essay for all summer in a day

A Summary and Analysis of Ray Bradbury’s ‘All Summer in a Day’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘All Summer in a Day’ is a 1954 short story by Ray Bradbury (1920-2012). The story is set on Venus, where the sun only comes out once every seven years for a couple of hours; the rest of the time, the sun is hidden behind clouds and rains fall constantly.

‘All Summer in a Day’ is about a group of schoolchildren who have grown up on Venus, the sons and daughters of ‘rocket men and women’ who came to the planet from Earth, as the children prepare to experience the first ‘summer’ on Venus that they can remember.

Many of Ray Bradbury’s stories are allegorical, and carry other meanings which lurk beneath the surface of the story, and ‘All Summer in a Day’ is one of these. Before we come to the analysis, however, it might be helpful to recap the story’s plot.

Plot summary

The story takes place on Venus, where ‘summer’ occurs for just a couple of hours every seven years. The story is set on one such day, and centres on a group of nine-year-old children as they excitedly wait for the clouds to clear and for the sun to appear in the sky.

One of the children, a pale and thin girl named Margot, is treated differently by the other children. Unlike them, she can remember the sun, because she grew up on Earth and came to Venus five years ago, when she was four. The other children were born on Venus and were too young when the sun last appeared, seven years ago, to remember it. Margot writes a poem describing the sun as a flower, but one of the other children, a boy named William, doesn’t believe she wrote it.

While they are watching the rainstorms gradually abating and waiting for the appearance of the sun, the children talk to each other. When Margot tells them the sun is like a penny, they once again disbelieve her, with one boy, William, claiming that it’s all a practical joke and he doesn’t believe the sun will come out. Turning on her, the children lock Margot in a closet at the end of the tunnel. When the sun comes out, the children are let out to play among the jungle, enjoying their hour or so in the sunshine, savouring this rare moment of sunlight and taking everything in.

The hour soon passes, and one of the girls feels a raindrop fall on her hand, and they realise that the sun will soon be going in again for another seven years. It’s only when they get back indoors and the rains start falling again that they remember they locked Margot in the closet. They go and let her out.

‘All Summer in a Day’ depicts a world without sun: Venus is a bleached, ashen, pale world because everything is deprived of the sunlight. Bradbury sketches in this rain-soaked world effectively, making us as readers share the excitement of the children as they wait for the sun to make its rare appearance.

The symbolism of ‘All Summer in a Day’ is subtle, but, like the sun in the story and its effects on the children, goes to work on us as readers in ways which we may not fully realise. One of the things which can take us by surprise upon reading the story is the swift change of character in the children, especially their ringleader, William. Before the sun appears, they are sullen and irritable, and clearly resent Margot because she can remember what the sun looks and feels like.

But when they return from their brief time among the sunshine, they appear to be filled with remorse for depriving her of the opportunity to share in the experience by locking her in the closet.

The implication of this ending, then, is that the sun – and, by extension, being able to go out among nature and appreciate it – is good for us as human beings. The constant rainstorms on Venus have deprived the children of this experience.

Bradbury was, at heart, a Romantic in the Wordsworthian sense, who believed that we need fresh air and open countryside and a close relationship with nature, and his stories are full of warnings about what can go wrong when human beings come to depend too much on technology and are deprived of this bond with the natural world and the open air. (See ‘The Pedestrian’ for a different, if related, work on this theme.)

As soon as the children have been exposed to the healing powers of nature for just a short while, they appear to recover their conscience and empathy, and regret depriving Margot of the experience they have had – the last time they will have it as children, since they will be sixteen and on the brink of adulthood when the sun next comes out on Venus.

Many of Ray Bradbury’s stories are allegories of a sort. But is ‘All Summer in a Day’ an allegory? Unlike many of Bradbury’s stories of the early 1950s it’s not easy to discern a Cold War allegory in ‘All Summer in a Day’, but the story is clearly meant to be about more than an imagined scenario in which children on Venus experience the sun for the first time.

Among other interpretations, we might focus on the way in which Margot (whose French-derived name, complete with its silent final letter, even suggests a foreign quality among the other, supposedly English-speaking children) is ‘othered’ by her peers because she was a later arrival to the planet. The children have never really accepted her because she is different from them, and because, unlike them, she wasn’t born on Venus but emigrated to there from Earth when she was four and her parents moved there.

Although it would perhaps be reductive to distil the ‘moral’ of Bradbury’s story to the pithy summary, ‘if people get out there and commune with the natural world, it will make them more compassionate towards others, especially those who are different from them’, this message is clearly present in the story. Bradbury, like many other authors of science-fiction stories, uses the setting of the story, a different planet, both to conceal and reveal his story’s tacit commentary on immigration and how an ‘in-group’ refuses to accept a perceived ‘outsider’ because they are not native to that particular ‘land’.

But the rains of the story are as important as the sun, in this respect. The weather of Venus is a constant, predictable and regular as clockwork, and nothing can be done to change it. But the effects of the inevitable rainstorms are all too predictable, leading the children to be restricted in their movement and their play. This breeds resentment and, one suspects, boredom.

In other words, Bradbury refuses to point the finger at William and the other children for treating Margot differently, even though we can see their behaviour towards her is wrong. He highlights how a life of miserable weather, day in day out, is bound to take its toll on the inhabitants of Venus and colour their view of the world, their mood, and their behaviour.

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All Summer in a Day Summary & Analysis

The story-line / plot summary.

In ‘All summer in a day’ by Ray Bradbury, a group of school children live on planet Venus with their families, or in the author’s words, a group of rocket men and women who has gone to Venus to set up civilization. The children, mostly around 9 years old, are waiting eagerly for a special occasion; for the sun to come out. It has been raining continuously 7 years in Venus. And now the scientists of Venus have predicted that the sun will come out for a short period of time on that particular day, after that it’s 7 more years of continuous rain. You can imagine how overwhelmed and excited the kids must be feeling.

The sun had been out before once when the kids were just two years old so they don’t remember anything except a warmth like a blush on the face and something similar to a study lamp’s light. In other words, they literally don’t remember anything about it. But this is true for all the children except Margot, who’s resented by all the children. Margot, a thin & pale girl, used to live in Ohio (Earth) until she was five hence she still remembers the details and misses the sun badly. She’s always quite depressed for the same reason.

Margot was most excited to see the sun once again, to feel its warmth. She was standing near the window, waiting for the sun when a few boys taunt her saying it was all a joke and the sun’s never coming out while some others lock her in a cupboard when the teacher wasn’t present there.

The teachers returns and along with the children, they go to the tunnel’s exit. The rain finally stops and the sun comes out in all its glory. The kids run out into the lawn and enjoy the warmth of the sun but no one remembers Margot. After some time a kid screams as a big raindrop falls on her skin. They all look up at the sky and see that it’s raining again. They stand there for a moment, disappointed but at the same time happy with the experience, and return back to their classroom.

As they enter the hallway, one of the students reminds that they have forgotten to unlock Margot. They all feel bad for what they have done and anxiously they go to unlock her. Behind the doors, no noise was to be heard, they slowly open the door and Margot emerges. The story ends at this point.

All Summer in a Day: A Commentary

‘All summer in a day’ by Ray Bradbury is based on the struggle of Margot, a sad soul stuck on a place she doesn’t want to be.

Since it’s set up in a different planet altogether, the author quickly explains the complications and restrictions of the new world. He has also used a variety of metaphors to make the foreign situation familiar and easy for us. His simple words and clear descriptions portray a vivid image in your head upon reading.

The characters or the children, except Margot, are portrayed at first in a negative light when they try to mess around with Margot but it was due to their resentment towards her, which is quite natural. But in the end they realize their mistake and also realize how painful it must have been for her to abandon the warmth of the sun and live on the Venus.

The way the author has described the kids’ imaginations of the sun is really cute. But the best part, I think, is Margot’s character. Literally everyone can relate to her; stuck in somewhere you don’t want to be, bullied and taunted every day for no reason; no one seems to understand your pain, struggling to fit into the new place.

The background may sound a bit extreme at first but the author has done everything he could to make the reader feel familiar. The emotions of the characters; sadness, resentment, struggle, happiness, bliss – everything is portrayed in a very nice way without making the setting look unusual or weird.

In the end, the kids who had previously resented Margot learned what it must have cost her to come and live on Venus, abandoning all the warmth and sunshine. Hence, they feel guilty of what they had previously done with Margot. The story thus explores the darker side of human nature that is manifest even in children, and ends it on a note of hope as the children feel shame and remorse for their thoughtlessness.

The title of the story is very interesting. It literally refers to the day when the sun comes out after seven long years. This is like the whole summer to the people living on Venus. But, on a metaphorical level, this is the day when the children have, for the first time, shown the good human side of their character and felt for Margot who has come from Earth. They will probably not taunt her any more. They realize the sadness and depression Margot must be in. So, it is summer not only in the atmosphere but also in their mind, making the title “All Summer in a Day” just and apt.

All in all, the author has been successful in setting up his imaginary world and the aura around it.

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All Summer In A Day

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Choose three metaphors involving the sun to analyze. What do these comparisons reveal about sunlight and its role in the story?

Discuss the significance of Margot’s silence at the end of the story. How does it fit into Bradbury’s broader juxtaposition of sound and silence in “All Summer in a Day”?

Analyze the role that color plays in “All Summer in a Day.” How does it underscore and develop the story’s themes?

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All Summer in a Day. Reading Comprehension Questions, Multiple-choice questions

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All Summer in a Day. 30 multiple-choice questions (Editable)

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All Summer in a Day

Ray bradbury, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

“All Summer in a Day” tells the story of a group of children ostracizing and bullying a child who doesn’t fit in. Margot , who moved to Venus from Earth several years before, has real memories of the sun , unlike her classmates who have seen only Venus’ constant rain. As sunlight is the experience that the children on Venus cherish the most, Margot becomes a scapegoat for the children’s frustration and longing. Their jealousy of her experiences leads them to a profound act of cruelty, which suggests that jealousy and deprivation, rather than outright hatred, are the engines of bullying.

The children are jealous of Margot because, while they can only speculate about what sunlight is like, Margot spent her early childhood on Earth. As the classroom prepares for Venus’ short period of sunlight, Margot writes a clever poem about the sun. Because only Margot remembers the sun, her poem and recollections are the most true to life. In order to undercut this advantage, William tries to discredit Margot, saying, “Aw, you didn’t write that!” Similarly, when Margot recalls that the sun is “like a penny,” the other children, led by William, say that she is wrong or lying. They act as if they have more knowledge of the sun than her, when the opposite is true.

Just before the sun is set to come out, the children, again led by William, torment Margot by telling her that the predictions are wrong and the sun won’t appear. Then, they shut her in a closet to keep her from going outside—while the sun appears, she will be trapped in the dark. In this way, they deprive her of experiencing the sun, just as they felt they had been deprived. The nature of these specific acts of bullying shows that the children are motivated by jealousy. Margot has been able to experience what they desired but were denied, and now they have the power to turn the tables. Bullying, therefore, is an expression of the children’s own sense of misfortune, as well as a twisted way attempt to fix a perceived injustice.

Though their cruelty is reprehensible, their jealousy is understandable—not only did Margot live on Earth for years before moving to Venus, but she also may return one day, as her family can afford the “thousands of dollars” it would cost to move back. Therefore, Margot has opportunities that the others don’t, and perhaps her sour attitude towards Venus doubly wounds them in light of her privilege. As the children prepare for the sun to come out, Margot shows off her superior memory of the sun, telling the other children that the sun is “like a penny,” or “a fire…in the stove.” To the other children, this is a reminder that Margot’s experiences have given her special knowledge of the sun, which they can only imagine. In addition, Margot refuses to participate when the other children try to include her in activities like playing tag and singing. In fact, when William begins to bully Margot, she is intentionally standing apart from the other children. Margot makes it clear that she thinks life on Earth is better than life on Venus, and that making friends with the children there is pointless. Margot has a “waiting silence” and a “possible future,” so it is clear to the other children that she does not value life on Venus and, unlike them, she has the option to leave. In both her behavior and her circumstances, Margot shows that she comes from a better world and that she is uninterested in Venus or its inhabitants. In this way, the children are made repeatedly aware that they are suffering from the sun’s absence, and, unlike Margot, can do little about it. In the face of this powerlessness and inequity, the children direct their frustration towards Margot.

Although Margot’s behavior intensifies the children’s animosity towards her, their decision to lock her in the closet is more about the children’s own anxieties and desires than it is a retaliation against Margot’s personality. This is clear because, in the moments leading up to Margot’s relegation to the closet, she is simply standing quietly, looking out the window with the rest of the children. William and the others attempt to taunt her, but she remains unengaged even when physically pushed. Their actions, then, seem broadly cathartic rather than directed at Margot herself. The children who inflict great harm on Margot do so not because they personally hate her, but because of a very real sense of deprivation. Margot is unjustly tormented for having seen the sun, but the children are also intensely aware that she has access to the thing that is most scarce and desirable to them. Ultimately, the story shows that even extremely cruel bullying is driven by more complicated motives than hatred alone.

Jealousy, Bullying, and Isolation ThemeTracker

Jealousy, Bullying, and Isolation Quotes in All Summer in a Day

Sometimes, at night, she heard them stir, in remembrance, and she knew they were dreaming and remembering gold or a yellow crayon or a coin large enough to buy the world with. She knew they thought they remembered a warmness, like a blushing in the face, in the body, in the arms and legs and trembling hands. But then they always awoke to the tatting drum, the endless shaking down of clear bead necklaces upon the roof, the walk, the gardens, the forests, and their dreams were gone.

They edged away from her, they would not look at her. She felt them go away. And this was because 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. When the class sang songs about happiness and life and games her lips barely moved. Only when they sang about the sun and the summer did her lips move as she watched the drenched windows. And then, of course, the biggest crime of all was that she had come here only five years ago from Earth, and she remembered the sun and the way the sun was and the sky was when she was four in Ohio. And they, they had been on Venus all their lives, and they had been only two years old when last the sun came out and had long since forgotten the color and heat of it and the way it really was.

Then, for the first time, she turned and looked at him. And what she was waiting for was in her eyes. "Well, don’t wait around here!" cried the boy savagely. "You won’t see nothing!" Her lips moved.

"Margot." They stood as if someone had driven them, like so many stakes, into the floor. They looked at each other and then looked away. They glanced out at the world that was raining now and raining and raining steadily. They could not meet each other’s glances. Their faces were solemn and pale. They looked at their hands and feet, their faces down. "Margot."