What do you find particularly striking about the ways in which Bradbury presents a vision of the future in There Will Come Soft Rains? Support your answer by close reference to the story.

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (May/June 2010). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. We require more than a narrative here.
2. The key to a good answer will be well selected detail and an exploration of the writing and way in which the story is put together.
3. The tone of the piece might be described as elegiac, almost biblical in places, and the descriptions are extremely visual and sensuous.
4. Of course the dominant impression is one of a lack of human life.
5. The house, i.e. the machines have taken over; the only indication of life being a dog and the odd bird and the mice 'sensing decay at last'.
6. Man has created the machines for his convenience and now has been overcome by them.
7. The Sarah Teasdale poem has come to pass – 'No one would mind...If mankind perished utterly'.