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Rocket Summer
This chronicle opens up with a town in the midst of a harsh Ohio winter. Bradbury sets the satage with "... the panes blind with frost, icicles fringing every roof, children skiing on slopes, housewives lumbering... along the icy streets (1). Then a rocket takes off right outside of the town and the entire town's scenery is changed. "The heat pulsed among the cottages and bushes and children. The icicles dropped... The doors flew open... The snow dissolved and showed last summer's ancient green -
Ylla
Ylla is a Martian whose husband seems to be more interested in his books than his own wife. One day Ylla dreams of meeting a strange man with black hair and blue eyes, which outrages her husband. Mr, K calls the tall man a "giant, misshapen giant" (3) and calls his wife ubsurd. It is only when she sings a song in an unknown language that K becomes interested. After confining her to their house, he leaves on a 'hunting trip' (11). Two shots ring out and Ylla is left in tears. -
The Summer Night
The scene takes place at an almost outdoor concert, where a crowd is shaken by a strange song coming from the singer, one that is filled with unknown words in an unfamiliar language. Children find the mysterious lyrics to be innocent like them, but it strikes fear into the hearts and minds of Martians all over the planet. -
The Earth Men
The Second Expedition lands on Mars and is dissapointed to not be greeted by fanfare or a parade. Instead the men are disregarded by the Martians and are sent off from house to house until they land in an insane asylum. Mr. X believes the men to be hallucinations being projected by the ship's captain. The Martian shoots the men, only they do not transform into Martians as he thought they would. He then takes his own life. -
The Taxpayer
Back in Ohio, a man tries to obtain access to the rocket. He wishes to escape from cruel Earth and to Mars. He views it as a place with less government and for second chances. To his dismay, he watches the rocket take off to the new world, leaving him behind in the dust. -
The Third Expedition
Captain Black seems to be the only man who can keep his wits about him when he and his crew discover that their long deceased relatives are alive and well on Mars. After awakening in his childhood home from a nightmare, Black becomes supsicious of his "family". His suspicians are confirmed when his brother reads his mind and knows that Black is lying and knows the truth. The chapter concludes with all the team being barried after a proper funeral. -
And the Moon Be Still as Bright
With this expedition, Spender wanders off to the old Martian ruins. His team thinks he is crazy because they say that all of the Martians die because of the chicken pox. A week later, Spender returns raving about how the Martians didn't deserve to die, and he took his anger out on his comrades. He begins killing them off, leaving only a handful left. He tries to convince his captain to join his side, but his efforts are in vain. After giving Spender a chance to flee, the captain shoots him. -
The Settlers
Men are coming to Mars in swarms now. Each for their own reasons, "They came because they were afraid or unafraid, because they were happy or unhappy, because they felt like Pilgrims or did not feel like Pilgrims... They were leaving bad wives or bad jobs or bad towns: they were coming to find something or leave something or get something, to dig up something or bury something or leave something alone" (73). -
The Green Morning
Benjamin Driscoll has his mind fixated on the idea that in order to make an impact on Mars, he must plant trees in order to fix the planet's thin air. He plants thousands of seeds, but is disapointed by seeing no progress. It is only after a night of mysterious rain that he wakes to find thousands of fully grown trees. -
The Locusts
What took the Martians lifetimes to build, was so easily destroyed within a matter of months. "The rockets came like locusts, swarming and settling in blooms of rosy smoke. And from the rockets ran men... to beat the strange world into a shape that was familiar to the eye, to bludgeon away all the strangeness..." (78). -
Night Meeting
Tomas Gomez arrived to Mars with his family, and discovers something most unusual one night. After driving by himself inbetween two mountains called Time, he encounters a Martian, long thought to be extinct. They discover that they each see different presents- Tomas sees a dead land, yet the Martian sees his land of life that flourishes. -
The Shore
"Mars was a distant shore, and the men spread upon it in waves" (87). This reminds me so much of the description in the Locusts. All of the people who came were American, no other country had its people among them. I thought that it was interesting how Bradbury chose to incorporate this chronicle in his book; I feel that this reason is going to be revealed or expanded upon later in the book. -
Interim
This is another short chronicle which Bradbury chose to add to his book. It makes the reader really imagine how the towns on Mars were built at such a rapid speed, and how much they resembled the builders' homes back home. "It was as if... a great earthquake had shaken loose the roots and cellars of an Iowa town... had carried the entire town off to Mars to set it down without a bump" (88). -
Interim
This chronicle didn't give too much information other than what worship was like in churches and what lumber was brought to Mars. In fact, the cities were much like that in every-day America, "It was as if... a great earthquake had shaken loose the roots and cellers of an Iowa town, and then... a whirlwind twister of Oz-like proportions had carried the entire town off to Mars to set it down without a bump..." (144) -
The Musicians
The musicians in this section are adventurous young boys, whose instruments are the bones of long-dead Martians. They would disobey their parents, bring their own lunches, and make a day of playing umungst the rubble of ancient towns. These towns, soon to be burned down, the places to be condemed. After each time spent in the ruins, the boys are always caught and punishment is dealt. -
Wilderness
Lauren and her best friend spend their last remaining hours on Earth drinking chocolate milk shakes and buying perfume that will be incredialby rare once they reach Mars. Lauren is delighted though to reunite with her boyfriend, however she is somewhat afraid about not ever returning to Earth. It is only upon receiving a letter from her love with a picture of the house he has built for them does she make up her mind to jouney across space for the one whom she loves. -
The Naming of Names
This chronicle reminds me of what the pioners did when they traveled West. Just like the Eastern travelers, the migraters refused to call already established towns by their original name, but rather decided to give them, dare I say, more English names. It says, "The old Martian names were names of water and air and hills...the rockets struck at the names like hammers, breaking away the marble into shale, shattering the crockery milestones that named the old towns..." (102). -
Usher 2
I love how this part opens up with quoting Edgar Allen Poe, my favorite author. Mr. William Stendahl has spent several million dollars in order to recreate Poe's immortalized castle. Much like the Red Death, the mad man throws a lavish party; the twist is throughout the night his welthy visitors are killed and replaced by their own replication robots. -
The Old Ones
Out of the entire book, this must be the shortest chronicle that there is. Basically, these few lines tell of that the last people to arrive to Mars were the old and aging. I suppose they viewed Mars as the next Floridian retirement home or something of that nature. -
The Martian
This chronicle was by far the most heartbreaking one yet. An older couple wished to spend their last remaining years enjoying Mars, yet they could not shake off the thought of their long deceased son, Tom. To their astonishment, Tom appears and makes LaFarge question if his son did die to begin with. However, it is revealed that it is not his son, rather a Martian who takes the appearance of whoever someone wants him to be, in this case, people kept seeing him as their dead relatives. -
The Off Season
Sam and his wife have opened up a hot dog stand, which Sam believes will be a huge success since he has the first hot dog stand on Mars. After unintentionally killing a floating face Martian, Sam is astonished to learn that several other Martians want to give him half of Mars. The section concludes with the Earth catching on fire, which signals the start of the atomic war. -
The Watchers
People on Mars stop to watch their old home, Earth, on fire. Nervously, family members wonder about those who they left behind. The next morning everyone gets a signal from Earth telling them to come back home- not just to Earth. The chronicle concludes with the luggage store owner selling out of every piece of his inventory by dawn. -
The Luggage Store
This chronicle is between a luggage store owner and Father Peregrine. They are talking about the possiblility of an atomic war and how when, not if, the war starts the people on Mars will have to return to Earth. At first Father says that no matter what he plans on staying at Mars, because he "doesn't believe in Earth anymore" (132). In the end, he ends up buying some luggage from the store owner. -
The Silent Towns
It seems as if Walter is the last person on Mars. At first he takes whatever he wants and does whatever he wants to do, but then he yearns for human contact. When he finally talks to a pleasant sounding woman on the phone, he is shocked to find out that she is not as good looking as he thought she would be. When she shows him a wedding dress that she brought from Earth, he flees from her claimed town. -
The Long Years
This chronicle starts off with Hathaway from the Fourth Expedition and how he is so happy about seeing a rocket for the rist time in twenty years. It turns out some of his old coworkers are on the rocket. Hathaway introduces them to his family, who is actually robots, but that fact is revealed after Hathaway's heart attack. -
There Will Come Soft Rains
There is a house which automatically does its chores at the same time each day. This is the last standing house in a ruined city, and by the evidence of the back of the house being burned save for 5 spaces, it is known that the family perished in what seems to be an atomic bomb. In the end, the house catches fire and is destroyed, save for one last voice which repeats the date over and over again. -
The Million Year Picnic
A family from Minn. arrives at Mars for a picnic, or so the young boys think. It is revealed that the father blew up their rocket because Earth was quickly coming to an end and he wanted to save his family. We learn that another family is supposed to arrive soon, who have daughters (potential wives for the boys). When one boy asks his father where the Martians are, he is instructed to look at the reflection in the water; the family are the only Martians now. -
The Fire Balloons
The next rocket to Mars contains priests sent to save their common man from Earthly sins. Led by Father Peregrine, the men's first ambition was to save the former citizens of Earth, but after being saved by mysterious blue orbs from certain death, Peregrine is convinced that he must save these orbs and give them God. He later finds out that the Martians already have religion and that they are without sin, having left evils behind when they released themselves from their bodies.
