January 1999 ROCKET SUMMER

Plot Summary: People are going about their ordinary daily livesduring an Ohio winter. Suddenly, the climate changes and a wave of heat sweeps over the city. The season-changing heat comes from a rocket perched on a launching padready to take off.

Basic Situation:Ohio town havingan ordinary winter.

Conflict: The weather suddenly turns hot.

Complications: snow melts,people remove winter clothingand go outside.

Climax: “Rocket Summer.” Readerdiscovers change is due to a rocket.

Resolution: Therocket is on the launch pad ready to take off.

No parallel Episodes.

No Subplots.

Motivations of the Fictional Characters:

Change in temperature motivates them to change clothes.

Curiosity about the rocket launch motivates them to come outside and watch the sky.

Contrast to Real Life Characters:

Real life people would react exactly like Bradbury’s characters in this chapter.

Idioms, Analogies, Metaphors and Similes

Personification: “panes blind with frost…”

“The rocket stood in the cold winter morning, making summer with every breath of its mighty exhausts.

Metaphors: “icicles fringing every roof…”

“a flooding sea of hot air…”

Similes: “housewives lumbering like great black bears…”

“it seemed as if someone had left a bakery door open…”

Themes:

Man is always seeking to explore new frontiers.

Man’s effect on the environment can be drastic.

Expect change; it is inevitable.

©Created by Cathy Shope, EWMS 2002