1. Physical and Atmospheric Setting before the aliens come
Physical –
Saturday afternoon, Maple Street, October
Picket fences, football game on, lawns being mowed, sprinklers rotating
Good Humor man selling ice cream
Atmospheric
Peaceful, idyllic small town life
2. Physical setting after the aliens come
A bedlam
An outdoor asylum for the insane
Dark
Bodies draped over porch railings
Windows broken
Street lights smashed
Screams and shouts of anger
Atmospheric setting = horrifying
3. Events that caused the setting to change
1. “meteor” flies overhead
2. everything stops
3. Tommy mentions Martians
4. Ned Rosen’s car starts by itself
5. Darkness falls
6. Killing of Pete Van Horn
7. lights begin to go on and off
1. Characters
Steve Brand – leader and thinker/ruled by logic
ex-marine, take charge kind of guy p. 286
Charley Farnsworth – accuser and bully/ruled by passions/instinct
fat, dumpy, wears loud Hawaiian sport shirt, easily scared, selfish, wants to save his own skin, compared to animals p. 282
Characters continued
Tommy Bishop – unintentional instigator
Ned Rosen – scapegoat, feels like an animal at bay (feels hunted and trapped)
Mrs. Sharp – accuser/gossip
impatient, short tempered, loud mouth p. 281
1. Complication?
Occurs when the “meteor” flies overhead and everything stops.
2. Conflict?
Man vs himself – townspeople try to control their own fears but eventually fear gets the best of them and they turn on one another. Their uncontrolled fear leads to the next conflict.
Man vs man – illogical suspicion of others leads the townspeople to turn against one another
3. Crisis?
Shooting of Pete Van Horn – crossed the line into violence – people released their emotions and now can’t stop fear from spiraling out of control
4. Climax?
Occurs when everyone turns on each other and kills each other
5. Falling action? Resolution?
Falling Action – occurs when the aliens discuss how they take over the world. Take away their machines and plunge them into darkness and watch fear overtake them. P. 301
Resolution – Wednesday afternoon new residents move in – ones with two heads p. 302
6. Evidence
A person’s idiosyncrasy
Looking at the sky – Ned Rosen
Working on ham radios – Steve Brand
Liking Martian stories – Tommy Bishop
Cars starting by themselves
Lights going on and off
1. Gain control
Take away things we think are necessary – like machines, phones, tv’s, etc., let darkness set in, and watch fear take over. Let mankind’s fears motivate them to turn on one another.
2. Theme
Fear and suspicion can cause peaceful people to turn on one another.
Mankind is its own worst enemy.
Prejudices can kill, and suspicion can destroy, and the thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own.
12. Historical times
Japanese Internment Camps
Post 911 profiling
McCarthyism
Salem witch trials
13. Figurative language
Maple Street was a bedlam. It was an outdoor asylum for the insane. – metaphor
A 12 year old boy had planted a seed. And something (Fear) was growing out of the street with invisible branches that began to wrap themselves around the men and women and pull them apart. Metaphor p. 287
A fever had taken hold now, a hot burning virus that twisted faces and forced out words… implied metaphor p. 300
The nail on the coffin…one dumb, ordinary, simple idiosyncrasy of a human being – and that was probably all it would take. Metaphor
He (Ned Rosen) was an animal at bay. – Metaphor p. 292
Charlie Farnsworth’s piggish little eyes flapped open. Implied metaphor
Charley squealed. Implied metaphor
Charley whinnied. Implied metaphor
Charley’s horse whinny. Implied metaphor
Charley trots over. Implied metaphor
Like a hippopotamus in a circus simile p. 299
A hundred yards away the figure (Pete Van Horn) collapsed like a piece of clothing blown off a line by the wind. – simile p. 297
Why, it’s like going back into the Dark Ages or something! Simile p. 293
Charley…looked like a piece of uncooked dough, quivering and shaking in the light of the lantern… simile p. 297
They blinked foolishly at the lights and their mouths gaped like fishes simile p.28
People stopped as motionless as statues simile p. 299
Fear whipped at the back of his brain. = personification p. 300
Sick engine was getting deeper and hoarser personification p. 287
Feeling the suspicion that flowed from the people – personification p. 292
The dull, dumb, blind prejudice of the man personification p. 294
No clickety-click – onomatopoeia p. 281
Everyone on the street looked up at the sound of the whoosh – onomatopoeia p. 281
