HELP!!! I have an english project due tomorrow during class and I need to find information on "the sound of thunder", "the pedestrian", and "there will come soft rains". I also need a famous quote by ray bradbury too. PLEASE HELP!!!
I need to know the themes and the thesis statements. Contact me right away at...
hcates22@yahoo.com

Please and Thank You!!!

Three of the best short stories ever written! Why not just read the stories?

Favourite Ray quote: Live forever!" Now, tell us what it means.

Doug Spaulding, how can you be so mean to this child? He asks for help, and you tell him to go dig a ditch. Then again, reading to some lads is probably as bad as digging a ditch! Anyway, that quote you gave is basically meaningless when you really think about it. Isn't that Bradbury quote whatever you want it to mean?

Here's a better one:
"You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance."

Here's some help: The Pedestrian is a very short story that has to do with one particular character, a Mr. Mead, who likes to take walks at night, but finds himself to be the only one walking late at night. That's because everyone else is stuck behind their TV sets, or like hibernating bears in their houses, with no intention in setting foot outdoors. Now Mr. Mead meets up with the Police, but a police car without any police man inside, a robot sort of police car. And Mr. Mead finds himself in trouble, unable to talk his way out of the reason why he was walking alone on the street. This story, you may also need to know, was written by Bradbury based on an actual experience when he was much younger, walking by himself, and getting stopped by the police, for walking alone.Likely the police wanted to know who he was and what he was doing out so late, but Bradbury's fertile imagination wen to to work and carried it a bit further, making walking alone, late at night on the street, a crime.

Okay, I dug one cubby hole for you. Now try 'digging' up some info on the other stories.

Huuurrry! You only have a few hours left before you turn into a pumpkin.

My offerings would be the metaphors that show up in daily events, summarized by, "Don't get off the path!", "Walking. Just walking!", and "Six o'clock! Time to get up!"

These appear frequently in my typical adventures! But then again, so do so many other glimpses from RB tales!

quote:

Originally posted by embroiderer:
Doug Spaulding, how can you be so mean to this child? He asks for help, and you tell him to go dig a ditch.

I didn't tell him to dig a ditch! But they really are short stories. And I did provide a quote.

quote:

Here's a better one:
"You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance."

Well, it's an opinion. I still think mine is better. Here's an even better quote - a Spaulding original modified from Ray's quote: "Love forever!" I think the only thing more important than living is loving.

quote:

Originally posted by Doug Spaulding:

Well, it's an opinion. I still think mine is better. Here's an even better quote - a Spaulding original modified from Ray's quote: "Love forever!" I think the only thing more important than living is loving.

Hmm! That depends on your definition of LOVE, right? Especially nowadays! There is a Judeo/Christian one, there's a Western Cultural one, there's a Hindu one, etc. There's Doug Spaulding's one. The Biblical one says love is patient, love is kind, love bears all, etc etc. But, foremost, God is Love. But then, you have your idea of love, based on Spong. Simple sayings are, truly, not simple if you are serious about their meaning. So when you quote Bradbury's Live Forever, it is, basically, meaningless.

quote:

Originally posted by embroiderer:
Hmm! That depends on your definition of LOVE, right? Especially nowadays! There is a Judeo/Christian one, there's a Western Cultural one, there's a Hindu one, etc. There's Doug Spaulding's one. The Biblical one says love is patient, love is kind, love bears all, etc etc. But, foremost, God is Love. But then, you have your idea of love, based on Spong.

Am unsure where you get these ideas. My definition of love has nothing to do with Spong. When did I say that? My idea of love is based on the Biblical one - a great definition of love! And of course that God is love.

quote:

So when you quote Bradbury's Live Forever, it is, basically, meaningless.

No it isn't.

quote:

So when you quote Bradbury's Live Forever, it is, basically, meaningless.

Spaulding: No it isn't.

Well, let's look and see what Bradbury means by the term, Live Forever.

On several occasions in the last several years he has said that he expects man to permeate the universe with himself, and thus Live Forever. That the universe contains no intelligent life comparable to man, and mankind must be the one the brings the furthering of his species. Bradbury denies that God will one day wipe away the universe, that it will roll up like a scroll and pass away. So much for mankind and the planting of his likeness on other worlds if you take in account the Biblical scene.

Bradbury also explains that he will live forever in his words and stories and plays. Again, at best, it's all transient.

Then again, he talks about living thru others, passing the flame of understanding, and thus, in these terms, a kind of living forever. Well, not enough. And not the really meaning of living forever.

So, Mr. Spaulding, what's your take on Bradbury's term, Live Forever?

Not answering for Spaulding (who is perfectly capable of answering for himself), but ONE of MY takes on Bradbury's term "Live forever" is that it is an instruction, a command, an imperative, a challenge.

Whether or not one can live up to the challenge, it doesn't render the challenge meaningless.

quote:

Originally posted by philnic:
but ONE of MY takes on Bradbury's term "Live forever" is that it is an instruction, a command, an imperative, a challenge.

Whether or not one can live up to the challenge, it doesn't render the challenge meaningless.

Okay! If so, then exactly how do you go about the challenge of living forever?? Living forever, meaning, to live forever. But if Ray means something different, something on the order of, live almost forever, then exactly how would you go about even that?

Again, I think the term is impossible to define in the Bradbury context, and thus meaningless, simply a whimsical way of saying, "do your best!"

To live forever, as I fully intend to do, is to live up to the enduring meaning of one’s life. To live the best life one possibly can. To live your life as affirmative statement that cannot be diminished by the passage of time, the disintegration of matter, or the heat death of the universe.

Robert Reed ends his beautiful short story, “Roxie”, like this:

“ ... we move slowly into the pines, down where the long shadows make the grass cool and inviting, and I am crying again, thinking what a blessing this is, being conjured out of nothingness, and even when that nothingness reclaims us, there remains that unvanquished honor of having once, in some great way or another, having been alive ...”

douglasSP:

Getting closer!

I'm just happy with:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCAjmuA1HDk

Personally, I'd have told Timmy to "do what you love and love what you do".

It's fun to skim the surface of things and never look deep into the depths. Something like, Live Forever! Sure sounds good, especially in the nowadays culture.

quote:

Originally posted by embroiderer:
Something like, Live Forever! Sure sounds good, especially in the nowadays culture.

How about what I actually said: love forever!