her clothes and rumpled her hair and threatened to call the police unless you married her.”
Bradbury, Ray. The Illustrated Man: Marionettes Inc.. New York, New York: Bantam Books, 1967
Summary: In Ray Bradbury’s “Marionettes Inc.”, when a man named Braling has had enough of his wife’s over controlling attitude, he decides that it would be easier than divorce to purchase a mechanical copy of himself, a marionette. After going for a night out with one of his friend, Smith, his friend questions him on how he finally managed to get his wife to allow him a night out. Deciding it would be easier to show him, Braling brings his friend to his home and calls out the marionette, an exact replica of Braling, the only difference being the mechanical sound of the heart. Deciding he must get one for himself, Smith returns to his own home and accesses his bank account to purchase one for himself. Finding ten thousand dollars missing, he turns to his wife for an explanation, only to have a revelation and listen to her heart, hearing only a soft ticking noise. Braling’s marionette, requesting an audience with his master, rattles of a long list of the ways he’s been mistreated. In a final revelation, he says that he thinks he is in love with Braling’s wife, before locking Braling in the very box which he had been kept in, and then “loses” the key.
The Fire Balloons
Protagonist: Father Peregrine, a man that is not afraid to challenge the generic customs and beliefs of his peers and church. While this often leads to the questioning of his religious sturdiness, he continues with his philosophies, and plans to outreach to the strange new species on mars.
Main Characters: Father Stone, religiously the exact opposite of Father Peregrine, afraid an worried to change his own beliefs at all, and worried for Peregrine when he philosophizes about sin and virtue.
Point of view: Omniscient
Setting: Mars, the future, near a human settlement.
Descriptive Adjectives: Exploratory, Non-Conforming, Religious
Examples of Irony: None
Theme Statement: Often, reaching out to those outcast by society can be a rewarding experience.
Author’s Purpose: Bradbury is commenting on the drive of every religion to convert others to their faith, showing how each church will do many things to show that their way is the right way.
Most Memorable Quote: “Shouldn’t we solve our own sins on Earth. Aren’t we running from our lives here?”
Bradbury, Ray. The Illustrated Man: The Fire Balloons. New York, New York: Bantam Books, 1967
Plot Summary: In Ray Bradbury’s “The Fire Balloons”, a missionary trip to Mars causes two Reverends, Father Peregrine and Father Stone, to reach out to a race of floating blue orbs. After first contact, the orbs save the two reverends from and avalanche, convincing Father Peregrine of their having souls. Just to prove the fact, he attempts to commit suicide, only to have the orbs save his life, not only from jumping off a cliff, but also from shooting himself. Seeing them not as beings but as human beings, Father Peregrine brings his findings back to his superiors and convinces them to build a church, changing the symbols of Christianity, but not the meaning. When the church is built, the orbs come only to share a message. The orbs were, in fact, men. They had left their bodies behind and were now pure beings, free of sin, living in the glory of god.
The Last Night of the World
Protagonist: None. The people of this story are simply waiting for the end, knowledgeable to the finish that they are being presented with.
Main Characters: Unnamed man, with a feeling that he shared with his coworkers of the end of the world. Not a violent end, or really a calm one, just an ending as that of a film or an article. Unnamed woman, married to the man, who is told by him of the end. She had not had the premonitions shared by many around her, though she did believe the man when he told her.
Setting: One night before the end of the world, October 19th, 1969, in the home of a married couple.
Descriptive Adjectives: Final, Complete, Conclusive, Done
Examples of Irony: Even faced with an immanent ending to their lives, or perhaps because of it, the citizens do not change their schedules, or panic, or cry, or even bother to stay awake. They accept what is going to happen and sleep.
Theme Statement: Sometimes the ending is nothing but a simple change of venue, not to be feared or avoided, but accepted and conformed to.
Authors Purpose: Bradbury is admiring human resilience, and the ability of mankind to adapt to the happenstances about them, and overcome or accept the consequences of actions that may not be their own.
Most Memorable Quote: “Good night.”
Bradbury, Ray. The Illustrated Man: The Last Night of the World, New York, New York, Bantam Books, 1969
Summary: In Ray Bradbury’s “The Last Night of the World, It is one night before the end of the world. People all over the planet have the feeling that the end is about to happen. In one home, a man tells his wife of what is going to happen. They discuss what they believe the rest of the world is going to do, and then simply go to bed.
The Rocket
Protagonist: Bodoni, a father of many children and a man barely keeping his head over the waters of poverty. He has long dreamed of flying to Mars in a rocket, and wants the same for his family.
Main Characters: Bramante, a pessimistic old man who was alive when the rockets first began flying through the sky. He warns Bodoni of his idiocy in thinking of sending only one of his family to Mars.
Point of View: Limited Omniscient
Setting: Earth, the future, in Bodoni’s home and junkyard.
Descriptive Adjectives: Imaginative, Loving, Entertaining, Inventive
Example of Irony: Even after deciding that Bramante was right, Bodoni still tells his family of the possibility for one of them to go on a rocket, just to have them collectively turn him down.
Theme Statement: You do not need everything you want to be happy, or to make those around you happy.
Author’s Purpose: Bradbury is commenting on the ability for man to overcome his greed and give to others at his own loss. He also shows mans ability to create solutions to the problems he is faced with.
Most Memorable Quote: “When the toast jumped from its silver box, Bodoni almost screamed.”
Bradbury, Ray. The Illustrated Man: The Rocket. New York, New York: Bantam Books, 1967
Summary: In Ray Bradbury’s “The Rocket’s” future, the wealthy are able to purchase tickets to visit other planets, while the poor are forced to live in shacks and work jobs that can barely support their families.
One of these poor men, named Bodoni, has long dreamed of flying in one of these ships and has saved up the money to do so. When he tells his neighbor, Bramante, he is laughed at and cursed for his idiocy. Even after this encounter, he informs his family of the opportunity, trying methods from a popular vote to drawing straws in order to decide who would take the trip. It ends in a stalemate, and Bodoni goes to work in a depressed mood. One of his clients, Mathews, Brings him a 1-1 scale aluminum replica of one of the ships. Even with his aluminum furnace broken, Bodoni takes him up on his offer. After having a moment of insanity, Bodoni is given an idea. The next morning he brings his family out to the rocket, insisting that he has fixed it and that they should go on a ride. His children jump at the opportunity, and despite the urges of his wife, Bodoni takes the children it to the machine. They go on an imaginary trip to Mars, “returning” in the morning to a newly understanding
wife.