Ray Bradbury – Page 2 – Interesting Literature

A Summary and Analysis of Ray Bradbury’s ‘The Highway’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Highway’ is from 1950: an early short story by Ray Bradbury (1920-2012). In just a few pages, Bradbury gives us one of his earliest responses to the atom bomb and nuclear Armageddon.

Bradbury is widely recognised as one of the greatest – and most lyrical – science-fiction writers of the twentieth century, although he preferred to describe himself as a ‘fantasy writer’ or simply as a ‘writer’. Although he is known for novels such as the dystopian classic Fahrenheit 451 and the horror novel Something Wicked This Way Comes, much of Ray Bradbury’s best work was in the short-story form.

A Summary and Analysis of Ray Bradbury’s ‘The Long Rain’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Long Rain’ is one of the best-known and most widely studied short stories by the American writer Ray Bradbury (1920-2012). Although Bradbury preferred to describe himself as a ‘fantasy’ writer, this story is most accurately categorised as science fiction. It was originally published (under the title ‘Death-by-Rain’) in the magazine Planet Stories in 1950, and is set in a jungle on Venus where four stranded astronauts attempt to reach the safety of the ‘Sun Dome’.

A Summary and Analysis of Ray Bradbury’s ‘All Summer in a Day’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘All Summer in a Day’ is a 1954 short story by Ray Bradbury (1920-2012). The story is set on Venus, where the sun only comes out once every seven years for a couple of hours; the rest of the time, the sun is hidden behind clouds and rains fall constantly. ‘All Summer in a Day’ is about a group of schoolchildren who have grown up on Venus, the sons and daughters of ‘rocket men and women’ who came to the planet from Earth, as the children prepare to experience the first ‘summer’ on Venus that they can remember.

The Symbolism of Bradbury’s ‘The Veldt’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Ray Bradbury’s classic short story ‘The Veldt’ (1952) is about a nursery in an automated home in which a simulation of the African veldt is conjured by some children. In a grim development, the lions which appear in the nursery start to feel rather more real than merely ‘simulated’ – and the story ends with a touch of horror.

Bradbury’s ‘The Veldt’: Key Themes Explained

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Ray Bradbury’s classic short story ‘The Veldt’ (1952) is about a nursery in an automated home in which a simulation of the African veldt is conjured by some children, who have only to ‘think’ the landscape into being for it to appear around them. The lions which appear in the nursery start to feel rather more real than merely ‘simulated’ – and the story ends on a chilling note.