How Does Ray Bradbury Use Ethos In The Martian Chronicles
The Martian Chronicles: A Look into Colonization on Mars Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles, a science fiction novel explores the lives of the people who are migrating and colonizing Mars in order to escape an atomically devastated Earth. The book is a collection of short stories that are inter-related, and they describe the lives and assimilation processes of a number of settlers that came from earth to the planet Mars. It narrates the difficulties that the settlers face in getting accustomed to the different environment and their efforts to create a new set of values and cultural ethos in an alien environment. Through his commentary on American colonization, Ray Bradbury conveys the theme of metamorphosis in The Martian Chronicles and
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portrays the assimilation of Earthmen to the Martian territory and society. The story begins with rockets being sent to Mars. A total of four rockets are sent and each rocket brings along settlers from the planet Earth. Each expedition that lands carries a story of its own, which unwinds as the book progresses. “The ship came down from space. It came from the stars and the black velocities, and the shining movements, and the silent gulfs of space.” (Bradbury, 32). The first expedition starts with a Martian lady, Ylla, who, through telepathy, dreams of a rocket ship landing on Mars. She arouses her husband's jealousy by her romance with one of the astronauts on the spacecraft. In a fit of rage, her husband kills two of the men in the expedition when the rocket ship lands on Mars. “Telepathic, the Martians know the humans’ arrival is imminent.”(Student’s Encyclopedia of Great American Writers, Web). The second expedition illustrates the crew going to a place where they hallucinate and think that they are in
Loganathan 2 an insane asylum; this makes Dr. XXX kill the crew members and finally kill himself. Furthermore, the third expedition shows how Captain John Black tells the crew to stay on the ship, but they refuse to heed him. The crew’s attention is captured by the sight of their dead loved ones suddenly appearing on Mars. The situation worsens when 16 coffins appear from the 16 houses the following morning. “Though they appear as loving relatives, the Martians are, in truth, malevolent, bent on killing.” (Plank, 66). The Martians tricked the crew members into thinking that a dead loved one of each member is still alive, so that they could kill the crew. The Martians are portrayed as the bad guys for the humans. The story continues with Earth men wanting to take over the Martian’s land and the humans trying to escape a troubled earth.
The humans are rather reluctant to make contact with the surviving Martians and work towards quickly colonizing the planet. “The short story collection gathers previously published works, dealing with- as the title implies- man’s attempts to colonize the red planet.” (The Continuum International Publishing Group, Web). Rockets and settlers are seen quickly spreading out throughout Mars. The colonizers change Mars into a second Earth. “In the stories, Earthmen journey to Mars and often encounter villages much like the small towns they left behind” (The Continuum International Publishing Group, Web). Eventually, the small towns resembling earth towns begin to sprout here. One of the characters, Benjamin Driscoll, makes it his mission to plant thousands of trees on the red plains just so that the oxygen levels will increase. The trees he plant grow into a huge forest in just one night. Other prominent features of the book include the rippling outward of colonization where the first wave of migrants being the loner, pioneer types, and the second, consisting of some Americans from New York. “Mars was a distant shore, and the men spread upon it in waves. Each wave different, and each wave stronger.” (Bradbury, 107). The book goes on to describe the building of a Martian town by colonists and how they made it to resemble an average Midwestern American town. The story concludes with the immigrants having a tremendous impact on the geography of the planet and how Mars is now largely named after the people from the first four expeditions. Mars is officially colonized at this
point.
portrays the assimilation of Earthmen to the Martian territory and society. The story begins with rockets being sent to Mars. A total of four rockets are sent and each rocket brings along settlers from the planet Earth. Each expedition that lands carries a story of its own, which unwinds as the book progresses. “The ship came down from space. It came from the stars and the black velocities, and the shining movements, and the silent gulfs of space.” (Bradbury, 32). The first expedition starts with a Martian lady, Ylla, who, through telepathy, dreams of a rocket ship landing on Mars. She arouses her husband's jealousy by her romance with one of the astronauts on the spacecraft. In a fit of rage, her husband kills two of the men in the expedition when the rocket ship lands on Mars. “Telepathic, the Martians know the humans’ arrival is imminent.”(Student’s Encyclopedia of Great American Writers, Web). The second expedition illustrates the crew going to a place where they hallucinate and think that they are in
Loganathan 2 an insane asylum; this makes Dr. XXX kill the crew members and finally kill himself. Furthermore, the third expedition shows how Captain John Black tells the crew to stay on the ship, but they refuse to heed him. The crew’s attention is captured by the sight of their dead loved ones suddenly appearing on Mars. The situation worsens when 16 coffins appear from the 16 houses the following morning. “Though they appear as loving relatives, the Martians are, in truth, malevolent, bent on killing.” (Plank, 66). The Martians tricked the crew members into thinking that a dead loved one of each member is still alive, so that they could kill the crew. The Martians are portrayed as the bad guys for the humans. The story continues with Earth men wanting to take over the Martian’s land and the humans trying to escape a troubled earth.
The humans are rather reluctant to make contact with the surviving Martians and work towards quickly colonizing the planet. “The short story collection gathers previously published works, dealing with- as the title implies- man’s attempts to colonize the red planet.” (The Continuum International Publishing Group, Web). Rockets and settlers are seen quickly spreading out throughout Mars. The colonizers change Mars into a second Earth. “In the stories, Earthmen journey to Mars and often encounter villages much like the small towns they left behind” (The Continuum International Publishing Group, Web). Eventually, the small towns resembling earth towns begin to sprout here. One of the characters, Benjamin Driscoll, makes it his mission to plant thousands of trees on the red plains just so that the oxygen levels will increase. The trees he plant grow into a huge forest in just one night. Other prominent features of the book include the rippling outward of colonization where the first wave of migrants being the loner, pioneer types, and the second, consisting of some Americans from New York. “Mars was a distant shore, and the men spread upon it in waves. Each wave different, and each wave stronger.” (Bradbury, 107). The book goes on to describe the building of a Martian town by colonists and how they made it to resemble an average Midwestern American town. The story concludes with the immigrants having a tremendous impact on the geography of the planet and how Mars is now largely named after the people from the first four expeditions. Mars is officially colonized at this
point.