125 pages • 4 hours read
Ray BradburyA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Summary
“January 1999: Rocket Summer”
“February 1999: Ylla”
“August 1999: The Summer Night”
“August 1999: The Earth Men”
“March 2000: The Taxpayer”
“April 2000: The Third Expedition”
“June 2001: —And the Moon Be Still as Bright”
“August 2001: The Settlers”
“December 2001: The Green Morning”
“February 2002: The Locusts”
“August 2002: Night Meeting”
“October 2002: The Shore”
“February 2003: Interim”
“April 2003: The Musicians”
“June 2003: Way in the Middle Air”
“2004-2005: The Naming of Names”
“April 2005: Usher II”
“August 2005: The Old Ones”
“September 2005: The Martian”
“November 2005: The Luggage Store”
“November 2005: The Off Season”
“November 2005: The Watchers”
“December 2005: The Silent Towns”
“April 2026: The Long Years”
“August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains”
“October 2026: The Million-Year Picnic”
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
As settlers progress across Mars, they give places of significance American names, memorializing the former expeditions and those who gave their lives for the cause of human settlement. The Martian names, which were “names of water and air and hills […] names of snows that emptied south in stone canals to fill the empty seas” (136), are contrasted against the American names, which are “all the mechanical names and metal names from Earth” (136). After the natural spaces and towns are named, the graveyards are named next.
Once the landscape has been made “safe and certain” (136), another wave of emigrants arrives. Many are tourists, who shop for trinkets and pose for staged photographs, and others are “sophisticates,” who import from Earth the rules and regulations of their societies and infringe upon the lives of those who had originally fled Earth to escape its social structures and sociological regimes. This creates further pushback, setting up conditions for a culture clash.
A subtler yet more enduring conquering occurs when the dominant language is impressed across the land. The hills and forests and mountains, all named for members of previous expeditions, are fully taken from their indigenous inhabitants when they bear the names of their conquerors.
By Ray Bradbury
A Graveyard for Lunatics
A Graveyard for Lunatics
Ray Bradbury
All Summer In A Day
All Summer In A Day
Ray Bradbury
A Sound Of Thunder
A Sound Of Thunder
Ray Bradbury
Dandelion Wine
Dandelion Wine
Ray Bradbury
Dark They Were, and Golden Eyed
Dark They Were, and Golden Eyed
Ray Bradbury
Death is a Lonely Business
Death is a Lonely Business
Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury
Marionettes, Inc.
Marionettes, Inc.
Ray Bradbury
Selected from Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed
Selected from Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed
Ray Bradbury
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Ray Bradbury
The Halloween Tree
The Halloween Tree
Ray Bradbury
The Illustrated Man
The Illustrated Man
Ray Bradbury
The Other Foot
The Other Foot
Ray Bradbury
The Pedestrian
The Pedestrian: A Fantasy in One Act
Ray Bradbury
There Will Come Soft Rains
There Will Come Soft Rains
Ray Bradbury
The Toynbee Convector
The Toynbee Convector
Ray Bradbury
The Veldt
The Veldt
Ray Bradbury
Zero Hour
Zero Hour
Ray Bradbury