Reading Guide - PDF document

Reading Guide The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury Section Two The Earth Men  The Taxpayer Mrs. Ttt opens her door to find four men, led by Captain Williams, who insist they are from Earth. She irritatedly passes these men onto her husband, who says he is far too bus to deal with the men and sends them to Mr. Aaa. When the men go to see Mr. Aaa, he is upset that Mr. Ttt would waste his time and goes to duel with him; he sends the men to Mr. Iii. Mr. Iii listens to the men and offers the a room in his house while they wait for Mr. Xxx. The men enter the room, and are celbrated because they are from Earth. However, they soon realize all the Martians in the room think they’re from Earth, and that the men are trapped in a Martian madhouse. Since Martians are telepaths, they can cr eate illusions in the minds of others, maing no one nonplussed at their strange appearance. After talking with Mr. Xxx, Mr. Xxx insists to see the rocket the men came in. He becomes excited, as he will win awards for his study of such a hallucination. To “ cure” him, he kills Captain Williams. When his men don’t vanish, he kills them too. When the rocket and bodies don’t vanish, Mr. Xxx believes he has caught their insanity, and kills himself. Upon launching a third mission, a taxpayer insists that he join the journey. Vocabulary in this section  brooded : (v) though deeply  burnished : (v) polished  calipers : (n) an instrument used to measure  cobalt : (n) metallic blue, like the atomic element cobalt  conglomeration : (n) a group of different things mashed together  conscription : (n) mandatory enlistment for serving in the army  derision : (n) mockery  euthanasia : (n) killing someone to put them out of misery  jovial : (adj) full of joy  labial : (adj) relating to taste  lout : (n) an aggressive male  luridly : (adv) vividly, with disturbing detail  olfactory : (adj) relating to smell  rigmarole : (n) a lengthy, complicated process  telepathy : (n) the power to read thoughts  vaporous : (adj) consisting of gasses Reading Guide The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury Passage Analysis The four bodies lay in the sun. Mr. Xxx lay where he fell. The rocket reclined on the little sunny hill and didn’t vanish. When the town people found the rocket at sunset they wondered what it was. Nobody knew, so it was sold to a junkman and hauled off t o be broken up for scrap metal. That night it rained all night. The next day was fair and warm. -- Narrator Analysis Questions  Is “The Earth Men” comedic or tragic? Explain your reasoning with textual evidence.  To explain the way the Martians acted toward the men, Captain Williams assumes that Martians claiming they are from Earth is a “common delusion.” What caused this delusion? What implications could this cause hold for the Martians?