Martian Chronicles
By
Ray Bradbury
January 1999 Rocket Summer
Sets scene for the rest of the novel
Introduces the exploration of Mars
“Summer” image is a rebirth from winter – like a
rebirth for the people of Earth – comes from
technology
Sets up a comparison of later changes on Mars
to the changes on Earth created by the rocket.
Rapid temperature change parallels the rapid
change humanity is about to go through –
foreshadowing???
February 1999 Ylla
Describes Martian life and lifestyle
– Differences and similarities between humans and Martians are
highlighted
Domestic problems/issues
Male dominance
Misconceptions about the solar system
Jealousy
– This humanizes the Martians: allows the reader to identify with
them.
– Describes the demise of the 1st human expedition: foreshadows
the difficulties humans will have.
– Trivial nature of the cause of 1st expedition’s death makes the
effort to go to Mars appear less important.
August 1999 The Summer Night
Singing songs in English
– Earth culture coming to Mars
– Establishes telepathic communication
– Lord Byron’s poem “She Walks in Beauty . . .”
Challenges traditional notions of beauty
This opens the reader to the beauty of the
Martians and Martian culture.
– Makes the terrible end of Martian culture more
tragic.
August 1999 The Earth Men
Describes the failure and death of the 2nd human
expedition to Mars.
Humorous, wacky events aggravate and frustrate the
reader.
Reinforces the humanization of the Martians – they are
as petty and screwed up as humans.
Trivial nature of the cause of 2nd expedition’s death
makes the effort to go to Mars appear less important.
Highlights the level of instability in Martian culture –
comment on human culture??? Foreshadows eventual
human research into psychosis.
Closed-mindedness – comment on humanity???
March 2000 The Taxpayer
Provides/explains human motivation to go
to Mars – war is coming.
Sets up the 3rd expedition to Mars.
Taxpayer feels entitled to go to Mars –
commentary on human feelings of
entitlement.
April 2000 The Third Expedition
Martians perpetrate a mass hallucination
to defend Mars against human settlement.
Mars finally sees Earth as a threat.
This is a turning point – Martians finally
reveal their superiority.
This sets up the parallel of Europeans vs.
Native American’s.
Humans unknowingly bring disease.
June 2001 “—and the moon be still
as bright.”
Spender is concerned about keeping Martian
history and culture intact.
Most Martians are dead due to Chicken Pox.
Shows examples of undesirable human
behavior:
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–
–
–
–
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Drunkenness
Hatred
Violence
Pollution
Lack of appreciation for other cultures: e.g. Cortez
Crush dissenting opinions – send Capt. Wilder to
Jupiter in later chapters.
June 2001 “—and the moon be still
as bright.”
Ironic that Capt. Wilder kills Spender because
the Capt. is the only other human who cares or
understands the importance of Martian culture.
Spender’s actions support Bradbury’s notions
that humans are not entitled to colonize Mars.
In this sense, critics generally agree that
Spender serves as Bradbury’s voice.
This story parallels the colonization of new
worlds by Europeans – U.S., Australia, Africa,
etc.
August 2001 The Settlers
Opening lines parallel Tale of Two Cities
Outlines human reasons for coming to
Mars.
Shows that people are coming to colonize
– exploration is over.
Government sanction parallels the WWII
recruiting posters – propaganda???
Loneliness felt by settlers makes the move
feel unnatural and improper to the reader.
December 2001 The Green
Morning
This chapter parallels the Johnny Appleseed story.
Benjamin Driscoll plants trees to generate oxygen and
make the atmosphere breathable.
Bradbury uses liberal amounts of poetic/artistic license in
this chapter:
– Plants grow over night
– Plants grow all over the surface of Mars
– Trees, grass, bushes, etc all grow without difficulty, in spite of the
fact that Driscoll only planted trees.
Note: this adds to the irony of destroying Mars for the
sake of Earth. This destroys Martian ecology and makes
it Earthlike.
At the end of this story, Driscoll’s fainting shows that
Mars continues to resist this transformation.
February 2002 The Locusts
Locusts are an insect that devour and
destroy large areas of cropland.
Bradbury makes the parallel that the
human settlers are consuming all of Mars.
Furthers the notion of destroying all that is
Martian, and transforming it into something
Earthlike, and familiar.
Allusion to biblical plagues visited on the
Egyptians in Judeo-Christian tradition.
August 2002 Night Meeting
Tomás Gomez meets up with a Martian from a
different time – time warp?
Tomás Gomez is an ordinary human (no special
qualities) who has a conversation where he has
to explain what humans have done to an
ordinary Martian.
This makes the Martian culture real to the
reader, and evokes pity at its loss.
This story lays the blame on the settlers, not on
the Government that organized the trips.
October 2002 The Shore
First men – from the American frontier,
Cattlemen, ranch hands, explorers, etc.
Bradbury highlights their roughness, abilities,
and their preference for solitude.
First women – prostitutes.
Second men – Urban poor from US cities.
“Roman candles” foreshadows fall of the US, like
the Roman Empire.
Americans are running away from war, but will
eventually have to return to deal with it.
February 2003 Interim
They have now destroyed and replaced
the Martian culture
Everything the Martians tried to prevent
happened anyway
Introduces religion to Mars
April 2003 The Musicians
Makes it seem as though the Martians are
a joke-the kids are making fun of them
Another chapter that evokes pity
The Firemen start fires rather than putting
them out – reoccurring theme in
Bradbury’s books
Also, Firemen burning any traces of the
Martians making it appear there were no
Martians to begin with
June 2003 Way In the Middle of the
Air
All the African Americans leave together to go to
Mars
Ending makes it seem like the African Americans
just disappeared as opposed to leaving. e.g. all
their belongings are scattered everywhere
Bradbury describes a lot with the colors black
and white
Story is told through the eyes of a racist nonsympathetic main character
Lots of biblical references – the assumption of
the oppressed into heaven; the oppressors are
left behind.
2004-05 The Naming of Names
Martian names seemed to mean more
than just a title, but the rockets/humans
destroyed these and replaced them with
mechanical/metal names
Naming shows ownership – humans give
names to establish ownership of Mars
Completion of Spender’s dream dying
Sets up the next story
Start implementing policies from Earth
April 2005 Usher II
Deals with the censorship coming from Earth to
Mars
Shows Humans don’t have any respect for their
own culture
Bradbury makes death seem a lot less serious,
just like in the first couple chapters
Uses a lot of Poe in this chapter
The Red Death symbolizes the ending of
Stendahl’s “fun”. The house falling symbolizes
the end of everything he had done.
August 2005 The Old Ones
After everyone else has come to Mars,
now elders come.
Shows that Mars is open to just about
everyone.
Now that old people have come to Mars, it
seemed to have lost its “appeal”.
September 2005 The Martian
Symbolizes the end of the Martian race
Illustrates how everyone needs to belong
somewhere and how the Martians tried to
co-exist, but were not able to
Makes a strong statement about human
selfishness and its destructive power
November 2005 The Luggage
Store
Main purpose of this story is to set up that there
is a war on earth
Switches between people leaving Earth to go to
Mars, to people starting to leave Mars to go back
to Earth
Theme of families and families sticking together
Reinforces the notion that humans never saw
mars as “home.”
Adds severity to the destruction of the Martian
culture – humans destroyed it, and then left.
November 2005 The Off Season
Brings back Sam Parkhill-allows reader to
know what type of character he is
Goes back to theme between husband
and wife
Martians final goodbye
Martians are trying to give Parkhill the
deed to half of Mars
– Martians trying to show him he has a place on
Mars when the Earth ends
November 2005 The Watchers
Mars receives a message from Earth
asking them to come home; Australia has
been atomized.
Most Humans have been on Mars for 3-4
years, and still perceive Earth as “home.”
Humans begin thinking about, and
showing concern for, loved ones on Earth.
Sets up the idea that Mars is abandoned
(or nearly so).
December 2005 The Silent Towns
Walter Gripp appears to be the only one left on Mars –
he frantically tries to find others. ‘Last man alive’
archetype.
Discovers Genevieve is still on Mars – allusion to Adam
and Eve.
Maybe this chapter is asking is it worth it to restart a race
with Genevieve? She is both physically unattractive and
self-centered.
Humor comes from irony of the last two people on Mars
being unappealing to one another.
There seems to be no one else left; the reader can
assume they all traveled back to Earth.
Gender stereotype is worth noting – women want
marriage and men don’t.
April 2026 The Long Years
Cpt. Wilder comes back to find Mr. Hathaway and family.
We find out Wilder has been to Jupiter, Saturn and
Neptune, exploring there – reveals there is nothing else
out there (in space and on other planets) for Humans.
Humans silence Wilder’s dissenting opinions about
human effect on Mars by sending him far away – exile.
Hathaway’s loneliness leads him to re-create his family,
using robots.
Hathaway ends up dying at the end of this chapter, and
after his death Cpt. Wilder leaves Hathaway’s family on
Mars.
He cannot kill them because he believes it is the same
as murder. Science Fiction trope of artificial intelligence.
August 2026 There Will Come Soft
Rains
Automated house runs the same way as if
people were there even though no people are
living there anymore.
The house is the main character of the story.
Poem shows that nature won’t care if humanity
dies. Points out the war on Earth doesn’t matter.
Despite the effort from the house, it could not
save itself from being destroyed.
Artificial intelligence.
October 2026 The Million-Year
Picnic
William Thomas brings his family to Mars, in
their own rocket, to get away from Earth. After
arriving, Thomas blows up the rocket so no one
will find it.
One of Thomas’ friends also came to Mars in a
different rocket with four daughters. Thomas and
his friend decided they would start anew on
Mars
At the end, Thomas reveals to his children that
they are the new Martians – Noah’s Ark story???
Adam and Eve???
Earth has been destroyed