When the house catches on fire, for example, the flames start “baking off the oily flesh” of “Picassos and Matisses,” destroying artwork by two of the most influential painters of the 19th and 20th centuries. In only a few moments, it can undo work that took centuries to create. Its lonely end, then, leaves the reader with a sense of loss, and underscores the unfeeling, indiscriminate nature of death. When the family dog approaches the house, Bradbury quickly establishes it as a sympathetic figure by saying it is “whining, shivering” and that it “ran upstairs, hysterically yelping” in search of its owners. In particular, the ball pictured midair “which never came down” emphasizes how instantaneous this death was-faster than gravity.ĭeath is also indifferent. Nothing in the story suggests that the family knew that this moment would be its last. Their bodies incinerated, and all that remains are their white silhouettes on the side of the house. The father, mother, and two children were all engaged in regular occupations when an atomic bomb exploded. Death can come in “one titanic instant,” as it does for the McClellan family. When coupled with the unpredictability and finality of death, however, this obsession with controlling time appears both misguided and futile.īradbury depicts multiple instances of death to underscore that there is no way to control or subdue it. The ever-ticking clock announcing every hour suggests the McClellan family’s tendency towards efficiency and control down to the minute. Related to this relentless dying, Bradbury emphasizes the omnipresence of time, structuring the story around the house’s automated announcement of each hour of the day.
The reader encounters the death of the McClellan family, their dog, their city, and the house. Set in a post-apocalyptic landscape, this story presents death as pervasive.
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