In “Dark They Were and Golden-Eyed” by Ray Bradbury, Bradbury uses an extensive amount of imagery and symbolism to illustrate the consequences of not acknowledging your surroundings. Thus the theme can be argued as “You must respect the land you live on”. This premise is evident in their initial intention when the bittering’s first arrived on Mars. They assumed that they could just colonize Mars as opposed to adapting. However, later in the story it was revealed that against their will they had to adapt and modify their lifestyle. Bradbury presents imagery that causes the reader to analyze the changes that the land had upon the Bittering’s. He uses dialogue to show that the changes were becoming permanent.
The first example of imagery that supports the theme indicates that a change was about to occur. The change transpired within the environment first, foreshadowing that it would just be a matter of time before the Bittering’s experience a change within them. An example of this environmental change was when Harry notice that the blossoms were different. “I can’t tell how. An extra petal, a leaf, something, the colour, the smell”. (17) This imagery symbolizes the unconscious state of the rest of the family adapting to their habitat. Because most the family was unaware of the change in the environment , it meant they were starting to get accustomed to the land, as if the land possessed power of its on. In this piece of imagery one can clearly see that the atmosphere is influential because it says “Wind blew as if to flake away their identities” (3). This represents that as the wind blew and the longer they were a habitant on Mars the more their identities disintegrated. Which brings me to my next point; it exemplifies Harrys disrespect for the land “power” of the land. When Harry called the rest of the family they weren’t able to see the change because they were adapting. However because