The Martian Chronicles

The Sci-Fi classic written by Ray Bradbury takes place on both Earth and Mars between 1999 and 2026. Since this book is made up of many stories, there are many protagonists and antagonists. This was the situation in “And the Moon be still as Bright” which is the seventh story. The self-conscious and respectful Spender is the protagonist with the rude and disrespectful drunk Biggs being the antagonist. You can tell that Spender is the protagonist because he is doing the right thing by attempting to protect the Martian’s legacy while Biggs drops bottles in the canals and names everything after him which proves he is the antagonist.

The story starts on Mars before the humans land. A Martian woman is talking to her husband about a dream she had in which she falls in love with an earth man. When he hears this, he is outraged and it doesn’t really tell but implies that the earth men did come and the husband killed them out of envy. The Martians are eventually wiped out by human diseases and the external conflict which is when the people of Earth colonize Mars and disturb the peacefulness along with making Mars corrupt like Earth begins. This eventually builds up to the climax where around half of Earth’s population has moved to Mars. After a while, everyone travels back to help with the nuclear war until a couple families escape to Mars in private rockets which is the resolution. Earlier the author foreshadows about the nuclear war in some of the stories where the characters talk about politics.

The overall theme is the negative impacts of humans and what we can really do because before the first humans landed on Mars, everyone lived in perfect harmony but after we left, the Martians were dead and their cities desecrated. I enjoyed reading this book very much because it was very interesting how the author thought the future which is actually the 2000’s would be and how nothing that he envisioned ever really happened. This book made me think because in the book it shows the human influence and if any of the things showed in the book could ever happen if we make it to Mars in the next 60 years. I was a bit chilled/surprised in the end when the father of the family that moved to the now dead planet Mars shows them the Martians which are actually just their reflections in the water and then the story ended. Truthfully I really wouldst like to be anyone in this book because pretty much everyone kicks the bucket.