The Power of the Martian Chronicles
The Martian Chronicles is a collection of short stories by Ray Bradbury These stories all relate to the idea of humans visiting mars, but are only connected by the loosest of threads. At times, it can appear as if Bradbury was grasping mercilessly, searching for something to draw together the random conglomeration of human situations his mind had created individually. The entity that embraced all these stories and melded them from half-hour kiddy-show format stories into a great two-hour special feature novel was the forth planet from the sun, earth's neighbor and Bradbury's stage for The Martian Chronicles, mars.
This association of a foreign planet and Bradbury's reputation as a science fiction author immediately identified The Martian Chronicles as a work of science fiction. Decades later, in an essay on the novel, Edward S Gallagher (Gallagher 55-82) said that The Martian Chronicles "is one of those acknowledged science fiction masterpieces." Bradbury was breaking new grounds, creating respect for science fiction as a literary genre that would be admired by those involved in the literary establishment (Marowski and Matiz 321.) The blue and orange cover of the paperback version of the book depicted characters more reminiscent of Fantasy & Science fiction magazine's artwork than of Bradbury's vague descriptions of his Martians.
Whilst The Martian Chronicles was being shelved in the science fiction section of libraries and bookstores everywhere, die-hard science fiction fans and literary critics scratched their heads. They pushed up their thick glasses and straightened their pocket protectors whilst collectively wondered why this...
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Tracy K. Smith’s “Life on Mars” is a collection of poetry dealing mainly in the search for a sense of purpose and the nature of people. The books is something of an elegy as a whole with many poems pertaining to death and the author’s struggle with the loss of her father. The poems are at once poignant and gentle in tone and leave questions than can only be answered in multiple readings. The book is segmented in four parts that travel through different topics and types of poetry. The mood ranges from passionate accounts of Orwellian politics to soft recollections of a lovers embrace; throughout the book Smith brings in references to pop culture, science, and technology that incorporate seamlessly with her words.
Andy Weir's book, The Martian, is laced with conflict, both external and internal. From the beginning of the book, Weir shocks the reader with the dramatic opening of "I'm pretty screwed." This is the reader's first glimpse that there is conflict between natures bloodthirsty determination to kill the book's main character Mark Watney, an astronaut, botanist and an engineer, and Mark's desire to survive against all odds. In his daily logs Mark narrates his deathly encounters and near-death experiences with nature. Mark's logs record every event in which nature strives to get the best of him and yet he is able to keep his sense of humor throughout. In one of his logs Mark humorously states " I was just one of her crew. Actually, I was the very
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The lines that define good and evil are not written in black and white; these lines tend to blur allowing good and evil to intermingle with each another in a single human being.
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The underlining theme in The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury is unarguably war. War is the point of origin from all conflicts generated throughout this story. War drives man to Mars, nearly wipes out the Martian population, wreaks havoc on Earth, and forces humans to leave their newly found planet to its previous tenants. War is the driving factor for this whole story; without it, this story never occurred. It gives humanity the courage to travel way out of their comfort zone onto a wasteland of a planet. Being that war follows humans to Mars due to their actions makes humans realize that they cannot escape their own violence.
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Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles shows us not only a different world from Earth and Mars, but also the future of America. Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles depicts the colonization of Mars in terms of the colonizationof America. The story is similar to what America experienced, such as thediscovery of America, the invasion of Indian colonies, and the new civilization.Dana's response paper also discussed the colonization of Mars.Other critics also pointed out that Bradbury's theme in the story was death.Through futuristic imagination, Bradbury applies connections to American historyand the issue of death in his story while raising concerns and warnings of thefuture.
Carver, Raymond. Cathedral. “The Norton Introduction to Literature.” New York: W.W Norton &, 2014. Print.
There are many complications that can arise as one ages. As stated in the Aging Concepts and Controversies (2012) book, there are basically two worlds of aging; the ill-derly and the well-derly. While those that are well are able to take care of themselves or need very little help to perform their daily activities; those that are ill most likely we need to have some form of long-term care. As stated earlier, when looking at care options for older adults, there are two forms of care that many people try to decide between. The first option is home care. In this form of long-term care, the elder person is looked after by a spouse, family member such as a child or grandchild, or a close family friend. The other type of long-term care is nursing home or institutionalized care, where the elderly person is taking care of by professionals and lives in the facility where they are being taken care of. Many times it is not easy to decide which type of care will be best, it depends on many factors, such as the cost, level of care needed, and many other factors. Using this paper, I like to briefly look a...
This manuscript details the alarming increase in disability in the oldest old. With the rapid growth of this age group, issues associated with functional loss with have a tremendous financial impact throughout the world. The study has identified several risk factors associated with increased disability incidence, several of which may be modifiable. This is especially critical, as CHF is the most expensive medical illness in the United States and represents over 5% of the total health care budget48. With the prevalence and incidence of CHF rapidly rising in the United States49, it will be critical to prepare for the dramatic increase in disability as a result. Reduction of risk factors for CHF, such as hypertension and high cholesterol, would likely be beneficial in reducing incident disability in the oldest old.