Minnie 1201

All Summer in a Day​ by Ray Bradbury

Summary

Raining on Venus is a usual sight for its inhabitant, as the sun only appears once in
seven years. Most of the young children there haven’t lived long enough to see the sun,
except “Margot,” who came from Earth and knows exactly what the sun is like. However,
those children always tease her because they think she is lying whenever she is describing the
sun, to the point where they locked her up in a locker room. On the predicted day, the sun
came out and the children are overjoyed, forgetting that Margot is left alone in the dark. They
only realize, once the rain returns, that themselves and Margot will have to wait another
seven years to see the sun again.

Literary Device

Ray Bradbury’s captivating short story ​All Summer in a Day​ demonstrates the power
of anticipation through his strong and steady use of simile. As the children in the story were
too young to remember what the sun looked and felt like, they learned about it through
comparisons. According to the sentence “All day yesterday they had read in class about the
sun. About how like a lemon it was, and how hot,” the children only know about the sun
through indirect information. Similes are the next best thing that allow the children to
understand the sun, by comparing an unimaginable idea to an imaginable one. With their
natural curiosity, their anticipation intensifies. Through the use of similes, Margot is able to
make the idea of the sun more approachable to other children. However, Margot is questioned
and discriminated once she brings up her own encounter with the sun. Her similes of a
flower, a penny and a fire do not resonate with the other children due to their skepticism. This
shows that even if she is speaking the truth, no one can prove her honesty. Therefore, the
clueless children refuse to make up expectations that can possibly ruin their true experience
encountering the sun. This demonstrates the power of anticipation that can make people
excited, but can also make them disregard any other expectation that contradicts with their
own. It can also be interpreted that only when humans make unknown ideas known by
themselves will they believe they are true.

Creative Response

h. Borrow an incident or theme from the short story to write a piece of your own based on a
similar incident or theme

Sitting here under drowsy dusk

Staring at the midnight moon
is a car plagued with rust.
It’s still raining, not ending anytime soon.
Abandoned and ​alone
In a junkyard where moving isn’t allowed
“How do I move again on my own,
If the raindrops pin me to the ground?”
 Minnie 1201

Said the ​lonesome​ broken car

among other broken things
With the same brokenness, under the same star
But still the car misses its revving
“What am I here for
If I can move no more?”

The dark cloud still rains strong

Among the murky soggy garbage,
the car recites its senseless song
As if the junkyard is its stage
“I want to move again
Despite the unbearable rain
And I won’t stop till I start
Hearing the beat of my heart”
The life that’s full of pride and joy
To the car
Is just an engine full of oil.
Once again it wishes upon a star
It has happened before
Why wouldn’t it happen once more?

Drop after drop, the car acts tough

Too bad, hope doesn’t live long enough
When trash talks fill the humid air
With dirt, dust and despair
The garbage besides copy,
“Why do you care so much
If you know what it feels like already
To move your wheels and rush
You still remember that in your psyche”
The car persists with its hope blemished
“I need to move again
To prove that I’m valid”
Suddenly the rain pours down
Like a gate that opens without any bounds

The junkyard is washed clear

by an ungodly fiend
The flood has made its way here
No signs of mercy to be seen
The car has felt the slightest steer
While other garbage drifted in a blink
The car stood, too ready to shift its gear
At last, its dream will come true in a wink
But little did it know, it is its weight
That pins itself to the ground
Forbidding it from a moving state
 Minnie 1201

The car can never move, permanently bound

Before you know it, the flood disappears
A whole ocean reduced to a drop of tear

The car stood still, ​alone​ now

Nothing but its presence is found

How silly is it? what has been done,

Wish granted to the wrong person.

How dark and pointless it seems

To live in a fool’s dream?
But if that is all there is
Then what can I possibly miss?

Reference
Bradbury, R. (n.d.). ​All Summer in a Day​.