125 pages • 4 hours read
Ray BradburyThe Martian Chronicles
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1950A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Before You Read
Summary
“January 1999: Rocket Summer”
“February 1999: Ylla”
“August 1999: The Summer Night”
“August 1999: The Earth Men”
“March 2000: The Taxpayer”
“April 2000: The Third Expedition”
“June 2001: —And the Moon Be Still as Bright”
“August 2001: The Settlers”
“December 2001: The Green Morning”
“February 2002: The Locusts”
“August 2002: Night Meeting”
“October 2002: The Shore”
“February 2003: Interim”
“April 2003: The Musicians”
“June 2003: Way in the Middle Air”
“2004-2005: The Naming of Names”
“April 2005: Usher II”
“August 2005: The Old Ones”
“September 2005: The Martian”
“November 2005: The Luggage Store”
“November 2005: The Off Season”
“November 2005: The Watchers”
“December 2005: The Silent Towns”
“April 2026: The Long Years”
“August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains”
“October 2026: The Million-Year Picnic”
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
“February 2002: The Locusts”Chapter Summaries & Analyses
“February 2002: The Locusts” Summary
Swarms of settlers likened to locusts arrive on Mars and immediately begin to “beat the strange world into a shape that was familiar to the eye, to bludgeon away all the strangeness” (103). The male settlers build homes and towns like those on Earth, to combat the alien nature of Mars, and after them the female settlers decorate and craft an appearance of Earth. In six months, 90,000 people have arrived on Mars, and a dozen small towns have been established.
“February 2002: The Locusts” Analysis
The arrival of 90,000 emigrants from Earth is likened to the arrival of a plague of locusts. The busyness of their construction and their nesting is portrayed without glory, or rational. The emigrants are not given names or motivations, they are an alien mass arriving and forcing their habitats on unfamiliar territory. In contrast to “Rocket Summer,” where the rocket changes the environment in a positive manner, the landing rockets alter Mars in a negative way, setting “bony meadows afire, turn[ing] rock to lava” (103).
The banality of the construction and the decorating is depicted as though the observing intelligence of the story were unfamiliar with the customs of this group.
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