125 pages • 4 hours read
Ray BradburyA 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
“Once they had liked painting pictures with chemical fire, swimming in the canals in the seasons when the wine trees filled them with green liquors, and talking into the dawn together by the blue phosphorous portraits in the speaking room.”
Bradbury evokes the surreal mystery of Mars and the interconnectedness of their technology and environment with this odd catalogue. In order that the reader not feel alienated by the strange existence of the Martians, Bradbury includes the very human sting of nostalgia and the emanant relatability of domestic disappointment.
“‘The third planet is incapable of supporting life.’”
At first glance this is a comedic line though one that darkens with the knowledge of the end of the novel. The second reading sees it as an indictment against humanity whose fractious ways lead to the annihilation of life on Earth, particularly when spoken by a Martian, a species with prophetic ability.
“The little town was full of people drifting in and out of doors, saying hello to one another, wearing golden masks and blue masks and crimson masks for pleasant variety, masks with silver lips and bronze eyebrows, masks that smiled, masks that frowned, according to the owner’s dispositions.”
A key part of Martian culture is depicted in the masks they wear, which leaves them unknowable even to each other. The masks also alienate the human perspective and come to stand for the inscrutability of the vanished species. Humanity will never know them for what they are.
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