The Long Rain

by

Ray Bradbury

The Monster Character Analysis

The bright blue electrical monster that attacks the group of American men and kills the unnamed man. Bradbury leaves it ambiguous as to if the monster is real—yet another terrifying aspect of the foreign, “cartoonish nightmare” of a planet—or if the monster is purely a metaphor for a massive electrical storm. Bradbury describes the monster as being half a mile wide and mile tall. It has a thousand electric legs, which fall out of its body and electrocute anything in their path. While the lieutenant, Simmons, and Pickard escape the monster unscathed by lying down in the mud (the monster is so high up, it doesn’t notice things on the ground), the other man gets scared and runs at the last moment. The monster kills him instantly with a dozen lightning bolts.

The Monster Quotes in The Long Rain

The The Long Rain quotes below are all either spoken by The Monster or refer to The Monster. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Man vs. Nature Theme Icon
).
The Long Rain Quotes

They walked over to the body, thinking that perhaps they could still save the man’s life. They couldn’t believe that there wasn’t some way to help the man. It was the natural act of men who have not accepted death until they have touched it and turned it over and made plans to bury it or leave it there for the jungle to bury in an hour of quick growth.

Related Characters: Lieutenant, Simmons, Pickard, Unnamed Man, The Monster
Page Number: 84
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Long Rain LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Long Rain PDF

The Monster Quotes in The Long Rain

The The Long Rain quotes below are all either spoken by The Monster or refer to The Monster. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Man vs. Nature Theme Icon
).
The Long Rain Quotes

They walked over to the body, thinking that perhaps they could still save the man’s life. They couldn’t believe that there wasn’t some way to help the man. It was the natural act of men who have not accepted death until they have touched it and turned it over and made plans to bury it or leave it there for the jungle to bury in an hour of quick growth.

Related Characters: Lieutenant, Simmons, Pickard, Unnamed Man, The Monster
Page Number: 84
Explanation and Analysis: