In the story “All Summer in a Day,” by Ray Bradbury, there are quite a few themes associated. One major theme is isolation. This story, about a group of children living on Venus, focuses on a character named Margot. She isolates herself from the other children, as they isolate themselves from her. Throughout the story, we continue to learn about Margot’s childhood, her backstory. For example, we learn that she lived on Earth until the age of four. She remembers the sun, unlike the other students on Venus. This factor of her life really shapes who she is as a person. It makes her act different. “She would play no games with them in the echoing tunnels of the underground city. If they tagged her and ran, she stood blinking after them and did not follow…”(Bradbury, pg. 2). The lack of sunshine and the continuous rain is hard to get used to for her. As stated earlier, a main theme in “All Summer in a Day” is isolation. The quote, “So after that, dimly, dimly, she sensed it, she was different and they knew her difference and kept away,”(Bradbury, pg. 2) shows this. The quote literally tells us that she is different, and from this she isolates herself. No other child on Venus can remember a day full of sunshine, so she really can’t relate to any of them. Because of her knowledge of the sun, she is picked on by her classmates. A particular kid, William, is most nasty to her. He, along with other students, threw her into a closet on the day the sun came out. Keep in mind the sun
All Summer in a Day is a magnificent short story, that you won’t want to put down. One reason for this is because its approach toward bullying is different than most stories. Margot, the protagonist, was eager to see the sun that only appears every seven years. She gets teased by her classmates, locked in a closet, and in result, she misses out on the special event. Instead of the typical name-calling or physical abuse, All Sumer in a Day demonstrates another way of bullying. For example, Margot is emotionally hurt when the other kids leave her behind to play in the sun. Furthermore, the short story addresses an important issue that still happens to this day: bullying. The narrative mostly revolves around the children teasing argot, presumable
The children are painfully jealous of Margot, therefore, hurting her because of their own pain. Since Margot was different than the others and stood apart, one of her classmates shoved her and mocked her while she looked out at the rain. Margot didn’t respond to any of this jealousy, as it says in the text “But she did not move; rather she let herself be moved only by him and nothing else.” The kids kept mocking, shoving and yelling at Margot because she thought that the sun would come out. The problem progressed so much that the children grabbed Margot and locked her in the closet so she wouldn’t see the sun that just came out in seven years. That sentence in the text was “They surged about her, caught her up and bore her, protesting, and then pleading, and then crying back into a tunnel, a room, a closet, where they slammed and locked the door.” This shows how mean her classmates were, they knew that
Going back to the last paragraph, I wrote about the scene where the kids locked Margot in the closet, and I described that scene as an act of betrayal. Even though that scene is an act of betrayal, I think the scene is also an act of jealousy. If the kids were not jealous of Margot, they would have never locked her in the closet. If the kids had decided to just be jealous and not take action, Margot would have still gotten to see the sun. After the kids locked Margot in the closet the kids got to go outside and enjoy the sun, the kids remembered about Margot. The rain had started up again, all the kids were gloomy and sad. But there was an incredible amount of regret and guilt filling up the kids. If the kids had never decided to take action, they would have never had to deal with the guilt and
In the story, All Summer in a day, by Ray Bradbury, the setting helps develop the mood of sadness, and depression. The author does this by making the setting dark and stormy everyday on venus. The setting makes the story gloomy at first, but when the sun comes out for one hour, it makes the reader hopeful, but the main character missed the sun. That makes the reader’s mood depressed and sad.
The short sci-fi story All Summer in A Day by Ray Bradbury is about being treated as an outcast and reveals the alienating effects that it may have. Sometimes this treatment is brought on by others. In this case, Margot is treated in this harsh manner because she isn’t the same as her classmates and they desire to have the life experiences that she has. Being outcast may not be the only main theme for this story in each reader’s mind. All Summer in A Day provides a multitude of possible themes. This may be the case, however, the children’s physical and emotional abuse of Margot is extreme and justifies this theme. As the time draws nearer for the sun to rise, Margot’s classmates become more brash and crue and at that moment, Margot is exponentially different from the other children in hr class. This concept of being outcast and
In “All Summer in a Day”, the authority figure is the nine-year-old schoolboy William. The dark story takes place on Venus, where it rains constantly and only one hour of sunlight is witnessed every seven years. The students who live on Venus are unaware of the joy that the sun can potentially bring to them because they were not old enough to appreciate it during its last appearance seven years ago. Young Margot moved from Ohio to Venus five years ago. Therefore, she had recently experienced the sun and even had the ability to properly describe it in her poem as “a flower, that blooms for just one hour.”
Not only did they exclude her but they also hater her for her differences, for the absence of colour on “…her pale snow face, her waiting silence, her thinness and her possible future.” They acted on this hate and “…put her in a closet…” and caused her to miss the sun coming out. They excluded her from all the fun they had in the sun but more than that, they made her miss the event she had been looking forward to since she came to this planet five years ago. By showing us this, Ray Bradbury successfully explains to us how Margot is different from the rest of the children in the way she acts and because of this difference she is ostracised and hated.
Margot’s classmates display many acts of jealousy throughout the story. Being on Venus their whole lives, Margot’s classmates came to the planet when they were two years old, and don't have any relevant memories of the sun, but Margot has first hand memories of what the sun is like from when she was on Earth. Her classmates had their last encounter with the sun at two years old, and they have long forgotten their memories of the sun, creating this jealousy of Margot’s knowledge. “‘It’s like a penny,’ she said once, eyes closed. ‘No it’s not!’ the children cried. ‘It’s like like a fire,’ she said, ‘in the stove.’ ‘You’re lying, you don’t remember!’ cried the children”(2). As Margot shares memories of the sun with the class, the children deny she remembers, even though they know it's true. Even though Margot’s classmates are jealous of her knowledge, they still cared to listen. Margot has these memories of Earth, which unleashed envy inside the students because she
“And once, a month ago, she had refused to shower in the school shower rooms, had clutched her hands to her ears and over her head, screaming that the water mustn’t touch her hair.” (Bradbury, 1954) In the short story “All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury, Margot is a 9-year old girl who lives on the planet of Venus. On Venus, it rains every day, and the sun only comes out every 7 years. Margot is different from others because of her experiences. This is shown when she is described as antisocial, depressed, and isolated. Among many children her age, Margot is the only child who has lived on Earth before moving to Venus, and remembers what the sun looked and felt like. The other children have lived on Venus their whole lives and don’t remember the sun, as they were only two years old when they had last seen the sun.
Margot gets treated cruelly by those in her class because they are envious of where she’s from and her knowledge, or experience. Margot is nine years old, living on the planet Venus, where she moved from Earth, when she was four years old. Margot is the only kid in her class the remembers the sun and this makes all the other kids envious of her because when the other kids saw the sun they were only two years old but Margot was four which makes them jealous. When Margot was talking about the scientist predicting the sun would come out one of the boys said, “‘All a joke… let’s put her in a closet before the teacher comes back!’” (Bradbury 3). The kids are so envious or jealous of Margot that they want to lock her in a closet, right before the sun is supposed to come out because they don’t believe it is. When the sun finally came out the children rush outside to enjoy nature and the sun,
Venus, a planet with only rain, destroying trees in its path with raging rapids, creating icy temperatures, and booming sounds that frighten many. A group of scientists, however, predict that the sun will come out every seven years. The elated children exit the door and feel a true warmth, not just from electronic sunlamps. As the children venture off into the jungle, seeking euphoria from the sun, away from the endless rain, one child remains cold, in a dark closet. “All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury is a story told in a dystopic setting where life on Venus exists. All of the children of Venus have not seen the sun, and yearn to glance at it once. All except for Margot, who remembers the sun because she moved to Venus when she was
“It has been raining for seven years; thousands upon thousands of days compounded and filled from one end to the other with rain, with the drum and gush of water, with the sweet crystal fall of showers and the concussion of storms so heavy they were tidal waves come over the islands.” (Bradbury, 1954) In the dystopian story, “All Summer In A Day” by Ray Bradbury, it takes place on the planet, Venus. A group of children, along with scientists get to live there, while being educated at the underground school. Margot, who is only 9 years old, wasn't born on Venus like the other children, but instead on Earth. She’s the only one who remembers how the sun felt through her skin and how beautiful it shined. On the contrary, the other children are jealous of her because she has some memory of the sun, while they don’t. Jealousy caused the children to harass, isolate, and make her depressed.
In the beginning, Bradbury gives the reader information about Venus. Like how it hasn’t rained in seven years and will finally stop. Like how the children will do anything to be able to see the Sun, like bully someone who has seen the Sun before. Bradbury gives the reader some insight of how the children feel about Margot. How she acts around them. How she looks because she came later to Venus. Others may say that that point is wrong. Others may say that it was Margot who influenced the children to grow thirsty of the Sun. Others may say that it was Margot who kept on telling them about the Sun. Who kept on feeding them information on the Sun versus letting them find out on their own. By the end of the story, Bradbury tells the reader that after the other children played in the Sun for two hours, they realize that they had done something wrong. That they had taken Margot’s chance of seeing the Sun. They realize that she could be worse than before. They realize she could go out for revenge towards them for taking her chance. The short story All Summer in A Day by Ray Bradbury is about how a little jealousy can turn into rage and reveals that children, along with adults, can be blinded by something so
In Ray Bradbury’s short story, “All Summer In a Day”, the author illustrates how marginalizing others without putting in the effort to understand them can lead people to hate those who are different. On the planet Venus, where a civilization of preview
Imagine living on a different planet, but being isolated and friendless. This happens to a girl named Margot in the short story, “All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury. Margot is treated poorly by her classmates throughout the story. In the story, several scientists, along with their children, occupy underground tunnels on Venus. It seems perfect-minus one problem. It is constantly raining, for seven years in a row. The sun is said to come out on the day the story takes place, and Margot can’t wait. She is the only one of her classmates who remembers the sun, since she moved to Venus when she was five. However, the envious children grab Margot and shove her in a closet. The sun comes out, and they play and delight in its warmth. When it goes away, they remember Margot, and, heads hung low, they let her out of the closet. The children of Venus are harsh towards Margot because they are jealous of her. Because of this, she becomes isolated, depressed, and is constantly harassed by her peers.