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Style is one of the most important aspects of any artist. B. B. Kings playing, Poe's gloom, and Salvador Dali's abstractness are all part of their individual style.
It helps the average person to identify the artist, whether it may be a musician, writer or painter. Although Bradbury and Wells may both been writing science fiction, they each had their own style. Bradbury and Wells have many of the same stylistic features, but they also have contrasting traits in their writing. Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury and The War of the Worlds by H. G.
Wells will be used to compare and contrast their styles. The theme of human perseverance can be seen in both books. In The War of the Worlds, the Martians had destroyed much of the land, and our hero experienced many death life threatening situations, but he still survived. Not only did he survive, but humankind as a whole made it through the war. In the end of The Martian Chronicles humankind blows itself up in an atomic war. Much of our Earth is laid to waste and made uninhabitable due to radiation.
However, a few prepared citizens were ready for this and fled earth before the holocaust took place. They lived on to become the new Martians and last of the humans. Along with the theme of human perseverance, The Martian Chronicles also presents the contrasting theme of human destruction. The humans came to Mars, where they changed the face of the planet. They destroyed what it was and made it into something of their liking, something that was familiar to them. Destruction is also shown through the atomic war that ruined Earth, blowing the world up with atomic bombs was an incredible act of destruction, and it demonstrates just how far humanity can go.
These books not only shared a common theme, but also a common topic. Mars is present in both, though the writers views differ. Wells saw the Martians as warlike and violent. They came to Earth armed with heat-rays and tripods, ready to kill any human in sight. The Martians of Wells took on more of a monster image while the Martians of Bradbury were very human like. In the opening chapters of The Martian Chronicles we are introduced to very human like Martians.
They converse like we do, have family relationships similar to ours, and they even dream. Bradbury's and Wells Martians do have something in common though, they both kill humans. There is yet another contrasting topic, The War of the Worlds was about Mars conquering us, while Martian Chronicles was about us conquering Mars. Moving from topic to sentence structure, one sees more differences. Almost fifty years passed between the publishing of The War of the Worlds and The Martian Chronicles, so the style of the time was different, and it shows. The Martian Chronicles contains short, consider, simple sentences.
For example, The Martians were there-in the canal-reflected in the water. This sentence is typical of the sentence structure in The Martian Chronicles, short, concise, and simple. However the sentence structure in The War of the Worlds is long, descriptive, and prolific. Here is a sentence from The War of the Worlds, After getting this sudden lesson in the power of terrestrial weapons, the Martians retreated to their original position upon Horse Common; and in their haste, and encumbered with the debris of their smashed companion, they no doubt overlooked many such a stray and negligible victim as myself. They difference in the two is easily discernible.
Bradbury's sentence took a little less then one line, on the other hand Wells sentence was five lines long. That is not to say all of Bradbury's sentences are short, or all of Wells long, but on the average that was their sentence structure. Related to the sentence structure is the word selection and prolixity. While The Martian Chronicles may not contain all the ten dollar words of The War of the Worlds, it certainly does not mean there was no description. The description in The Martian Chronicles uses more familiar words that are easier for the average reader to understand, His ear to the ground, he could hear the feet of the years ahead moving at a distance, and he imagined the seeds he had placed today sprouting up with green and taking hold on the sky, pushing out branch after branch, until Mars was an afternoon forest, Mars was a shining orchard. While this sentence may not be the typical of The Martian Chronicles in length, the word selection is much like the rest of the book.
The War of the Worlds uses much more prolific description. The sentences are longer and usually more descriptive, I felt the first inkling of a thing that presently grew quite clear in my mind, that oppressed me for many days, a sense of dethronement, a persuasion that I was no longer a master, but an animal among the animals, under the Martian heel. Word selection is another contrast between the two books from the simplicity of The Martian Chronicles to the prolixity of The War of the Worlds. The point of view was also different. The Martian Chronicles was written in the third person, with many different stories being presented to make up the whole. The War of the Worlds was mainly in the first person, with a little dip into second person as he narrates his brothers ordeal.
Another area of difference was the logical order of events. In The War of the Worlds, the reader follows the hero from the beginning of the invasion to the final death of the Martians. Each event takes place one after the other, and is a continuous narrative. However, the logical order of events in The Martian Chronicles is a little different. The Martian Chronicles tells the stories of many different people that are involved in the colonization and growth of Mars.
The chapter titles provide us with a date, so the reader may know the time that the chapter takes place. If it was not for the date, the logical order of events would be difficult to follow for some stories. Some could be taking place at the same time, or a scene in a later chapter could have taken place before a scene from a different chapter. However, the dates provide us with sequence and gives it some semblance of order. Both books share a lack of extraneous situations. The Martian Chronicles seems at first to be all extraneous situations, but after reading the book the reader realizes that it is all those small stories that make up the whole.
In The War of the Worlds there is a brief dip into an extraneous situation when the narrator talks about his brother. The story has nothing to do with the main plot line of our heros survival, and it is never brought up again. The climaxes of the two novels are also contrasting and similar. They contrast in that the The Martian Chronicles, the humans lose their world and are made into citizens of another planet.
In The War of the Worlds, the Martians are the ones that suffer the loss of the war and their lives. However, both books share a common trait. Humans survive and overcome the disasters that have befallen them. In comparing and contrasting the two books, the time difference is evident. The War of the Worlds shows humans saving the Earth, and The Martian Chronicles shows humans destroying the Earth.
While there were many similar traits between the two books, there were also many contrasting traits. The Martian Chronicles and The War of the Worlds provided a foundation for the writing of science fiction, a genre that was in its infancy during the publication of these books.
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