Ray
Bradbury’s short story, “All Summer in a Day” starts in the middle of a day, a
special day were the sun was going to come out in Venus, a place were the son
comes out for an hour every 7 years. Margot was a girl that was born in Earth
and had seen the sun plenty of times, she dreamed about the sun often since
they moved to Venus and cant see it any more; in this world she felt excluded
and she was the different girl in her class that got bullied by all. William
was Margot’s classmate that bullied her the most so he said that she lied and
she had never seen the sun and tried to convince her that the sun was never
going to come out in Venus; Margot didn’t answer what he said so he locked her
up in a closet. Some minutes after that the sum came out, and the children went
outdoors to play and enjoy the feeling of the sun that they have never
experienced before. When the time was over and the rain started falling again,
all kids came back inside with tears after feeling the sun and knowing it will
disappear for 7 more years, that’s when they noticed that Margot was still
locked up in the closet and couldn’t feel the sun.
As
I read the story, I realized the mood of the place these kids were living in
and how Margot felt about that place,
“Now
she stood, separate, staring at the rain and the loud wet world beyond the huge
glass.”
I
realized how Bradbury expresses Margot’s feeling when she sees that there is only rain falling outside and listen to the loud sound of rain
pouring, with no hope of another weather or no expectation for the sun to come
out. Margot was a very shy girl, with very happy memories living inside her,
such as the sun. She dreamed often of the sun, but knew it was something hard
to achieve.
“She
was a very frail girl who looked as if she had been lost in the rain for years
and the rain had washed out the blue from her eyes and the red from her mouth and
the yellow from her hair.”
This
shows, that Margot used to be a confident girl when she lived in Earth, but as
she moved to a different place and got new classmates, she lost everything she
had and had to start all over with little success.
We
can understand by reading this story the true message Ray Bradbury is trying to
leave. We must always appreciate what we have because you never know what life
is going to give; always respect each other’s beliefs and accept everyone as
who they are by not letting envy consume you and influencing you on your
actions. The use of detailed imagery and characterization makes the reader gain
interest in the story as it did to me.
