"All Summer in a Day" is a science fiction short story by Ray Bradbury, first published in the March 1954 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
Video All Summer in a Day
Plot synopsis
The story is about a class of students on Venus, which in this story is a world of constant rainstorms, where the Sun is visible for only 1 hour every seven years. (This story was written before Mariner 2 discovered that the surface temperature on Venus is higher than the boiling point of water.)
One of the children, Margot, moved to Venus from Earth five years earlier, and she is the only one in her class to remember sunshine, since the Sun shone regularly on Earth. She describes the Sun as "a penny", or "like a fire in the stove", and the other children, being too young ever to have seen it themselves, do not believe her. The other students bully and ostracize her and just before the sun comes out, they lock her in a closet down a tunnel.
As the Sun is about to appear, their teacher arrives to take the class outside to enjoy their one hour of sunshine and, in their astonishment and joy, they all forget about Margot. They run, play, skip, jump, and prance about, savoring every second of their newly found freedom. "It's much better than sun lamps!" one of them cries.
Suddenly, a girl catches a raindrop in her hands. Thunder sounds, and they start to pick as many flowers as they can before it starts pouring again and run back inside. At this point, one of them remembers Margot, who is still locked in the closet. Ashamed, they let her out of the closet, standing frozen, embarrassed over what they have done, and unable to "meet each other's glances."
The precious Sun has come and gone and, because of their despicable act, Margot, who loved the Sun the most, has missed it.
Maps All Summer in a Day
Adaptations
A 30-minute television adaptation, originally broadcast on the PBS' children's series WonderWorks in 1982. The ending is expanded to show the children atoning for their horrible act by giving Margot flowers that they picked while the Sun was out. The director of photography was Robert Elswit, who went on to become an Academy Award winning cinematographer.
Cast
- Reesa Mallen as Margot
- Keith Coogan as William
- Tammy Simpson as Paula
- Jerry Marshak as Michael
- Bridget Meade as Lisa
- Edith Fields as Mrs. Callaghan
In popular culture
All Summer in a Day is alluded to in a description of main character Oscar Wao, from Junot Díaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. "Sucks a lot to be left out of adolescence, sort of like getting locked in the closet on Venus when the sun appears for the first time in a hundred years." Although in Bradbury's All Summer in a Day, it comes out every seven years.
The story also is referenced in chapter 22 of Karen Thompson Walker's novel The Age of Miracles.
The story is referenced in Season 3 Episode 2 of the cartoon Drawn Together when the character Toot is trapped in the closet and doesn't get to experience the Wiener Man's hot dog offerings.
Trivia
This story is about Venus and the Sun. Coincidentally, author Ray Bradbury died the same day as a very rare celestial event, a transit of Venus across the Sun.
References
External links
- All Summer in a Day title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Resources for finding the story
Source of article : Wikipedia
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