War Of The Worlds by H.G. Wells As the Martians fire their deadly heat rays, destroying towns and cities will anyone survive against the overwhelming odds? What were the Martians doing here? This could not have been a friendly visit, so what were their intentions? In H.G. Wells War of the Worlds the humans’ instinct to survive overcomes threats to their existence. When faced with the unknown the human instinct for survival gives us only two options, fight or flight. When the unknown plumes of fire were first spotted shooting from Mars it attracted many scientists, and it was also the same year that Mars was close enough to Earth to allow scientists to observe it with telescopes from that era. It was not until the cylindrical object, for that is what the scientists now knew what it was, entered the Earth’s atmosphere that most humans felt the fear of the unknown. When the first object had landed, many noises were heard emanating from within. As time went on the noises gradually faded to nothing and many people felt relief that whatever was living inside, was now dead. It was not until the lid started unscrewing that humans became frantic. "It’s a-movin’, a-screwin’ and a screwin’ out. I don’t like it. I’m a-goin’ ‘ome, I am." (Wells 11) The lid fell off, and a snake-like tentacle emerged from the darkness, firing the deadly heat ray. The snake-like tentacle was an appendage on the almighty Martian fighting machine. The humans had to overcome threats to their existence by fighting back. For many it was a constant battle to persevere in spite of their losses and for some it was the journey of escape in which to survive. Without any chance of survival, many are killed in the line of duty as they sacrificed their lives for others. Many have been killed because they have hid or they have been trampled over in the mass exodus from the Martians. The soldiers had to fight back at all costs, and many were out nights trying to defeat the Martians. "Under a bridge I found a group of soldiers ready for battle." (23) "During the night the Martians had been surrounded by Military troops and that heavy artillery was expected." (22) The weaponry that the humans had was not effective against the Martians. Many soldiers had plans to kill the Martians but the only option that may work was to "sneak up on them and begin... ... middle of paper ... ...e drivers because he chose not to move out of the way." (76) When the families did decide to flee, the husbands, at a later date returned to gather more possessions only to find the wreckage of buildings and dead bodies. They were thankful, I am sure that they left when they did. When the fighting finally ended "many wives returned home to find their husbands dead in a corner" (117) because of the lack of food or water or they were shot by someone trying to find food and shelter. Family members did not know of the death of their loved ones until the war was over. Unfortunately many humans had to suffer with the losses and some could not live with that and they ended their lives by their own hand. Many people homes were destroyed, and their possessions were lost forever. Most people were happy enough, just to have survived. As always humans fear the unknown, and what we can not control. Although the humans fought valiantly, they did not win the war. Many humans had survived the war only because they stayed hidden until the threat had passed. In this case it was the Martians that were killed by the naturally occurring red weed that was growing on a mountain.
One conflict seen in Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption is the conflict between man and nature, which Louie, Phil, and Mac faced while lost at sea. As the men spent countless days at sea their points of view about the situation “were becoming self- fulfilling” (Hillenbrand 155). The
The day to day life for the regular soldier was not glorious. Many times the regiments were low on supplies such as food and clothing. They lived in the elements. Medical conditions were grotesque because of the lack of advanced equipment and anesthesia. “Discipline was enforced with brutality” as if all the other conditions were not bad enough.
Each of my four selected texts relate to the general theme of survival. I have found several important connections relating to this theme. I studied the films Book of Eli – Directed by Allan & Albert Hughe, I Am Legend – Directed by Francis Lawrence, The Road – Directed by John Hillcoat and Children of Men – Directed by Alfronso Cuarón. I have found the following connections that these texts explore and portray to the audience. Firstly, I have found connections relating to how the will to survive encourages morally wrong/unethical actions in social groups in post-apolitical societies. Showing the nessary action of sacrfice is essintial . Further connections show how Post apolitical environments can cause us as humans to sacrifice ourselves for the future of society. Rasing the question of what are we willing to do to survie.
Weapons, explosions, death, killing, and a craving for power. Many wars have happened since the earth had been ruled by humans. Those wars costing hundreds of thousands of lives of innoce...
Throughout World War Z by Max Brooks, readers can see how the apocalypse begins. Some of these mistakes can be considered individual human error, but overall can be seen as the government failing to serve its purpose. For example, early in the book, China first discovered that there was a newfound disease starting to spread. Instead of taking the responsibility for this disease, they shrugged it off and redirected other countries attentions. This caused the disease to start as a small outbreak and eventually multiplied. This failure in government can be seen as somewhat of a selfish act in order to preserve the country’s secrecy. Because they did not take the initiative to tell anyone else about the disease, people were unable to take caution and prevent themselves from contracting the plague. Similar to the book Blindness, nobody understood that the disease was amongst them at first. People were suddenly beginning to go blind with many unanswered questions. However, there was never any real truth to be revealed to the citizens in Blindness as there was in World War Z.
“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” ― Albert Einstein In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Guy Montag meets a girl who is different from the others in the city. The city is full of people who watch television almost all of the time rather than doing something with their life.While he doesn’t think very much, she thinks and observes often. Over the next few weeks of seeing her daily, his way of thinking completely changes. Being a fireman, the change in the way he thinks is so difficult to fathom so that he steals a book from one of the houses the firemen had to burn. Montag is figured out by his boss and has to burn down his own house. Soon afterwards, Montag must go on the run to avoid being arrested. The government is on guard trying to find him to show people what'd happen if they were to break laws. Getting help from an older man who had learned to handle the knowledge while Montag could not, Montag is able to make it out of the city quickly with little damage done to himself. Ray Bradbury is warning readers of the horrible impacts caused by laziness and how the government can take advantage of weak minded people.
Science and Technology have a strong influence on the daily lives of the citizens in the world state. The first influence is through the use of drugs and in particular, soma. Soma is a drug that is used in the world state by everyone to create false happiness. When john, Bernard and Helmholtz meet Mustafa mond the leader of the world state, Mond explains the beneficial effects of simply consuming one drug on a daily basis. “Now, you swallow two or three half-gramme tablets, and there you are. Anybody can be virtuous now. You can carry at least half your mortality about in a bottle. Christianity without tears-that’s what soma is.” (Helmholtz, 162) In the world state, there is only praise for the drug known as soma, as there are no side effects the members of society fear of. Science and technology has reached a point where it allows a simple tablet to relieve its citizens of any sort of problem that they may encounter. Furthermore Soma is produced in large quantities for consumption in order to suppress understanding of what is around the members of society. Secondly, along with the Soma consumption, the citizens are also influenced by science in everyday life by not being able to gain knowledge. methods of gaining knowledge include: reading books or anything that promotes an idea. Using technology, the world state prohibits any type of reading. When small children are being conditioned to keep away from books, the procedure is presented, “Crumpling the illuminated pages of the books, the director waited until all were happily busy. Then, ‘Watch carefully,’ he said. And, lifting his hand, he gave the signal... There was a violent explosion... The children screamed; their faces were distorted with terror.” (16) even at a young age...
In conclusion, it is the innate nature of mankind to choose survival above all needs which brings out the hidden savage in all of us kept only in check by the artificial restraints placed upon mankind by society. The descent into savagery, man's inherent desire to survive over anything else and the need for civilization and order shows how society unnaturally holds everyone together. The aspiration to endure is an intrinsic response that may lay dormant until the chains of society and civilization are removed; when that day arrives, their dormant instincts will arise and bring about a regression back to that of a savage.
Soon enough the war will be part of the past for most but for them they are in battle every time they close their eyes. "Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing anymore. I am so alone and so without hope that I can confront them without fear" (Chapter 12). These men have nothing left. Nothing else can happen in life to them that will cause any more damage.
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair exemplifies a muckraking style in its often gory depictions of life in a meat packing factory, Sinclair writes of how the meat packing industry exploits its workers, many of whom are uneducated and poor in the same way a capitalist government exploits it's working class. Sinclair uses Symbolism in terms of physical objects, Objects that serve a metaphorical purpose, and oppressive tone, to persuade the reader that Capitalism leads to the declination and corruption of America and that the only way to remedy this is socialistic government.
The preserving modern folk tale that is the invasion of aliens, is fully knotted within the cultural fear that one day in the near future, a threat of some unknown origin will be more powerful, more capable at warfare than we American’s can ever be. No mater the impossibility, it is a perceived end to the very short colonization of the North Americas. In 1947 a few miles from Roswell, NW, Mack Brazel found debris from an unidentified flying object scattered in a three-mile arc on his land. According to the myth told by the International UFO Museum Research Center in Roswell, NW, the metal had strange pictorial writings on the “I” beams and were purple in color. (IUFORMC NM Inc.) This tale is so widely told in Roswell, that there has been a whole industry developed there to preserve this ledged of the alien crash landing and the Military’s collection of the debris and cover-up of the visitors from outer space.
War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells Homo - Superior or not? War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells is a fictional story about war and mankind’s coming of age. It is also a philosophical novel with many deep meanings underlying the shallow looking one-hundred-eighty-eight page book. The subject of this novel is Science Fiction and there are not many that can even compete with Wells in terms of how superior his word descriptions are. He simply does wonders with the imagination of the reader.
C.S Lewis is the author of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Warrdrobe. Lewis was born on November 29, 1898, in Belfast, Ireland. He was born Clive Staples Lewis to Flora August Hamilton Lewis and Albert J. Lewis. Lewis’s mother passed away when he was on ten years old. After his mother died he went on to get his pre-college education at boarding schools and he also received help from a tutor. Lewis served in World War I with the English Army, but unfortunately was sent home when he was wounded. Lewis was a graduate of Oxford University with a focus on classic philosophy and literature. As a child, he was disappointed with the Christian faith, but when he became older he found himself embracing Christianity. During World War II, he gave popular radio broadcasts on Christianity and they won many converts. Lewis’ speeches were collected in Mere Christianity. In the year of 1954, C.S. Lewis joined the staff of Cambridge University as a literature professor. He met an English teacher by the name of Joy Gresham and in 1956 they married each other and became a happily married family. The two were joyful during their marriage; unfortunately in 1960, the wife became ill with cancer died. Lewis began publishing his works in the mid- 1920s. Lewis started to publish The Chronicles of Narnia during the 1950s. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was the first in the seven book series to be released. This was the story of four siblings who discovered a wardrobe with a magical land in the back of it (“Clives…”). In The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Lewis describes Aslan, Edmund, and Lucy.
The external conflict of man against nature and the internal conflict of man against himself play a huge role in the whole story, leading to the fateful outcome of the man. The man fell victim to the struggles the conflicts presented, majorly impacting the story. "To Build a Fire" encompasses the idea of man becoming his own enemy and people remaining insignificant to forces of natures. The conflicts presented in the story embody the aspect of nature as an unstoppable, unpredictable, and powerful force that easily overtakes man. That thought shows how one man has little effect on nature, and in the end, does the most harm by subjecting oneself to nature's fury. The story, "To Build a Fire" by Jack London truly shows how weak an unprepared person compares to the unruly forces of nature.