Summary
This
story shows the effects of their strange new surroundings on a family of
travelers to Mars. It is also a suspense story. Ray Bradbury’s description of
Mars and the reactions to it of the Bittering family give warning that
something could go wrong. The atmosphere is one of apprehension and foreboding.
Slowly but surely, the circumstances tighten around Harry Bittering. Perhaps,
too, the story is a parable, illustrating the ways that people respond to the
environments in which they find themselves.
The atomic
war has caused the Bittering family, natives of Boston; Harry, Cora, and their
children, Dan, Laura, and David; to flee, joining the small population of
humans who have colonized a somewhat terraformed Mars. Shortly after their
arrival, Harry decides he wants to go back to Earth, as Mars is too different
from Earth. Unfortunately, a nuclear bomb hits New York City destroying the
ships, making the Bitterings stranded on Mars.
Uneasily
settling into their new environment, Harry begins to notice subtle changes to
the plants and animals. (The family dairy cow has grown a third horn and the
grass is now purple, for example.) Harry also begins to notice that the people
in town are referring to local mountain ranges in the Martian language, easily
unsettling him. Upon realizing there is something seriously wrong, Harry
becomes scared of living on Mars, and although his wife and children think
nothing of it, Harry begins to suspect a Martian virus that is in the soil they
grow their crops in, making them act like Martians.
While his family begins to fear his sanity,
Harry begins eating only frozen food that was grown on Earth in his deep
freeze. Unfortunately, that runs out quickly, and Harry quickly grows
desperate, buying the metal and blueprints for a rocket to transport himself
and his family home to Earth, despite the imminent danger and the nagging doubt
that he will not be able to build a sturdy rocket.
He tries to convince some of his friends to
help him build the rocket and return home, but they laugh and talk about him.
Harry gets into several arguments with them, but oddly enough, they never raise
their voices.
Harry’s
boy, Dan, wants to be called a Martian name (Linnl), and he himself is using
Martian words (iorrt for Earth). In the meantime, Harry and his family become
very dark skinned, tall, thin, and golden-eyed.
Harry
slowly stops resisting the change, and he is convinced that they, along with
the rest of the colonists, should spend the rest of the summer in the cool
Martian villas (ancient Martian mansions in the hills), where they can swim in
the water canals. They eventually become Martians, and stay in the villas
because that is where they “belong”. After a time in the hills, the colonists
completely forget about their human origins and transform completely into
Martians. This is implied when Harry notices their old homes and remarks how
the “Earthlings’” houses are built silly.
At the
end of the story a group of American G.I. astronauts arrive a few years later
to tell the human colonists that the war on Earth is over and rescue them, but
there are no humans left, only the buildings and a rusted rocket. Instead, they
find Martians, and at first suspect the Martians may have killed the colonists,
but then they realize the Martians are too friendly for that. The astronauts
conclude that a plague wiped out the colonists and make plans to recolonize
Mars, even naming the mountains after famous things from Earth. The ending is a
foreboding feeling that what happened to the Bitterings will soon happen to
these new colonists.
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