A Literary Analysis of All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury
Imagine living your whole life without ever seeing the sun. What would it be like to see rain everyday of your life? In All Summer In a Day, by Ray Bradbury, that is what all the children live like except Margot. Bradbury explores what it would be like for children to be born on and live their whole lives on another planet without ever seeing the sun. Bradbury also shows how selfish and hateful the human race can be just because someone is different from everyone else. He also shows that guilt is a consequence of being selfish and hateful. This story takes place on the planet Venus, where thousands upon thousands of days compounded and filled from one end to the other with rain, with the drum and gush of water, with the sweet crystal fall of showers, and the concussion of storms so heavy they were tidal waves that come over the islands. On Venus, there is no sunlight. It rains everyday and the people live in underground cities. As the story begins, Margot and her classmates are nine years old. Scientists have predicted that every seven years the sun will come out for one hour. None of the other children every remember seeing the sun. Margot does and because of this they despise her. She hates living on Venus and wants to go back to her former life on Earth. Before the sun comes out, the teacher leaves and the children lock Margot in a closet.
When the sun comes out, they forget about Margot and go outside to play for the one hour they can spend in the sun. When the sun leaves and the rain returns, they come back inside and remember Margot is still in the closet. They let her out and she leaves in silence. Margot is a nine-year-old girl who lived in Ohio. When she was four years old her family decided to move to Venus. She hates living there and wont associate with any of the other children. Margot is a round and static character. She stays the same throughout the whole story. She doesnt understand why the other children dont like her and she just wants to go back to Earth. The children in her class are flat and dynamic characters. They are full of hatred towards her because she is different from all of them. They have always lived on Venus and she lived on Earth. They never believe anything she says about the sun. The children hated her for all these reasons of big and little consequence. They hated her pale snow face, her waiting silence, her thinness, and her possible future. They change when they remember they locked Margot in the closet. They stood as if someone had driven them, like so many stakes, into the floor. They feel horrible about what they have done and finally understand why seeing the sun is something important that Margot longs for, once they have seen the sun themselves. The main conflict, or opposing forces, of the story involves Margot and her classmates. Margot has a man versus society conflict with them. Whenever she mentions what the sun looks like they say, Youre lying, you dont remember! She remembers exactly what it looks like. She separates herself from them as she stood quietly apart from all of them and watched the patterning windows. When they play tag, if one of them tagged her, she stood blinking after them and did not follow.
Only when the class sang songs about the sun and summer did her lips move as she watched the drenched windows. The author uses diction, or word choice, to help convey a clear picture of what the children are like. The children speak like adults. One of the boys says to Margot, Speak when you are spoken to. This gives the reader the impression that the children are very intelligent and well educated. The author uses the setting, which is the time and place of the story, and situation, which involves the setting, atmosphere, and circumstances of the story to give the reader a mood, or the feeling a reader gets, of sadness and compassion. She remembered the sun and the way the sun was and the sky was when she was four in Ohio. The reader feels sorry for the children because they live such isolated and lonely lives. The narrators tone, which is the attitude of the speaker, is one of sadness. When it begins to rain again, the reader can sense how emotional it is for the children.
They turned and started to walk back toward the underground house, their hands at their sides, their smiles vanishing away. Its the one thing they have been waiting for all their lives. When the children remember they locked Margot in the closet, the readers heart goes out to her. Seeing the sun is the one thing she has wished for the entire time she is living there and the children cause her to miss it, by locking her in the closet. This story is told in the third person point of view. The narrator is omniscient so the reader knows everything, including the thoughts of all the characters. This gives the reader an opportunity to know how Margot longs to go back and live on Earth. It also lets the reader know how much the other children hate and despise Margot. Imagery, which is the use of figurative language, helps the reader understand the childrens circumstances and their feelings in the story. The author uses similes many times in the story to give the reader a vivid picture of what is happening. The children pressed to each other like so many roses, gives the reader the impression that all the children are trying to look out the window to see the sun. The author also uses metaphors to give the reader an idea of what the children think the sun looks like. I think the sun is a flower, was Margots opinion. The author uses sensory imagery, which are words that give the reader an image in his/her mind using one of the five senses, to describe the sun when it comes out.
It was the color of flaming bronze, and the sky around it was a blazing blue tile color, are phrases the author uses to describe the long awaited event. The author uses foreshadowing by saying, she was different and they knew her difference and kept away. This foreshadowed, hinted of some future event, that Margot wasnt going to get to see the sun that day. The author uses the sun and the rain as forms of symbolism, which is a form of imagery that the author uses to make an object, event, or character represent a concept beyond its own literal meaning. The rain represents peoples ordinary lives. The sun represents the special moments people shouldnt miss in their lives. If a person is too caught up in the past and all the horrible things that happen, they may miss out on the happy times. People need to live in the present and make the most of every opportunity they have. When people have a willingness to accept the bad with the good, then they usually attain those things that are truly worthwhile. The theme of this story is that people should be grateful for every moment they have. They should cherish every situation because they never know when someone may die or something may happen that could change your life forever. In this story, the author shows the struggles that people have because of their selfishness and hatred. Living in the present and helping each other through life is the key to living a successful and happy life.
