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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. What causes the fire to eventually win the battle with the house?
2. "Mr. Featherstone" is an example of what literary technique?
3. What does the house provide after dinner?
4. What does the dog do once it gets inside the house?
5. What causes the house to temporarily "give up" as the fire spreads?
Short Essay Questions
1. Explain the significance of the nursery decor.
2. In what way is the house's "speech" like nursery rhymes, and what is the purpose of this choice?
3. Explain how the pun in the line "The morning house lay empty" explains why the house is empty and foreshadows the story's later revelation of the family's fate.
4. How does Bradbury use the dates on which the story takes place as a form of foreshadowing?
5. Explain the allusion to Odysseus's dog and how it functions in the story.
6. What is the intended effect of juxtaposing the images of the silhouettes with the description of the house's continued paranoia about intruders?
7. Explain the purpose of the story's allusion to Longfellow's poem "The Children's Hour."
8. How do the cleaning mice allude to Cinderella, and what is the purpose of this allusion?
9. What is ironic about Bradbury's use of rain in this story?
10. What are the poses of the people in their silhouettes on the side of the house, and why are they important to notice?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Analyze the use of irony in "There Will Come Soft Rains." Explain both how irony is created and what purpose it serves in conveying meaning.
Essay Topic 2
The narrator of "There Will Come Soft Rains" is a very traditional third-person narrator, taking a removed and seemingly unbiased stance on the events of the story. But is that actually the case? What evidence do you see that the narrator actually does have an opinion about these events?
Essay Topic 3
Bradbury uses details in his story that create a portrait of a comfortable, middle-class family of the mid-twentieth century. Bridge, cigars, egg-salad, martinis, and surprisingly large breakfasts all help create this picture. Of course, these details are less relevant to today's audience. If you were rewriting "There Will Come Soft Rains" for today's audiences and wanted to include details that would immediately tell the reader "This is a middle-class family that likes its creature comforts," what details would you include, and why?
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This section contains 1,210 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) |
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