What Novel Parts Are Critical to Providing Main Information to the Overall Plot Line?
The Martian Chronicles is a science-fiction novel by Ray Bradbury published in 1950. The book, as its title suggests, is an account of events situated on the planet Mars. However, some people are opposed to the novel’s branding as a “science-fiction” for the reason that it was according to critics, anti-science —”it has a purple prose, not written in a believable way and it does not depict the reality as how science fictions should be” (SparkNotes.com). It is a wonderful and peculiar story of the experiences of man on Mars, or, it is also not wrong to say that the novel is a story of the experiences of Mars under the hands of Earth-men.
The story started with the Earthmen’s attempts to colonize Mars. In the first six chapters of the novel, Earth sent expeditions to explore the planet but repeatedly fail since men are being murdered by the Martians even before they get to completely explore the planet. However, the Earth-men finally became successful in their fourth expedition to Mars as they find that most of the Martians have all died from a pox which was brought by one of the earlier expeditions. Given the opportunity, the Earth-men finally inhabited the red planet and made it into a second Earth — planted trees to improve the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere, attempted to convert the remaining Martians, rename its places, build businesses, build houses and call more people in from Earth. The story builds up to the last seven chapters of the novel where a nuclear war is about to break out on Earth. “People from Earth radio men on Mars to come back” (Shmoop.com). People came back to Earth without second thoughts since after all, it is their home, and it is where their families are.
The story ended with a rocket landing on Mars carrying a family of five: husband, wife, and three sons. Their dad burned all their documents relating to the planet Earth and destroyed their rocket ship. He explained to his sons that he has brought them away from Earth to start a new life on the planet. He also told them that another family will come from Earth to accompany them and this time, a couple with four daughters. He then takes his sons to “see some Martians” (Bradbury 2724) — he takes them to the canal and has them look at themselves at their reflection in the water.
Works Cited
Shmoop Editorial Team. “The Martian Chronicles Summary.” Shmoop. Shmoop University, 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 16 Feb. 2017.
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on The Martian Chronicles.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. n.d.. Web. 16 Feb. 2017.
“The Martian Chronicles.” The Martian Chronicles, knigger.org/bradbury/the_martian_chronicles/lang/en/. Accessed 17 Feb. 2017.
