Without the hope of something to live for, there is little reason to continue living, as evidenced by the astronauts' suicide and loss of sanity. They symbolize hope, the only refuge from which one can escape the ceaseless torrent of despair. The Sun Domes, the intended destination of the astronauts on Venus, represent more than themselves as well. The story is of astronauts trying to find peace in a hopeless world, and the ceaseless, heavy rain is an apt image of the threat of despair in life on Earth. This rain symbolizes the depressing nature of life without hope it obscures everything and beats down on a person, trying to take away all hope of escaping the dark, eternal prison. In the story 'The Long Rain,' astronauts stranded on Venus must reach the safety of the Sun Domes, struggling against the bitter and incessant rain.

The Man is a symbol of goodness in a dark universe.

Accordingly, all civilizations touched by this man are joyful and whole, while those without him are selfish and despairing. In the story 'The Man,' the titular man is supposed to be Jesus, representing joy and the fulfillment of human life. At the end of the story, the psychologist notices that the lions in the room have recently killed prey and are feasting on the remains. These children have clearly been corrupted in the manner of a lion, they lure and kill their parents in the playroom. They insist on keeping the playroom turned to the setting of the African veldt, where lions prowl and feast on their prey. In the first story in the collection, 'The Veldt,' the lions in the virtual reality playroom are symbols for what the children have become as a result of it. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. Her ears were sewn, too, as if a darning-needle dragonfly had stitched all her senses shut.These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. “Her nose was sealed with black wax-twine. “Her eyes were stitched with red resin-thread,” he wrote. The tattoo artist in Bradbury’s story is an old woman who lives in a shack. “Just like a writer can struggle, trying to choose the right word, tattoo collectors will spend years sometimes struggling with what to put on a piece of their body.” Tattoo aficionados are not unlike writers, Hellinger continues. “We really tried to get a broad spectrum of styles and people from all walks of life, not just one body style or one particular type of tattoo,” says Don Hellinger, the publisher of Inked magazine, who helped connect Schiller with the tattoo world. To celebrate his legacy, the film director, book publisher, and former photojournalist Lawrence Schiller conceived All of Me Is Illustrated, a pictorial homage of full-body tattoos, in the spirit of Bradbury’s character.

Bradbury the illustrated man