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Rocket Summer
Summary: A rocket landed near a town, in the middle of winter, and it gave off a wave of heat that felt like summer Quote: "The rocket lay on the launching field, blowing out pink clouds of fire and oven heat." Reaction: This was a fairly short chapter but the concept was simple. It was a winter day when shockingly this wave of heat comes passing by, melting everything, and the people soon learn that a rocket as landed near by. The quote I picked perfectly sums up the chapter. -
Ylla
Summary: A Martian lady is having dreams about an earth guy and her husband leaves to kill earth men
Reaction: Just like in a normal human marriage dreaming about another guy isn't okay.
Quote: "The door opened. She stopped smiling. It was her husband." -
The Summer Night
Summary: People were gathered at a music event, when the singer sang strange words left her mouth and people were scared and confused thinking something was about to happen.
Reaction: I'm also confused as to why they were so frightened by words
Quote: "And in a thousand villas, in the middle of the night, women awoke, screaming. They had to be soothed while the tears ran down their faces." -
The Earth Men
Summary: Men arrive on Mars expecting a bigger reaction, but Martians thought they were apart of some crazy Martian's hallucinations so they are shot and Dr.Xxx kills himself too
Reaction: this chapter was very strange with bringing in hallucinations
Quote: ""Go away," He shouted at the bodies. "Go away!" He screamed at the ship." -
The Taxpayer
Summary: since a guy pays taxes to build rockets, he deserves a seat on one. He's arrested for his crazy actions.
Reaction: short chapter, dude doesn't know how taxes work
Quote: "He told them he was a taxpayer,... and he had a right to go to Mars." -
The Third Expedition
Summary: The Martians trap and kill the humans by using hallucinations of their dead relatives
Reaction: This chapter was weird but made it sad because it was all just a trap
Quote: ""Mom, Dad!" He ran up the steps like a child to meet them." -
And the Moon Be Still as Bright
Summary: Another expedition lands on Mars trying to settle it for their new planet, but one of the astronauts tries to preserve Mars by killing off the other astronauts but gets killed himself
Reaction: These people are wild and radical
Quote: "We lost our faith and went around wondering what life was for." -
The Settlers
Summary: People from Earth are moving to Mars for something, to leave for a bad or good reason
Quote: "There was a reason for each man."
Reaction: Connects to pilgrims coming to America, a lot of unknowns -
The Green Morning
Summary: A guy named Ben can't breathe well on Mars so he tries to grown trees, after a while it finally rains and the trees begin to grow.
Quote: "Or plant more trees, "That's what I'm here for!" He said."
Reaction: Ben has the bright idea to build trees, and like he said, he's Mars' Johnny Appleseed, taking on his mission to grow trees on Mars -
The Locusts
Summary: People are starting to arrive in swarms
Quote: "The rockets came like locusts, swarming and settling blooms of rosy smoke."
Reaction: Bradbury uses good imagery in this chapter and throughout the book to help develop the reader's imagination -
Night Meeting
Summary: This Gomez guy is just minding his own business and comes across a man speaking about how Mars is strangely similar to Earth, and then he meets a Martian who is nice and headed to what appears to be an old festival, they discover they're like spirits to one another.
Quote: "The Martian's hands were empty too."
Reaction: This chapter was odd with how Gomez and Ca are like ghosts to each together. -
The Shore
Summary: Mars is now welcoming people from more of an Urban background looking for more space
Quote: "And they came from the cabbage tenements and subways,"
Reaction: Historical connection with U.S. western settlers, using the term "manifest destiny" The belief that exploring new frontiers is their God given right and mission. -
Interim
Summary: A very traditional southeastern small town has been built on Mars, it's like out of Little House on the Prairie with the church and city
Quote: "It was as if, in many ways, a great earthquake had shaken loose the roots and cellars of an Iowa town, and then, in an instant, ..., carried the entire town to Mars,"
Reaction: It's like they went back in time to when towns were so small you knew everyone and walked everywhere -
The Musicians
Summary: Young boys go on a walk and end up playing in dead martian remains before they are burned away.
Quote: "For now they had reached the dead, forbidden town..."
Reaction: Why would playing around in dead people parts be fun, it's just gross -
Way in the Middle of the Air
Summary: The racist white man doesn't win, he tired to keep as many of his "slaves" at Earth but fails due to both blacks and whites going against him.
Quote: "Then men all talked now... "Let him go.""
Reaction: Wow, that's a lot of racism for 2003 -
The Naming of Names
Summary: Many things are renamed after the fourth expedition of men, and now new types of people are coming to Mars, hustle and bustle people.
Quote: "they began to instruct and push about,"
Reaction: This is where the story sort of turns/shifts -
Usher II
Summary: This guys builds a haunted house that ends up being "illegal" and about to be torn down when the investigator is murdered by a robot, the 2 masterminds kill other people who might try to tear down the house at their party, but the original investigator wasn't killed, only his robot lookalike. The masterminds are convicted.
Quote: "It began to crack down, as if there were an earthquake"
Reaction: This chapter was weird, creepy, confusing and just overall disturbing. -
The Old Ones
Summary: Old people start to go to Mars once their retired
Quote: "And so the dry and crackling people, ..., came at last to Mars."
Reaction: Mars is the new Florida -
The Martian
Summary: The telepathic power of the martians start to play with a family new to Mars, but when "he" is around other people "he" looks like who they miss most, which ultimately overwhelms and kills him
Quote: "Before their eyes, he changed"
Reaction: This chapter was trippy, imagining everyone looking at one martian and a hundred different people it hard to grasp. -
The Luggage Store
Summary: The store owner and Father Peregrine are talking about a nuclear war happening on earth, and the store owner thinks people will be wanting to go back since that's their home.
Quote: "they got their relatives down there, and their home towns."
Reaction: Why would you want to go in to a nuclear war? That's just suicide -
The Off Season
Summary: Sam is back, married and owns a hotdog stand. The martians want to give him a gift but he freaks out when they come close, he even shoots one of them. But they end up getting close enough to tell him they're giving him half of Mars, it'll make him rich but Earth's nuclear war just began that night.
Quote: ""One hundred thousand miles of territory?" "Yep, it's all yours.""
Reaction: I don't think I'd give a murderer half of my planet... -
The Watchers
Summary: The people of Mars watch the war on Earth at night, but survivors on Earth send for the people on Mars to come home, which they do
Quote: "COME HOME. COME HOME. COME HOME."
Reaction: Nuclear war is something you want to go away from, not toward.. -
The Silent Towns
Summary: The last man and woman on Mars some how meet and the man is not interested in her, she's a couch potato. When she hints about a wedding, he runs away.
Quote: "And he was out the door and in his car before she could scream"
Reaction: If there is any hope for Mars, he needs to get over her habits and just do it -
The Long Years
Summary: Hathaway signals to Wilder his location by lighting a town on fire, and when Wilder lands to get him, he goes searching and realizes Hathaway's "family" are robots he talks to keep sane since his family died. Hathaway passes away and is buried with his family and Wilder goes back to Earth.
Quote: "We'll burry him down in the yard where the other four crosses are,"
Reaction: Poor Hathaway had to make a robot family just so he wouldn't be alone and reminded of his family's deaths -
There Will Come Soft Rains
Summary: The smart house continues on daily life as if the family that lived in it is still alive, but a wind sweeps in and burns the house down.
Quote: "Nine-fifteen, sang the clock, time to clean"
Reaction: This chapter is both weird and sad, the house doesn't realize the family is dead. -
The Million-Year Picnic
Summary: Tim and his family go to Mars permitently to get away from war on earth, the dad tells the family to follow them to see the martians, he leads them to a river and when they look in it, they see their reflections, they're the martians now.
Quote: "The martians stared back up at them for a long, long silent time from the rippling water..."
Reaction: Good one Bradbury, very clever.
