Comparecontrast synthesis All In a Summers Day(Bradbury) with It's A Good Life(Bixby) - Essay Example

While 'It's a Good Life' is set in a place which might be the earth, the short story by Bradbury is set in the planet Venus. While Bradbury's story is set somewhere in the near future, Bixby's story is set in the last part of the twentieth century.. In 'All Summer in a Day', the story begins with a forecast given by scientists about a rainless hour, indicating the dependence on scientists .In a story set in a distant future, the dependence would be on machines and computers. In the case of 'It's a Good Life', the time of the story is indicated by the music record Are You My Sunshine which was a present for Dan.

While the place of the story 'All Summer in a Day', Venus, is a planet humans have at last colonized, the planet is inhospitable, with rain throughout the year. In fact it had been raining for several years, and the sun had come out for an hour seven years ago. On the other hand, the story 'It's a Good Life' takes place on the earth, or on a part of the earth which has been separated from the rest of the planet by the protagonist. Both the stories have children as the protagonists. While in Bradbury's story, it is nine year old Margot, a budding poet, who is the protagonist, in Bixby's story, it is three year old Anthony who is at the center of the story.

While Margot is undoubtedly a girl, sensitive and intelligent, we are not sure about Anthony, who seems to be hardly human. "He blinked his purple gaze" (Bixby), and "He curled into an unlikely shape and went partly to sleep" (Bixby) give a hint of the not so human form of Anthony. While Margot is a static character, getting bullied by the other children, three year old Anthony is a dynamic character who can change things just by thinking about it. Other children jeer at Margot, not believing that she wrote the poem about the sun, while in the case of Anthony, grown -ups including his parents are afraid of him.

While her peers make fun of Margot , and imprison her in the closet while the sun was out, thus depriving her of the greatest pleasure on the planet, in the case of Anthony, elders are too scared to sing even 'Happy Birthday' in case it irritated him. Little Margot does nothing to get back to the Earth, from where she had come five years ago, although she wanted nothing better than that. The author describes Margot as "an old photograph dusted from an album, whitened away" (Bradbury).The girl was pale and listless with a voice like a ghost's.

On the other hand, three year old Anthony was a already a strong character, who could do whatever he wanted just by thinking. His ability to discern people's thoughts and react put him in an all powerful position. While his 'good deeds' for the people he liked were bad enough, his bad deeds for those whom he disliked were horrible, resulting in everybody trying not to displease or even please him. The dynamism in Anthony's character is seen in the speed with which he reacts. "When the rat saw Bill Soames coming, it tried to run, but Anthony thought at it, and it turned a flip-flop on the grass, and lay trembling, its eyes gleaming in small black terror."(Bixby) This shows the quickness of Anthony's reaction which could be quicker than a rat.

While the plot of Bradbury's story moves linearly, it does make use of some flashbacks, although they are few. Margot remembers the Sun whom she had seen five years ago, while living on