Was The Martian Chronicles a warning towards society or was it a just another one of Bradbury’s science fiction novels? Ray Bradbury is a famously known science fiction and short story author, known for his novels such as Fahrenheit 451, The Illustrated Man, and The Martian Chronicles. The majority of Bradbury’s novels are science fiction and short stories which have very little relevance to the time period in which he is writing the novel. However, in The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451 Bradbury reflect on the way society was during this time along with a kind of warning for what may come. These novels are known as Bradbury’s “Cold War” novels. The Martian Chronicles in particular has numerous examples of this kind of writing. This brings up the question how does Bradbury use this novel to reflect the problems and fears of society along with warning them of what could come of it? At the time that Bradbury was writing The Martian Chronicles there were a lot of events occurring. For example, WWII was just ending and Americans were feeling extremely patriotic and proud of their country. During this time the civil rights movement was also starting to gain a lot momentum. More and more people were starting to support the movement but also a good number of Americans were against this which caused problems for everyone. In the book Bradbury also made a few references towards the fear of a possible atomic war starting which made a lot of Americans fearful of what might happen. The last thing that Bradbury highlighted in the book was expansion. Right after WWII a lot of people that were living in cities and more urban areas were expanding out to the suburbs. Bradbury used this novel to warn people of what could happen if people kept moving out of the cities and into the suburbs. Ray bradbury was able to use The Martian chronicles to talk about what times were like between the end of WWII and he beginning of the Cold War
Throughout the entirety of the novel Bradbury outlines the problems in society and puts them in to context to fit the novel. The first problem he talks about is the inequality between men and women. An obvious example is when Bradbury writes, “Mr. K said “Keep your silly, feminine dreams to yourself! …Tell me! he demanded. “You can’t keep secrets from me!” His face was dark and rigid as he stood over her.” (33) The quote makes it evident in how Mr. K stood over his wife and demanded her to tell him her secrets. He seems to think that by showing dominance and scaring his wife in a way will make her cooperate. This is also one of the examples but Bradbury gives reference to this topic multiple times in the novel. This gives the notion that this was quiet prevalent around the author. Bradbury not only talks about the inequality between men and woman but this theme continues as he talks about the inequality between races.
Bradbury also talks about the inequality between white and black people during the time period he was writing this novel. In an article written by Juliet Grimsley it talks about the presence of this racial inequality idea. She says “It is also a satire concerning the inequality of race. This chapter has many beautifully written poetic passages using the metaphor of the Negroes being a “black river.””(Grimsley) This gives insight on how Bradbury was addressing these kinds of problems by using things like satire and metaphors to hint towards what he was getting at instead of directly talking about it. During this time the civil rights movement was starting and the people were torn between if they were going to support the movement or fight it. As the novel continues Bradbury gives more and more examples referring to this problem the text also give an idea of what the majority of the peoples views on this topic were. In chapter 4 of the novel he says “You speak English!… You are a Martian!” The man smiled. “The word is not familiar to you, certainly. It’s an Earth expression.” (53) This quote does not directly talk about this problem but gives a idea of him hinting that all the astronauts (all the astronauts were described as white characters) thought that because the Martians were from a different planet and looked different that they couldn’t be anything like them or the people of Earth when in fact they are extremely similar to each other.
The problems of society was not the only thing that Bradbury addressed in this novel. He also addressed the fears people had of a possible atomic war occurring. This book was written a few years after WWII ended and right at the start of the Cold War and rumors of an atomic war were starting to be talked about by the public. In an article written by Maria Ramos she states:
Americans were worried about the implications of a full-on nuclear war with the Soviets so soon after coming out of WWII. It was a shaky period during the nation’s history, filled with high emotion and an unknown future… taken back in time and appreciate the eerie echoes of Bradbury’s words, reminding us of our fears during the Cold War. (Ramos)
This passage from the article talks about how Bradbury used his novel to reflect the feelings of the society around him. The book specifically talks about this fear a few times in this novel. One of the clearest examples of this is in chapter seven where Spender said:
And then—the war. You heard the congressional speeches before we left. If things work out they hope to establish three atomic research and atom bomb depots on Mars. That means Mars is finished; all this wonderful stuff gone. (97)
This quote is said when the character Spender is trying to stop the other astronauts from going back to Earth and bringing more people to Mars, he knows that because of the rumors of an atomic war a large number of people will come to Mars to escape the possible atomic war. While Bradbury does a excellent job of expressing the fears of society in the novel he also attempts to use the novel to warn people about the dangers of expanding out of the cities and into the suburbs.
In the beginning of The Martian Chronicles Bradbury starts by talking about how the Martian society is and how amazing the planet is. As the novel progresses the astronauts from Earth start to make expeditions to Mars and it becomes clear that they are there to check out Mars so that in the future they are able to start a new civilization on Mars. When they finally make a successful journey to Mars and are able to go back to Earth, Bradbury uses one of his characters to show how expansion is dangerous and that humans have a tendency to destroy anywhere they expand to. In the novel Bradbury’s character talks about how humans are notorious for destroying everywhere they go and ruining all of the beauty in new places. One of the ways that Bradbury does this is by making the characters actually talk about this idea, “Do you remember what happened to Mexico when Cortez and his very fine good friends arrived from Spain? A whole civilization destroyed by greedy, righteous bigots. History will never forgive Cortez.” (98) This is not the only example talked about in the novel but, it is the clearest example that Bradbury gives in the reading. Bradbury also uses the descriptions of his characters to get this idea across by giving them similar characteristics to what our ideas of the people that migrated west in America. In an article about similarities between Manifest Destiny and The Martian Chronicles they talk about this comparison saying:
There are multiple passages in Bradbury’s novel that talk about the first people to come to Mars after the successful expedition. These people were described as hardened individuals who were looking for a challenge and, in most cases, a solitary place to live. This matches up with the historical view of the Western pioneers who “tamed” the wilderness and led lives of adventure. (Jackie)
Although Bradbury doesn’t make his characters exactly like the people that had expanded out west further into Norther America he still is able to get this idea across by making the characters more modern but sticking to the general understandings of the people back then.
Not only does Bradbury talk about the people in the novel he also uses the colonization of Columbus to America as a reference to warn people about the dangers of expansion. In a essay written about the comparison between the colonization to Mars in Bradbury’s novel to the colonization of America in our history the author talks about how Bradbury depicts the colonization of Martian in terms of the colonization of America. The author says “The setting of the story similar to Earth as far as landscape, atmosphere and people in order to emphasize his intentions. The Martians are described as if they were American Indians at the time of the American Revolution.” (123) This is an extremely strong quote to use it is able to really put what Bradbury does in the novel and relate it to the idea of a similarity between the colonization of earth and mars. The article is not the only place that this idea of similarity between the topics seen. In the book Bradbury describes the Martians to look almost exactly like the images of American Indians in history books. The book states “They had fair, brownish skin of the true Mauritian, the yellow coin eyes, the soft musical voice.” (16) Bradbury does a great job of talking about this issue and relating it right to the history of America.
In The Martian Chronicles Bradbury’s able to depict the current and possible future problems of society during this time period. He highlighted the inequality between races and sexes, the fears of atomic war among society, and warns the readers about the dangers of expanding the country further. He uses his characters and settings of the novel to express is points. This novel was written between two of the biggest wars in the world and Bradbury was able to capture the feeling of society and write a novel to help people in the future understand what this time period was like.