One of the key elements of this story is the theme that technology and human innovation can be destructive. This theme would not be as effective if the story were set in the past, where there was no such technology.
We do not know exactly what happened in “There Will Come Soft Rains,” but we know that the event was some kind of catastrophic nuclear event. We can tell this from the description of the people and what happened to them.
The water pelted windowpanes, running down the charred west side where the house had been burned evenly free of its white paint. The entire west face of the house was black, save for five places. Here the silhouette in paint of a man mowing a lawn. Here, as in a photograph, a woman bent to pick 3 flowers.
The man, woman, and their children have turned into spots of paint. That is some kind of serious explosion. That and the house’s automation are related in Bradbury’s exploration of the theme. The house is fully automated, which is advanced technology. It is some of the same advanced technology that killed the family.
The irony of it is that technology killed the family, and technology is at work in the house continuing on in its business without the family even being there. The house is not aware that the family is gone. It just does what it was programmed to do.
Until this day, how well the house had kept its peace. How carefully it had inquired, "Who goes there? What's the password?" and, getting no answer from lonely foxes and whining cats, it had shut up its windows and drawn shades in an old maidenly preoccupation with self-protection which bordered on a mechanical paranoia.
This situation would be completely different if the story took place in the past. Yes, a war could still kill the family. However, the cause of the family’s death would be a different message to society. There would be no automated house.
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