The Long Rain

by

Ray Bradbury

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Themes and Colors
Man vs. Nature Theme Icon
Determination and Luck Theme Icon
The Power of Memory Theme Icon
Government, Politics, and Foreign Affairs Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Long Rain, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.

Man vs. Nature

In Ray Bradbury’s “The Long Rain,” a group of American military men find themselves stranded on Venus after their rocket crashes. Four men are forced to traverse through the wild Venusian jungles and thick sheets of rain in search of a Sun Dome—one of 126 luxurious American-built shelters that are peppered among Venus’ vast, single continent. As the men struggle to survive in the soaking-wet wilderness for an entire month, the story highlights how…

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Determination and Luck

Ray Bradbury’s “The Long Rain” follows four American military men as they struggle to survive after their rocket crashes on Venus, killing two of their comrades on impact. Venus is smothered by a constant, torrential rain that leeches vitality—and sanity—from the men stuck beneath it. In a desperate effort to survive, the men spend a month searching determinedly for one of many American-made shelters on Venus called Sun Domes, where they will finally be…

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The Power of Memory

When the “The Long Rain” opens, a group of military men are trampling through Venus’ wet jungles and enduring its never-ending downpour in search of an American-made structure called a Sun Dome, where they will be able to find food and shelter. For each of the men, the grueling search for the Sun Dome unearths several memories, some of which are pleasant and some of which are decidedly not. Memories help the men make…

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Government, Politics, and Foreign Affairs

Ray Bradbury’s “The Long Rain” follows a group of American military men as they fight to survive after their rocket crashes unexpectedly in the Venusian jungle, which is soaked with the endless rain. As they trample through this pale, soggy world in search of an American-made shelter called a Sun Dome, the men repeatedly grumble about their government back on Earth. Through these complaints, Bradbury criticizes the government for being both misguided and slow…

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