Ishaat Hossain 701

“All Summer in a Day” Ray Bradbury

Short Story Analysis

Have you ever had a privilege torn away from you, well in the science fiction
story “All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury that is exactly what happens to a little girl
named Margot. Mans inhumanity towards other man is created from the setting of Venus
and the non- stop rain. Another thing that builds up to this theme is Margots’ Timidity.
Those are some of things that lead up to the idea of mans’ inhumanity towards other man.

In the story “All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury Margot moved to Venus at
the age of 5. In Venus there is non stop rain, the last time all the children saw the sun
was seven years ago. But on the other hand Margot saw the sun last 5 years ago when she
moved to Venus. Then came one day where scientist predicted that the sun will come out.
But the children especially William deceived Margot of the fact that the sun will come
up. They locked her in the closet and didn’t let her out until the sun went down again. In
the end when they let her out of the closet she just walked away.

Mans inhumanity to man is expressed through Margot’s traits and the setting.
Margot is a very shy quiet girl but when it comes to the sun, she is passionate and
dedicated. Many of the kids such as William use Margots’ shyness against her, for
example William knew that Margot wouldn’t be able to fight back so he proceeded and
shoved her in the closet. Ray Bradbury reveals Margots’ dominant traits through her
inactions for example her not taking a shower which shows her fear or burden over the
rain. Margot is ostracized because she has more knowledge of the sun then the other
children. Venus’ rainy bland climate affects the characters in many ways. One way is
since it doesn’t stop raining the kids don’t have any memory of the sun, which drives the
kids to be jealous of Margot. The climate affects Margots personality by making her
depressed because she is so used to the sun and the outdoors that now she is deprived of it
she cant get over it.

This story affects me in many ways. One way it affects me is it shows what
extremes bullying can get to. This short story also showed me how normal things to us
may be another persons dreams. There are many ways to treat people. One way is to treat
people equal to yourself and nicely, while you can also treat people how they treat
Margot meanly like an outside or an “alien.” This story taught me that everything has a
limit and if you exceed that limit people may get hurt. Lastly the story shows that
children (as angels as they might look) can really hurt someone both mentally and
physically, and also this shows that children all have a jealousy problem.