Y9: Dystopian Short Stories 2 (Week 4)

Hello Year 9!

I hope you enjoyed Harrison Bergeron last week. Before you go any further with this week’s work, have a go at this dystopia recap quiz.

This week, we’re going to look at another great short story (and maybe even two!)

There’s a lot of work here. Just have a go at the main tasks and do as much or as little of the extension work as you like.

Title: There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury

This story comes from a collection called The Martian Chronicles, which explores the colonisation of other worlds by human beings once we’ve wrecked our own. This story, however, is set on Earth in the year 2026.

Before you read the story, take a look at this picture. What inferences can we draw about the story?

You can read the story here and listen to an audio recording by Leonard Nimoy here. There’s even a comic book version!

When you’ve read the story, make sure you’ve written the title and date, then have a go at the following tasks:

1) What do we learn about the house before ‘Ten o’ clock’ strikes (on page 1)? 

2) What has happened to the world in the story? 

3) Would this have been a good future to live in before the 'event'? Explain your view.

4) At what point to we start to realise that all is not well?

5) Although the family is gone, the house is very much alive at the start of the story. Find 2 or 3 quotations that show how Bradbury gives the house 'life'. Comment on the effect of each one.

6) There are no human characters in the story, but there is still pathos (pity/sympathy). Find the saddest moment in the story - and explain. Can you explain how Bradbury achieved this effect?

7) What is the connection between the poem and the story?

8) What is the Ray Bradbury's message in writing this story?

• If you’d like an extra challenge related to There Will Come Soft Rains, have a go at this optional essay writing task.
• Find out more about Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles here.

Extension: The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

• Read Ursula Le Guin’s short dystopian story, The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas.
• Build sentences around the following fragments: 
  
  
   - describes a utopian world in which
  
  
   - the dark twist in the story
  
  
   - by the end of the story
  
  
   - i would/would not be one of the ones who walk away from omelas because
   
  
• Read this article about the story.
• Read this interview with Ursula Le Guin. 

• You can find more questions and tasks on this short story here. (These are all completely optional extras.)

So, would you walk away from Omelas?  

Leave your comments below. And feel free to comment on either short story.

That’s all for this week, folks. We’ll be back with another dystopian short story next week, and then after half-term, we’ll be launching into a dystopian novel.

Stay safe,

THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT