Rain, Rain, Go Away

Mr. Wright, or George, is the story’s second protagonist, or deuteragonist. Like his wife, he’s indirectly characterized through their conversations with one another, but he’s a more dynamic character than she is, undergoing slight changes as the narrative unfolds. Early in the story, his only motivation seems to be watching the baseball game on television, and he pays little attention to her observations about the new neighbors. Like his wife, he’s an archetype of the 1950s American—watching the ball game, sitting on the couch with a frosty beverage, and good-naturedly letting his wife chatter in his ear.

However, changes in him become apparent as he begins to interact with the Sakkaros, revealing insecurities and anxieties similar to his wife’s. He comments distractedly early in the story that Mrs. Sakkaro’s perfect home will “be setting you impossible standards and you’ll have to drop her in self-defense” (130), but after meeting Mr. Sakkaro, he says that “with a handsome, wealthy man next door, it looks as though I’ll have impossible standards set for me, too” (131). Thematically, the juxtaposition of these comments reveals George’s own preoccupation with The Illusion of Perfection and Control and also a bit of male condescension: It was acceptable, and even a little amusing, for his wife to compare herself with impossible standards, but now that he might be subject to the same comparisons, he feels irritated. Rather than accept his own concerns as the root of this feeling, he blames the Sakkaros’ odd habits: “If I see them biting away at another cotton candy stick I’ll turn green and sicken on the spot” (132).

Despite his aggravation, and in contrast to Mrs. Wright, his actions at the climax of the story can in some ways be interpreted as heroic. Although he believes that the coming storm is nothing to worry about, he gets the Sakkaros home as quickly as he can, nearly delivering them to their doorstep in time to be saved.

A flat character throughout the story who represents the archetypal American child, Tommie is merely functional. He serves particular functions for Asimov as the architect of the narrative and for Mrs. Wright as the architect of the plot.

For Asimov, Tommie is the method by which the Wrights receive the (apparently erroneous) information that the Sakkaros are from Arizona. Thematically, the text gives only one hint as to Tommie’s true character, which suggests that he might not be the “ideal” child the Wrights imagine as they pursue The Illusion of Perfection and Control: “The Sakkaro boy was so polite and reasonable that even Tommie Wright, wedged between his parents in the front seat, was subdued by example into a semblance of civilization” (130). The implication is that Tommie frequently behaves in ways his parents might consider “uncivilized,” which Lillian further enforces when she’s unable to “recall when she had spent so serenely pleasant a drive” (131).

For Mrs. Wright, Tommie supports her image as a wife and mother who wants her son to make friends and have fun at an amusement park but who is also willing to use him to serve her own ends. She wishes that Tommie would make friends with the Sakkaro boy because she wants to know more about them, and she uses both her son and the Sakkaros’ son as motivation for the outing to Murphy’s Park.