Summary “Rust” Bradbury


Genius works always push foreheads supporters of different opinions, forcing the reader to support and hate one of the parties. This is how Rye Bradbury’s story “Rust” works, the summary of which is incapable of giving passages without quotes.

The author acts as an omniscient but cold-blooded witness to the dialogue between the two military men. One of them is a warrior to the marrow of bones, and the other is a sergeant by chance, a boy who no longer wants war and lives in most of us. It is better to read this whole work, having spent ten minutes than to look for a brief retelling of “Rust” by Bradbury, a story with a deep psychological context through which the true skill of the science fiction is revealed.

What is Rust about?

Sergeant Hollis, an intelligent young man who is worried about the inner dilemma, comes to talk with the colonel. He heard rumors about the unimportant mental state of the soldier. However, the conversation

takes an unexpected turn. Hollis rejects the proposal to transfer to another district, refuses to participate in hostilities, he does not want more wars. Moreover, the sergeant puts forward a fantastic assumption that one day all weapons will disappear from the face of the earth. The colonel responds to the assumptions of military cynicism: the battles will never cease. People will draw their fists, use their teeth and claws like animals, but they will never be able to give up the confrontation. The sergeant responds to this with a sharp attack, he has long invented a device that causes a “nervous shock” in the weapon steel and turns it into rust. The conclusion is unequivocal – the military needs a doctor. The colonel takes from his pocket a pen with a cap from the cartridge to give Hollis a referral to the doctor, indicating that he did not believe a single word. It fills the sergeant who for a whole month has been thinking about the fate of the weapon, determination. Hollis states that she will take leave and leave the camp for a few minutes, says goodbye to the senior in rank and leaves the office.
Some time later, the colonel begins to discuss the telephone sergeant’s condition with the doctor and, intending to make a mark with a pen with a cap from a rifle cartridge, finds only red dust… Rust. He immediately calls the sentry and orders without hesitation to overtake and shoot Hollis. But he can not fulfill the order. Nobody else can use the weapon. Breaking a chair against the wall and armed with a strong foot, Colonel rushes after the main criminal who encroached on the dictatorship of arms. It rushes like a primitive man, devoid of intelligence.

Psychological portraits of characters

The mixture of idealism and realism is the main motive on which Ray Bradbury’s Rust story is based. The summary, unfortunately, does not convey the changes that occur with the characters. Hollis is an open person, a dreamer and an idealist who is used to telling the truth. Although he looks a little naive, addressing his words to the ideological adversary – a colonel, nurtured and brought up by the war. The behavior of the officer varies throughout the story. At first, the colonel expresses sympathy, and then he cries: “Kill!” It’s simple: inside says the fear of losing a place of work, the meaning of life.

What did the author want to say?

Trying to convey the essence of the conflict through dialogue, in the end, the narrator goes on to describe. Colorful. Cruel. Realistic. He begins to speak the language of the psychological images that permeate Ray Bradbury’s story “Rust.” The summary could look like this: to reveal the true nature of a person, you need to show him the dreams of other people. To fight for the sake of war or to live without war. Two points of view are far from the present state of things, they are at diametrically opposite ends. The dreamer removes the weapon, the bloodthirsty hunter makes it from improvised means. That’s what R. Bradbury is talking about. Rust is, above all, an illusion, an unrealizable dream.

Perhaps the author wrote a message to people about how to make the world a better place, and for this purpose came up with a sergeant-builder. In contrast, he depicted an anti-hero – a hard-core pragmatist, living standards. Yes, Ray Bradbury’s “Rust”, a brief summary of which is a retelling of dreams of a world without war, can be treated in two ways. But, most likely, the author, being a real dreamer and inventor of a weapon against weapons, destroyed his own idea and said that wars will always be. And for this do not need machines and bombs.


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Summary “Rust” Bradbury