 Hello and welcome to a summary of all you need to know about There Will Come Soft Trains by Ray Bradbury. I'll explain the meaning of this story as it appears in stories of ourselves, the University of Cambridge International Examination Anthology of Short Stories in English. I'll begin with some context about the author of the story before explaining the plot in a nutshell. I will then analyse the story and then highlight important themes that you should be aware of when studying this text. Do bear in mind that we have a stories of ourselves course that goes into depth on these stories so do make sure you also sign up for this course. So let's get started. Now to begin with, when it comes to Ray Bradbury, he was born in 1920 and he died in 2012. He worked on a variety of genres including fantasy, science fiction, horror and mystery fiction. And Bradbury himself cited H. G. Wells and Jules Verne as his primary science fiction influences. Bradbury identified with Verne saying, he believes that human beings in a strange situation in a very strange world and he believes that we can triumph by behaving morally. Now let's begin by looking at the plot of There Will Come Soft Trains. Now it's August of 2026 in California. There's a fully automated house which announces that it's time to wake up. Yet the house is empty. Breakfast is automatically made and there's no one there to eat it. Outside where the automatic sprinklers come on, a wall can be seen where the paint has all been burnt off except for a few silhouettes. There's a silhouette of a man and a woman doing yard work and of a boy and a girl throwing a ball. The rest of the neighborhood is charred and flattened and a radioactive glow hangs over the city. Now a dog enters the house covered with sores and then later dies and the robotic mice that automatically clean the house take the dog away to the incinerator. And as the evening comes, the house will automatically read the woman's favorite poem, we don't know who, but the favorite poem is called There Will Come Soft Trains. Now this poem describes how, once man is utterly destroyed because of a wall, nature will carry on and go on without man as if nothing had happened. Later that night, a tree bough falls on the house causing a fire that consumes all of the house except for just one wall. Now when it comes to analyzing this story, so the title itself, The Will Come Soft Trains, is titled after the randomly selected poem read by the house which is an actual poem published by Sarah Teesdale. The poem communicates the idea that nature will outlast humanity and thrive once man's civilizations have been destroyed. The choice of the poem is ironic considering that the house's family has actually been destroyed already, the silhouettes were burned into the side of the house after the nuclear explosion. Now the publication date of the story, May 6th, 1950, is actually temporarily significant so this is another important piece of contextual information. This is because the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan took place in August 1945 just at the end of the Second World War and this is just five years prior to Bradbury's story's publication date. Now within the story there are allusions to this event in both the overall themes of the story as well as the details of the story. As I mentioned before, a silhouette of each family member was burnt into the side of the house which commonly actually occurred in Japan after individuals were vaporized by the atomic bombs. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were still seared into the public's memory and Bradbury draws upon this common knowledge base in the story. Also not only is there irony in the house's selection of the poem, The Will Come Soft Trains, but there's also irony in the story itself. Even though nature and the automated house are able to continue for some time, the house eventually crumbles into rubble and can no longer function. Even though the poem insists that nature will not only survive but thrive after the end of humans, nature is actually quite bleak outside of the house. The dog, obese by nature, is starving and covered in sores. Now Bradbury's focus on automation and technological advancement showcases in this story as well. The house does everything for the family and it's through the house's behavior that we learn more about the people who once lived there but have her for course passed away. Despite the wonders of automated living, its mindlessness also shows. Even if the house is burning down, the kitchen stove continues to churn out breakfast food because it confuses the fire in golfing the food with humans eating it and the house can be supposedly do anything but it can't even save itself. Now when it comes to the themes of this story, the first is the benefits and dangers of technology. Now there are positives of technology. Now the level of technology for instance allows people to live fairly carefree at least whilst they're at home and this is of course shown through the house which can basically do everything. Now throughout the house takes care of many things and this increases people's leisure time as well as their convenience. It issues alerts for waking up, meal times, the date, personal reminders, the weather and departure times. The house also prepares meals and clears a table and cleans the house at preset times and when the need arises. It opens and closes the garage door, waters the garden and provides security. It also sets up the table's chairs and cards for a game. The nursery produces a show of sights and sounds for the children. The house chooses the day with a relaxing evening routine and the house also has an impressive defense against the fire that starts. So this is all the benefits of technology. However there is a downside, the bad side of technology. So whilst the story is full of details about its benefits, its main point is also the dangers inherent in technology. So this house is the only one left standing in the city, possibly in the whole world. A technological advance that has been made possible. A nuclear blast as suggested by the Radioactive Glow has also levelled everything else and there's obviously a disparity between the stakes involved, advancements in technology that can improve quality of life but equally other advancements that can end life. So nuclear blasts and nuclear technology, this is also advancements in technology but they can also end life. Also to be less charitable, advancements can improve the quality of life but not the quality of the people using them. Now the other theme is the insignificance of humans. Now the world in the story hasn't come to an end, just simply human life. It's only human life that's come to an end. Now from what we can see, the earth wouldn't be worse off for this change. All the current damage on earth has actually been done by people, by humans. Now once the humans have all died off, earth's natural processes will have time to undo their damage and although humans built their technology, they're not actually important to this technology. The house essentially continues functioning as it's programmed to do humans or no humans and the fact that humans aren't there to benefit from it is actually irrelevant. Likewise nature seems uninterested in humans, the earth can't notice that the humans are actually gone. Any animal or insect life that survived the blast can focus on its own survival without facing any threats from people. Now the same lack of regard is seen over the death of the dog which as a domesticated animal living off humans can be included in the human realm. It dies without anything, caring and is disposed without ceremony. It's disposed without its owners crying over it. For the mechanical mice, this dog is no different from any other mess that needs cleaning and ultimately humans need to care about their survival because nothing else does. So that's all, if you found this video summary useful do make sure you sign up for our stories of ourselves course and also check out our website which is www.firstreadtutors.com where you can find plenty of other English revision worksheets, model answers and online courses covering all the major syllabus including edxl, aq and igcse. Thanks so much for watching.