Each author works hard to create a strong atmosphere in order to support his specific message. By using foreshadowing and setting, Ray Bradbury is able to produce a mysterious and vacant atmosphere in his short story, “There Will Come Soft Rains”. Ray Bradbury further supports his theme of how technology can be beneficial to mankind, however, it can also pose as a potential detriment to the human race and has the ability to take over and destroy lives. Ray Bradbury’s message is a warning to all that, in the future, humans will become too reliant on technology, eventually leading to the end of all life on Earth.
Ray Bradbury skillfully uses foreshadowing in order to create a mysterious and vacant atmosphere supporting his theme of the convenience of our advanced technology, but cautioning us that the misuse of technology will lead to the demise of the human race. By using foreshadowing Ray Bradbury is able to create hints or clues as to what will occur, or what did occur. This use of foreshadowing creates a mysterious feeling the reader experiences throughout the book. The short story begins with a clock that announces the time to the house and family, and tells them that it is time to get up. The voice clock sang in an almost worriedly tone, "[...]Tick-Tock, seven o’clock, time to get up, time to get up, seven o’clock! as if it were afraid that nobody would" (Bradbury 1). The clock foreshadows two different things, the unveiling of something wrong that has already happened, and something wrong that is still yet to happen. The clock, an inanimate object, is essentially afraid that no one would get up when it asks, and that no one will react to its call, which leads the reader to think something terrible has already happened. Every paragraph seems to bring us back to this clock by continuously stating the time of day. This in itself acts as a count down to a tragic event in the story that is yet to happen. The author used