Ray Bradbury’s “August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains”, a story about a family in a house that was built to protect them in a time of perpetual nuclear threat, has the same eerie setting that “Sealed Off” starts with, having the whole idea of the danger of bombs and never knowing when you’ll be hit, never knowing true safety, never being able to be ready and protect yourself. Living in a time of fear where you have to find a way to at least make yourself feel safe even though you already know you really are not in anyway in control of you situation. The couple in the train and the family in the house both want to be safe and feel secure in a time and place where there is no security. While “Sealed Off” is a very  interesting story because of the characters and the way they view things and interest, it is the setting that really helps drive the story along and makes the characters, especially Cuiyuan, take some sort of action for themselves. The image to the left shows the family that was vaporized in Bradbury’s story by the atomic bomb. The house they built could not save them. Like that house, Cuiyuan envisioned a meeting, some sort of “tryst” to save her from her unfortunate situation of family members and a war torn country but even that was only a false sense of security fabricated for her own temporary peace of mind. Building yourself an escape, whether it be a physical or mental protection can be useful but it isn’t always real and it can’t always protect you.