This story felt so strange to me. Everyone, or at least all adults, have been told through a dream that this night would be the last of the world. Yet, everyone had so simply accepted it. There was no extreme behaviors. It was not even being reported on the news. I feel like we panic at the unknown. In this story, everyone has been given the same information. Initially, when the information is seemingly just their own, the characters are distant, “'looking at their desks or their hands or out windows.'”. Once they begin to share their thoughts and determine they have all had the same dream, a calm comes over them. There is no more uncertainty, there is only acceptance.
I do like how the husband and wife choose to keep a normal evening routine and fall asleep holding hands, but i still feel an awkward emptiness with the girls in their own rooms down the hall from them. I would need to be holding their hands, but again, there was the eerie calm and quietness in the house. If they wanted a normal routine, then perhaps it felt natural to keep the girls in their own room.
I could tell you for almost certain, this would not be my reaction to the end of the world.
Works Cited
Bradbury, Ray. “A Classic Ray Bradbury Esquire Story.” Esquire, Esquire, 9 Oct. 2017, www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a14340/ray-bradbury-last-night-of-the-world-0251/.
Hi, Amanda!
ReplyDeleteI read this short story, too! I found it kind of confusing and at the end, I was asking myself "What did I just read?" It seemed to me that the husband felt that death was coming and he was preparing himself and his family for it.
I like that you mentioned the girls and the feeling of emptiness in your analysis; I've honestly forgotten about them.