Study guide for Ray Bradbury's The Martian

Chronicles (1950)
Introduction

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Clearly Bradbury had a certain vision of the Mars in which these stories areset, a fantasy world based far more on
Edgar Rice Burroughs novels (APrincess of Mars and its many sequels) than on contemporary science.Bradbury
returned to this fantasy Mars in other stories not included in thisvolume ("The Exiles," "The Fire Balloons" and
"TheOther Foot" in The Illustrated Man, "Night Call,Collect" and "The Lost City of Mars" in I Sing the
BodyElectric,; and "Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed" in AMedicine for Melancholy). To a certain degree,
Bradbury is also writingto counteract the image of a menacing Mars as portrayed first in H. G. Well's War of the
Worlds. In this work humans from Earth play the roleof "invaders from outer space."

The Martian Chronicles is best read as a collection of linked shortstories rather than as a novel. Although such
collections are unusual in"mainstream" fiction they are common in science fiction. Bradbury hasalways been more
of a short story writer than a novelist, and most of thestories can be read separately from their present context. When
that fact isrealized, some of the inconsistencies and contradictions in The MartianChronicles diminish in
importance. The tone of the stories variesmarkedly. Some are very much in the mode of the horror tales which he
had atfirst specialized in (collected in The October Country ), andothers are earnest parables of human folly. The
Martians sometimes behave likemonsters and sometimes like saints. A collection-novel such as this is oftencalled a
"fix-up" in SF, and Bradbury has clearly tried to fix thisone up by adding connective bits between the main stories to
smooth the joins;but that this smoothing-out process was not entirely successful is made clearby the fact that when
the television miniseries was created the scriptwritersfelt the need to impose far more unity on the stories than
Bradbury had. But ifthe stories are considered as variations on a theme rather than as chapters ofa unified novel,
these variations should cease to be troubling.

One striking feature of many of these stories is the progressive politicalvalues which they embrace. Written during
the height of the Cold Waranti-Communist hysteria, they criticize imperialism, racism, environmentalpollution,
censorship, and the nuclear arms race. Bradbury was not alone.Several SF writers critiqued smug assumptions about
the superiority of Americanvalues during that period. But that such a volume could become the single mostwidely-
read SF book during the fifties is a tribute to the charm of Bradbury'sstyle, a compound of sentimental nostalgia,
idealism, and above all delight inthe pleasures of the senses. Note how often colors, textures, smells, and soundsare
used in these stories to bring a scene to life.

But the qualities which made Bradbury America's most beloved SF writer concealother qualities more often
associated with horror fiction: deep cynicism aboutfamily life, pessimism about progress, and disdain for people in
the mass to adegree that approac hes misanthropy (note his occasional preference for robotsover human beings).His
work reflects an adolescent discomfort with sexualitycommon among "Golden Age" SF writers, often viewing love
and marriageas a trap to be evaded. Dialogue is also sometimes a weakness in his work, withspeeches made more
for poetic effect than for realism, and too many of thecharacters speaking the same peculiar Bradburian dialect
(though similarcomplaints could be made about many fine writers, William Faulkner, forinstance).

These stories made Bradbury's reputation. They were embraced by many readers who never opened another SF
book, so that many hard-core fans were jealous of his success and disdained him as not the "real thing." With the
passage of time, the book has been accepted with all its flaws as a SF classic whose charm and vividness still appeal.
Many of the stories are as artfully crafted as anything in the genre.

Rocket Summer, The Summer Night,,The Earth Men, The Third Expedition, And the Moon Be Still as Bright, The
Green Morning, The Locusts, Night Meeting, The Musicians, Way in the Middle of the Air, The Naming of Names,
Usher II, The Martian, The Luggage Store, The Off Season, The Silent Towns, The Long Years, There Will Come
Soft Rains, The Million-Year Picnic,

Rocket Summer

Bradbury knew as well as anyone that no conceivable number of rocket launches could literally change the weather
in this way; this is simply a fantasy, a tone poem evoking enthusiasm for the coming space age.
Ylla

What features of this story make the setting and the characters al ien and strange? Identify some specific "exotic"
touches. What is Martian technology like? What features make them seem all too human, even old-fashioned? What
are the unspoken assumptions about men's and women's roles in this story? What kind of relations hip does this
couple have? "Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes" (set to a poem by Ben Jonson) was a sentimental popular song,
old-fashioned even in 1950. If all Martians have last names that consist of a letter of the alphabet, there would seem
to be only 26 possible names rather restrictive. Can you think of any explanation for this pattern?

The Summer Night

How is this linking tale similar in theme to "Ylla?" "She Walks in Beauty" was written by Lord Byron in 1815 as a
deliberate contrast to the tradition praising only "fair" (that is, blonde, light-skinned) women as beautiful. What
qualities in the four lin es quoted make it appropriate for its use here? Is the Martian ability to read thoughts an
advantage or a disadvantage? Identify and discuss a familiar process that takes place among human beings for which
this story could be read as a metaphor.

The Earth Men

How is Bradbury working against the standard expectations of a "first contact" story? Belief in telepathy (direct
mind-to-mind communication of thoughts) has little or no scientific basis, but it is a staple of science fiction because
it makes possible int eresting plots and because as here it solves the knotty problem of how alien races can
communicate with each other. What prevents the Martians from realizing that the men are really from Earth? Why
might people who believe in "flying saucers" and other alien contacts like this story? In the previous stories the
Martians had no problem in perceiving that the thoughts invading their minds were alien; can you come up with any
explanation for why they might now view the earth people as manifestations of their own minds?

The Third Expedition

Bradbury nostalgically evokes his early 20th-century midwestern small-town upbringing in many stories, notably
those collected in Dandelion Wine. Yet for all its sentimental appeal, he also repeatedly uses the setting for the
evocation of nightmares. Here he portrays an America which by 1950 was already vanishing and would be quite
unlike the background familiar to any probable astronaut young enough to be sent to Mars in theyear 2000. Because
we are reading this story long after it was written, this incongruity strikes us more forcefully than it would have
struck those who first read it, for they shared Bradbury's no stalgic memory. How does he rationalize his use of this
setting? The music mentioned was popular during the first two decades of this century. When this story was first
published, it was titled "Mars is Heaven." Explain this title. The Martians in "The Ear th Men" seem to have acted
out of confusion rather than malice. Is this true of the Martians in this story? What do you think their motives are?
Why might those motives have developed since the time of the earlier story?

And the Moon Be Still as Bright

T he title comes from the Lord Byron poem, "So We'll Go No More A-Roving" (1817) which is usually read as a
meditation on the inevitability of death. What might its meaning be in this story? This story seems modeled on
World War II movies about a small troop of men from various ethnic backgrounds faced with a dangerous
environment. The token minority figure here is a Native American named "Cheroke." In the TV version, he was
made into an African-American; but why is Bradbury's choice especially appropriate fo r this story? To what
historic event does the death of the Martians correspond? The crew seems much like that of a traditional adventure
novel: rough, ill-educated sailors, very unlike the astronauts of our day. Aside from the question of realism, why
migh t Bradbury have wanted to use a group of "average guys" as his explorers? What is the point of Spender's
speech about the tendency of Earth Men to rename everything? (This theme is continued later in the story "The
Naming of Names.") What critique does Spe nder make of American civilization as regards art in his final
conversation with the captain? What does Spender see as the two cultural forces that clashed on Earth but which the
Martians succeeded in blending? How did Martians answer the question, "What is the meaning of life?" according to
Spender? In 1950 tape recording on reels was brand-new cutting-edge technology (brought back from conquered
Germany by GIs), so Bradbury has the Martians record their music in this futuristic fashion. What is the signif
icance of the captain's meditations on majority rule while he is hunting down Spender? What is the attitude of this
story toward democracy?

The Green Morning

Even in 1950, it was known that Mars had little oxygen in its atmosphere. Its reddish hue suggested that at one time
there had been more free oxygen on Mars which had slowly combined with iron to produce iron oxide. The standard
science fictional Mars was an exhausted planet whose ancient civilization if any would have died with the
atmosphere. Humans could live there only in sealed environments or by "terraforming" the planet to render its
atmosphere more breathable: a project recently explored in the novels Red Mars and Green Mars by Kim Stanley
Robinson. Bradbury characteristically ignores scientific plausibility here to create a poetic image loosely related to
such projects. What makes this account different from such a scientific project?

The Locusts

What significance do the similes used of the rockets have?

Night Meeting

One of the favorite SF t hemes with only very slim scientific justification is time travel. No rationale is offered here
for communication between eras: Mars is magic. But it's pointless to criticize Bradbury too much for this fact: very
few time-travel stories even by the most ri gorously scientific authors cannot be reduced to self-contradiction by a
little elementary logic. What is the emotional impact of this encounter between two eras? What indication is there in
this story that when it was written Bradbury was not thinking of a Mars covered by the trees described in "The
Green Morning?" Is there a message in this story? What does the closing paragraph convey about the nature of life
and time?

The Musicians

Bradbury gives no rationale for this determined obliteration of the Martian cities, much more thorough and
deliberate than anything ever attempted in the history of Earthly colonialism. It is here that he first introduces the
concept of "Firemen" who light fires rather than putting them out, a concept developed more fully in his novel
Fahrenheit 451. What seems to be his attitude toward humanity here?

Way in the Middle of the Air

This story seems very dated--even condescending--now: but it was written during the first stirrings of the post-
World War II civil rights movement, and was outspoken for its time in its attack on Southern lynching, segregation
and racism generally. What woul d be the significance of naming a rocket "Over Jordan?" To what Biblical events
one past, one future is this escape from Earth compared? Note that a lthough in "The Shore" it is implied that only
Americans can afford rockets, they are here available to poor people. These stories do not all exist in exactly the
same fictional universe. Is human nature portrayed any differently in this story than in the stories immediately
preceding it? There is a sequel to this story called "The Other Foot" in The Illustrated Man, in which the African-
American immigrants to Mars have to decide whether to take their revenge on the whites who follow them into
exile, making up a new minority group.

The Naming of Names

This theme of this story is more fully developed in "The Exiles" from The Illustrated Man. What quality of the later
immigrants to Mars serves to introduce the next story?

Usher II

This story was omitted from the television version, probably partly because it would have been too expensive to
produce; but also because it has no necessary connection with the other stories. It might just as well have been set on
Earth as Mars. It reflec ts the Bradburian affection for fantasy and horror literature combined. The attack on
censorship which it embodies (foreshadowing the more fully-developed attack of Fahrenheit 451 ) is justified by
reference to fairy tales and other sentimental children's favorites; but the works being defended most passionately
are the horror tales of Edgar Allan Poe. Why do you think he includes the other seemingly unrelated, non-horror
works? Man y works by Poe are referred to in this story. How many can you identify? What movement active in
1950 se ems to have inspired this attack on censorship? (Hint: Stendhal refers to it in his conversation with
Bigelow.) The mentions of a number of characters from Oz will be unfamiliar to those unfortunate enough to know
that land only from the Hollywood movie an d who have not read the long series of novels by L. Frank Baum. What
is a Babbit? (Look it up.) Does this story successfully convey an anti-censorship message? Why or why not?

The Martian

From this point on, having seemingly exterminated the Martians, Bra dbury brings them back again and again in
various forms. Rather than view this as a damaging inconsistency it makes more sense to read these stories as
variations on a theme. What human characteristics is Bradbury commenting on in this story?
The Luggage Store

This story seems wildly implausible now, but it was modeled on the flight of migr s from Europe back to the U.S.
at the beginning of each of the great World Wars; and would have seemed familiar to readers in 1950. What
motivates the immigrants to return to Earth?

The Off Season

Visions of atomic apocalypse were published in some numbers in the years immediately following the bombing of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Even though in 1948 the Soviet Union was far from posing any serious nuclear threat,
Bradbury's story reflects the fears o f many that humanity had entered an era of unprecedented danger. In which
earlier story did Sam Parkhill play a role? Is his behavior here consistent with that in the earlier story? Explain. How
does this story compare with t he traditional battle-with-aliens-for-survival story? The description of the death of
Earth is even more fantastic than the collapse of an entire city from the impact of a single bullet earlier in the story.
Why do you think Bradbury uses such exaggerated language? What would a real nuclear war probably look like
from Mars?

The Silent Towns

Bradbury wrote a variation on this story entitled "Night Call, Collect," published in I Sing the Body Electric. This
story is probably the most stereotypically sexist in the book. What do you think its message is?

The Long Years

This story celebrates love, marriage, and other traditional family values. Does it make you feel better about the
human race?

There Will Come Soft Rains

This story was partly inspired by the silhouettes of people burned by the bomb onto buildings and streets in
Hiroshima. Like "Usher II," there is no obvious reason for it to be included in a volume of stories set on Mars, and
was omitted from the televisio n miniseries. It is an unusual story in that it has no living human beings in it. How
does Bradbury manage to tell the family's story anyway?

The Million-Year Picnic

This was the first of the Martian Chronicles stories to be written, shortly after the end of World War II. It was first
published in Planet Stories in the summer of 1946. Does the story make you feel hopeful for the survival of the
human race? What measures does the father take to try to ensure for his children a better future? Do any of these
measures conflict with values expressed earlier in The Martian Chronicles? Many people who have read and loved
The Martian Chronicles forget entirely that the Earth is destroyed in a nuclear holocaust during the course of the
book and are surprised to be reminded of the fact. Why do you suppose this is true?

Notes by Paul Brians, Department of English, Washington State University, Pullman

Version of June 6, 1995.

Copyright Paul Brians 1995