A Miracle of Rare Device story
Two drifters make a startling discovery in the desert and seek to profit from it. Directed by: Roger Tompkins. Story by: Ray Bradbury.
10 total · 1 choice · 5 major · 4 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| miracle | choice | The story concerns a supernatural mirage of seemingly divine origin that was dubbed a miracle by the main characters. The mirage appeared to different people as whatever place their secret inner self yearned for. Thus it appeared to one as San Fransisco, two others as Paris, and another even as a fantastical version of Xanadu of yore. |
| awe | major | The story makes a point of illustrating how awestruck various people were, or in a few cases were not, by the miraculous mirage. |
| carefree way of life | major | Robert and William were a pair of happy-go-lucky drifters. |
| greed for riches | major | Ned was exceedingly greedy about profiting from the wondrous mirage. William's greed to make a profit from charging passersby to see the wondrous mirage was juxtaposed with his partner, Robert's compulsion to let everyone view it for free. |
| stereotypically innocent character | major | In the end the wondrous mirage came back because two innocent children believed in it. By stark contrast, it vanished before more cynical characters, like Ned. |
| the inclination to believe what one wants to believe | major | One interpretation of the story is that the wondrous mirage was real and that people saw in it the place they most yearned to be. |
| creative writing | minor | In the introduction, Ray Bradbury shared with the viewer the wellsprings of creativity that inspire his writing. |
| human childhood | minor | A farmer's two kids caused the wondrous mirage to reappear. In his introduction, Ray Bradbury recounted a childhood reminiscence about he and his family witnessing something truly mysterious, a "miracle" in his words, while driving through the desert. |
| poetry | minor | A young man recited a verse from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem Kubla Khan as he gazed out into the desert at what he interpreted to be the famed city of Xanadu. |
| the nature of creativity | minor | In his introduction, Ray Bradbury gave his viewers an intimate window into his writing room, and some of the self-professed sources of creativity that lay about within it. |