All Summer in a Day: Context and Summary

All Summer in a Day: Context and Summary

Context

Ray Douglas Bradbury is a famous American author whose literary career lasted over seventy years. He has over hundreds of short stories, around fifty books, screenplays, essays and other writings to his credit. Bradbury's path breaking works include Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man and Something Wicked This Way Comes. He was best known for making science fiction popular among the masses and for his jargon-free, poetic style of writing.

He received several honours including a National Medal of Arts and a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation. He was also nominated for an Oscar award for his screenplay based on the classic novel Moby Dick.

All Summer in a Day is a dystopian science fiction story. "Dystopia' refers to a place or state where things are extremely unpleasant. Bradbury's short story is set on Venus where the sun shines only once in seven years. It revolves around a group of nine-year olds eagerly awaiting this event and their cruel treatment of their classmate, Margot. The story is a grim reminder of the cruelty that is inherent in human beings. It also highlights the human tendency to shun someone who is different.

Summary

Here is a summary of All Summer in a Day by Ray Douglas Bradbury. The story begins on a rainy day on the planet Venus where it poured constantly. The sun came out once in seven years, but only for two hours.

That day, a group of nine-year-old students gathered excitedly around a window. The rain was showing signs of stopping. Scientists, too, had forecasted that the sun would come out. The children had no memory of the sun as they were only two years old the last time the sun shone.

Margot, however, did not join the crowd at the window and stood at a distance, looking out. She was different and rarely participated in any activity with her classmates. Unlike them, Margot had lived on Earth for a while and had left the planet only five years earlier. She remembered what the sun looked and felt like, and even tried to tell her classmates about it. But they always refused to believe her and even accused her of lying about it. They treated the quiet, reserved girl quite cruelly, more so because they had also heard rumours that she would be returning to Earth the next year.

As the children waited, one of them, William, mocked Margot and told her to go away as the scientists' prediction was only a joke. Then, he had a nasty idea - to lock Margot up in a closet before the teacher returned to the classroom. Poor Margot protested and pleaded, but to no avail. Her classmates carried her forcibly and shut her up in a closet.

Almost as soon as they returned to the classroom, the rain stopped and the sun burst out. The children rushed out, screaming with joy and paying no heed. to their teacher's instructions. They laughed and played and soaked in the warmth of the sun for an hour. Their joy was cut short when the rain returned. The sun retreated behind. clouds and the sky darkened almost immediately. Reluctantly, the children returned inside.

It was only when they were inside that they remembered Margot. Guiltily, they walked to the closet and unlocked the door. Margot came out, without uttering a word. She had missed her chance to be in the sun.