Plot
The house and it's functions are introduced.
What is exposition?
"Today is August 5, 2026, today is August 5, 2026, today is. . ."
What is repetition?
The protagonist.
What is the house?
"in the city of Allendale, California"
What is the place (geographic location)?
The conflict.
Technology v Nature
The house collapses, leaving smoke and ruins as the sun rises.
What is the falling action?
"The fire backed off, as even an elephant must at the sight of a dead snake"
What is a simile?
The antagonist
What is the fire (or nature)?
"Today is August 4, 2026"
What is the time?
The point of view of the story.
What is third person narration?
The nuclear bomb is revealed, the dog dies, and the house catches on fire.
What is the rising action?
The type of figurative language displayed when the author references the poem "There Will Come Soft Rains" within his short story.
What is an allusion?
A flat character
What is the dog or nature?
"It was raining outside. The weather box on the front door sang quietly: 'Rain, rain, go away; rubbers, raincoats for today. . . "
The theme.
Nature is more powerful than anything man can create, including technology
The house falls in on itself
What is the climax?
"And there was the patter of okapifeet and the murmur of a fresh jungle rain, like other hoofs, falling upon the summer-starched grass. Now the walls dissolved into distances of parched grass, mile on mile, and warm endless sky "
What is imagery?
"it had shut up its windows and drawn shades in an old-maidenly preoccupation with self-protection which bordered on a mechanical paranoia."
What is indirect characterization?
"The house stood alone in a city of rubble and ashes. This was the one house left standing. At night the ruined city gave off a radioactive glow which could be seen for miles.
What are the social conditions?
The type of pov?
What is third person omniscient?
The theme of the story is revealed.
What is resolution?
"Now the fire lay in beds, stood in windows, changed the colors of drapes!"
What is personification?
"The dog, once huge and fleshy, but now gone to bone and covered with sores, moved in and through the house, tracking mud. "
What is direct characterization?
The feeling created at the beginning of the story.
Unsettling; lonely
"Tick-tock, seven o'clock, time to get up, time to get up, seven o'clock!"
What is chronological order?