Brilliant works always clash their foreheads with supporters of different opinions, forcing the reader to support and hate one of the parties. This is how Ray Bradbury’s short story “Rust,” the summary of which is unable to convey passions without quotes, acts like this.
The author is an omniscient, but cold-blooded witness of the dialogue between two military people. 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 entire work, having spent ten minutes, than to look for a brief retelling of Bradbury's Rust, a story with a deep psychological context that reveals the true skill of the science fiction writer.
What is the story of “Rust”?
Sergeant Hollis, a smart but worried young man, comes to speak with the Colonel. He heard rumors about the soldier's poor mental health. 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 makes a fantastic assumption that one day all weapons will disappear from the face of the earth. The colonel responds to the cynicism of the military: the battle will never stop. People will bare their fists, use their teeth and claws, like animals, but they will never be able to abandon the confrontation. The sergeant answers this with a sharp attack; he invented a device that causes a “nervous shock” to weapons steel and turns it into rust. The conclusion is clear - the military needs a doctor. The Colonel takes a pen from his pocket with a cap from a cartridge to give Hollis a referral to the doctor, indicating that he did not believe a single word. This fills the sergeant, who spent a month thinking about the fate of the weapon, with determination. Hollis declares that he will take advantage of the leave and leave the camp for a few minutes, say goodbye to the senior in rank and leave the office. Some time later, the colonel begins to discuss the state of the sergeant with the doctor by telephone and, about to make a note with a pen and a cap from a gun cartridge, he finds only red dust ... Rust. He immediately calls the sentry and without hesitation orders to catch up and shoot Hollis. But he cannot fulfill the order. No one else can use weapons. Breaking a chair against the wall and arming himself with a strong leg, the colonel rushes after the main criminal who encroached on the dictatorship of the weapon. Rushing 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 story “Rust” is based. The summary, unfortunately, does not convey the changes taking place with the characters. Hollis is an open-minded 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 - the colonel, fed and brought up by the war. The officer’s behavior changes throughout the story. First, the colonel expresses sympathy, and then shouts: “Kill!” Everything is simple: inside says the fear of losing a job, 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 switches to descriptions. Colorful. Cruel. Realistic. He begins to speak the language of psychological images that permeate Ray Bradbury's story, Rust. The summary could look like this: to reveal the true character of a person, you need to show him the dreams of other people. Fight for war or live without war. Two points of view are far from the real state of things, are at diametrically opposite ends. The dreamer eliminates the weapon, the bloodthirsty hunter makes it out of the means at hand. That's what R. Bradbury says. Rust is, first of all, an illusion, a
pipe dream.Perhaps the author wrote a message to people about the need to make the world a better place, and for this he came up with a sergeant-creator. In contrast, he portrayed an antihero - a callous pragmatist who lives by standards. Yes, Ray Bradbury’s short story “Rust,” a summary of which is a retelling of dreams of a world without war, can be interpreted in two ways. But, most likely, the author, being a real dreamer and inventor of weapons against weapons, destroyed his own idea and said that there would always be wars. And for this, machine guns and bombs are not needed.