How we cite our quotes: ("Story Name," Paragraph)
Quote #7
And she decided, as sleep assumed the dreaming for her, that yes, yes indeed, very much so, irrevocably, this was as it had always been and would forever continue to be. ("The Wilderness," 95)
Thinking about her move to Mars to be with her future husband, Janice decides that the big patterns in life never change. Earlier in the story she thought about how her voyage to Mars would be different from her grandparents' voyage west—different food, different vehicles, a different destination ("The Wilderness," 7). But ultimately the end goal is the same: a new life and second chances. We have to say, this doesn't bode well for the family in "The Million-Year Picnic."
Quote #8
Earth changed in the black sky.
It caught fire. ("The Off Season," 176-7)
Again, fire and change are connected. What's striking here is the way Bradbury uses understatement to capture the horror of the situation. He doesn't say the Earth was blown up or destroyed—he just says it "changed." This spooky understatement is part of what makes Bradbury such an awesome writer.
Quote #9
For not a leaf fragment blew under the door but what the wall panels flipped open and the copper scrap rats flashed swiftly out. The offending dust, hair, or paper, seized in miniature steel jaws, was raced back to the burrows. There, down tubes which fed into the cellar, it was dropped into the sighing vent of an incinerator which sat like evil Baal in a dark corner. ("There Will Come Soft Rains," 20)
Baal is the name of a demon, and an incinerator is, you know, hot. So again we have a connection between change and fire/heat. Except here, the fire involves stopping change. The house has a routine and it's going to stick to it, even after its inhabitants are long gone.