Ray Bradbury’s There Will Come Soft Rains and James...

Ray Bradbury’s There Will Come Soft Rains and James Tiptree Jr.s The Last Flight of Dr. Ain - Probable Futures of our World Since the beginning of time mankind has predicted the end of the universe. From early Christians to science fiction authors of the 20th century, each generation has had its own vision of how life on earth will cease to exist. In earlier times though, most apocalyptic ideas consisted of the hand of God, or God’s figures punishing humankind for its sins and ending human existence. However, in the mid-twentieth century many more scientific ideas of the apocalypse appeared. Ray Bradbury’s There Will Come Soft Rains, which was published in 1950, is a post-nuclear apocalyptic tale. The Last Flight of Dr.†¦show more content†¦Here the silhouette of a man mowing a lawn. Here, as in a photograph, a woman bent to pick flowers. Still farther over, the images burned upon the wood in one titanic instant, a small boy, hands flung into the air; higher up, the image of a thrown ball, and opposite him a girl, hands raised to catch a ball which never came down (719). Through these vivid images Bradbury gives an excellent example of the devastating God-like powers of nuclear weapons. Hopefully, this story will never become a reality, but even though the U.S. is cutting back on its nuclear weapons, several other nations continue stockpiling weapons in the arms race. If this continues, anything is possible. As the arms race builds in the world the threat of nuclear warfare grows and grows everyday. There could be a new Cold War on the horizon, but not between the United States and Russia. Many countries that never had nuclear technology in the past are now attaining the knowledge and resources that they need to build up their arsenal. A perfect example of this is the situation between India and Pakistan. These two countries have been fighting each other for many years. Recently, each gained nuclear technology for warheads. Now, instead of just fighting and arguing with each other, they have nuclear warheads aimed at each other. Any day the conflict could grow out of control, and the two neighbors could both end up as the world did in There Will Come Soft Rains. The last