What Are The Similarities Between Zero Hour And War Of The Worlds

“Zero Hour,” written by Ray Bradbury, and War of the Worlds, written by H.G Wells, both have similarities and contrasting events and characters. The authors create stories that include reactions to an alien invasion and demonstrate how the invasion changes the lives of those involved. Both authors portray alien invasions but each author has their own vision of how characters would react. When Mink in “Zero Hour” says, “Peekaboo” (Bradburry 261), it changes the mood of the whole story because she took an innocent word and gave it a dark meaning. The parents reacted with terror because of the creepy tone in Mink’s voice. Obviously, the parents weren’t going to react as if Mink was playing the actual Peekaboo game because it was at this point
that Mink’s parents knew it wasn’t a joke. In comparison to the parents’ reaction, Wells wrote, “A man, too frightened to drop the portmanteau he carried on his shoulder, swung round and sent me staggering with a blow from the corner of his burden” (Wells 269). The scene was very hectic and the thoughts running through people’s mind were about just saving themselves instead of helping others. It wasn’t so much the voice of the invaders like in “Zero Hour”, but rather the destruction being caused that frightened the people in War of the Worlds. The two stories also contain events that change the lives of the others in both towns. “My boy Tim worships some guy named- Drill, I think it was.” Drill is not only in the town that Mink is in, but he is popular in the whole country and even maybe the world. This means the invasion will affect many people.