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There was a specific event that inspired Wells. In 1894 Mars was positioned particularly closely to Earth, leading to a great deal of observation and discussion. Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli had reported seeing "canali" on Mars, meaning "channels," but the term was mistranslated as "canals," leading to much speculation about life on the red planet. [Although scientists were able eventually to photograph what seem to be large stream beds on Mars, these are on a much smaller scale than the blobs and blotches which misled Schiaparelli into thinking he had seen channels.] One of the 1894 observers, a M. Javelle of Nice, claimed to have seen a strange light on Mars, which further stimulated speculation about life there. Wells turned Javelle into Lavelle of Java, an island much on people's minds because of the explosion there in 1883 of Mount Krakatoa, which killed 50,000 people and drastically influenced Earth's climate for the next year.Wells became famous partly as a prophet. In various writings he predicted tanks, aerial bombing, nuclear war, and--in this novel--gas warfare, laser-like weapons, and industrial robots. It was his tragedy that his most successful predictions were of destructive technologies, and that he lived to experience the opening of the atomic age in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.Wells was to become famous as a socialist and a utopian, but his science fiction novels are almost uniformly pessimistic about human nature and the future.Part IChapter 1: The Eve of the War1.From what perspective is humanity viewed? 2.What qualities in the Martians make them dangerous to humanity? 3.What effect does it have on the novel to have an ordinary, unnamed narrator, not technically trained and often far from the center of activity? 4.What irony is created by the topic of the series of papers he is writing? Note:The bicycle had been recently invented, and Wells was learning how to ride one during the writing of the novel.Chapter 2: The Falling Star1. In the second paragraph, what evidence is there that Wells is trying to avoid making his narrator a perfect observer? 2.Why do you suppose he does this? 3.How is Ogilvy's first reaction to the movement of the cylinder top ironic? 4. What error do the first reports of the landing make?Chapter 3: On Horsell Common1.What methods does Wells use to make these events seem realistic?Chapter 4: The Cylinder Unscrews1.What is a Gorgon, and why might Wells have chosen to compare the Martians to one? 2.In what way does Wells make his narrator distinctly unheroic?Chapter 5: The Heat-Ray1. What is the narrator's reaction to the attack?Note:X-rays were discovered by Roentgen in 1895; and novelists immediately began imagining all manner of other rays which could be used as weapons; but Wells is probably thinking here as well of ancient accounts of "Greek fire" projected against enemies to terrifying effect. Chapter 7: How I Reached HomeWells' description of psychic numbing as a result of trauma seems very modern. 1.Why is it important that the narrator not be an omnicompetent swaggering hero ?2.What seems to be the narrator's attitudes toward working class people? 3.How does Wells once again compare the Martian invasion to British colonialism?Chapter 8: Friday Night1.Summarize this chapterNote:Maxim guns, invented in the 1880s, were the first truly automatic machine guns.Chapter 9: The Fighting BeginsWells jokingly calls the milkman's cart his "chariot," comparing it to Phoebus Apollo's chariot, because both appear at dawn. 1. What act of realistic cowardice does the narrator commit in the last part of the chapter? 2. What is the eventual fate of the landlord in a later chapter?Chapter 10: In the Storm1.In what way does the shape of the cylinders reflect the form of their creators?Chapter 11: At the Window1. What technique does Wells use to emphasize the thoroughness of the destruction? Note:The phrase "pillars of fire" at the end of the chapter is Biblical, ironically echoing the pillar of fire which led the Hebrews out of Egypt in Exodus 15:21-22. Chapter 12: What I Saw of the Destruction of Weybridge and Shepperton1. What is unusual about the sound of the attack the narrator is caught in? Note: When Wells calls the beam-weapon a "camera" he is thinking of the large, box-like contraptions common his day, always mounted atop tripods to ensure their stability during the long exposure times they required.Chapter 13: How I Fell in with the CurateA curate is a sort of assistant clergyman. Wells had a low opinion of conventional religion. Wells refuses to read religious meaning into a natural disaster. 1.What does the clergyman's reference to Sodom and Gomorrah mean? (Hint: see Genesis 18:20-28.) 2. How is the clergyman interpreting the attack of the Martians? See also Revelation 6:16-17. 3. Why does he call the Martians "God's ministers?"Chapter 14: In LondonAt this point, the narrative switches to events in London, told second-hand through the experiences of the narrator's brother. 1.Can you think of reasons that Wells chose not to continue with the same first-person narrative technique? 2.What prevents many Londoners from immediately reacting to the Martian invasion?Chapter 15: What Had Happened in Surrey1.Analyze the paragraph beginning "No doubt the thought that was uppermost…" How does it view humanity? 2.What is foreshadowed by the sentence in parentheses? A "kopje" is a small hillock or mound. Note:The gas used by the Martians was seen as more prophetic than the fantastic heat-rays, for poison gas was used widely in World War I. 3.Why would a gas like this be a particularly frightening weapon?Chapter 16: The Exodus from LondonThe first cylinder had landed Thursday, the fighting began Friday, and the panic in London described in Chapter 14 had begun on Saturday morning. We are now at the dawn of Monday. 1.What evidence is there that panic is overriding civilized behavior in this flight from the Martians? 2.How does the brother rescue a lady, and what is the consequence to himself? 3.In what ways does this scene contradict our usual expectations of a hero saving a lady in distress? 4When the brother is giving advice to Miss Elphinstone toward the end of the chapter about escaping their pursuer, how does he avoid the stereotyped "kill or be killed" dilemma which plays so great a role in fiction?Chapter 17: The "Thunder Child"The home counties are the rural counties southeast of London. The "Pool of London" is the port on the Thames. 1.What effect might the constant repetition of specific place names have had on Wells' first readers? "Chaffering" is haggling, bargaining. Ostend is a seaport across the channel in Belgium.Book II: The Earth Under the MartiansChapter 1: Under FootWe return now to the narrator, trapped in the empty house at Halliford with the curate. The narrator is no swaggering hero, but feels superior to the curate. Note the "unaccountable redness" on the river, reminiscent of blood; it will be explained later.1 Summarize this chapterChapter 2: What We Saw from the Ruined HouseHow do we know that Wells had first imagined future humans as essentially giant brains? Chapter 3: The Days of ImprisonmentWhat happens to the two men during this time?IChapter 4: The Death of the Curate1. Why do you think Wells treats the death of the curate in such a passive way?Chapter 5: The Stillness1. What effect does this chapter have? 2. How is "the death of the curate" referred to? 3. What other invader does the narrator discover has accompanied the Martians?4. What is the purpose of the Martian invasion? Why are they on earth?Chapter 6: The Work of Fifteen Days1.Navvies are manual laborers. Why is it a hopeful sign that the Red Weed dies so quickly and thoroughly?Chapter 7: The Man on Putney Hill1.Does the killing of the curate haunt the narrator? Explain. 2.What effect does the narrator says the war with the Martians has had on human attitudes toward animals? 3.How does this passage fit in with his comments about animals at the beginning of the novel? 4.The artilleryman is the opposite of the cowardly curate. Why does he say "This isn't a war?" 5.Why does the artilleryman welcome the collapse of civilization? 6.Can you compare him with any group in our contemporary culture? What is his attitude toward human beings? 7.What convinces the narrator that the artilleryman is crazy? 8.How does his behavior contradict his words? 9.What is the function of the artilleryman in the novel?Chapter 8: Dead LondonA "chemist's shop" is a drugstore. 1.Why is the title of this chapter somewhat ambiguous? 2.What stops the narrator from committing suicide? 3.Can you compare the death of the Martians to any other similar lethal encounter in world history? Chapter 9: Wreckage1.Why does the narrator know nothing of the next three days? 2.How does the rest of the world respond to England's plight. 3. Why is the narrator so upset by learning that Leatherhead has been destroyed? 4.What technological side-benefit have humans derived from the invasion? 5.Why does he mention the burial of "the landlord of the Spotted Dog?" 6.What is ironic about the paper he finds on his desk? 7.What effect would it have had on the novel to develop his reunion with his wife more fully, in traditional fashion.Chapter 10: The Epilogue1.Why is it significant that no Martian bacteria were ever discovered? 2.Ronald Reagan once mused that an invasion from space might unify humanity, as it does here. What do you think of this theory? 3.What long-term hope for humanity is there, according to the narrator? ................
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