H. G. Wells’ “The War Of The Worlds” Essay, Research Paper

H. G. Wells’ “The War of the Worlds” is a very deep and analytical piece on man’s overwhelming self-concept of power and control. In an actual scene of the true story of the book, it shows mans’ fear, anxiety, panic, ruthlessness, and basic instinct of survival dominate their logic and thinking abilities which they held so high. They now discovered that what they believed since the dawn of human existence, that man is the superior beast on earth was now shattered. The summary will give you general concept of the book and the analysis will tell of how this book told of many issues, such as the possibility of a far more advanced culture plotting and planning to rid us of our existence, also the human concept of self given superiority and false sense of protection and the blatant ignorance of man as to the possibility of life far more intelligent than ours.

The book is told in a first person perspective which gives the reader the feeling of actually being part of the story. It begins with an analytical view of man showing his ignorance of life outside his own and worrying about little things that didn’t really matter. That pretty much changed the night the first capsule hit in the suburbs of London about 1900. At first everyone was amazed by the idea of the men from mars. Then as they realized the danger upon them it was too late. The Martians killed many spectators who came to see their craft with their heat ray. After the humans released what was happening they began to flee towards London. Every night that passed a new capsule arrived and the alien’s destruction multiplied with every craft. The human’s did their best to defend and stop the aliens’ attack but it was hopeless. The man telling the story who was never truly named was separated from his wife when the attacks began. He found himself roaming the countryside going from abandoned house to abandoned house trying to avoid the Martians and find food. He found himself pinned in a house with a clergymen for fifteen days as Martian invasion craft landed outside. He stayed in the house until he was sure there were no Martians outside. After he left he followed the path of destruction left behind as the Martians headed towards London. He found dogs and birds picking at the scraps of the dead aliens. He later found out hey died by disease as he met back up with his with and cousin at his partially destroyed house. Then he ended the story saying how they must prepare for a future attack and become more open minded to the fact that they aren’t the only intelligent life around but to become better than the martians the must be humble to learn so they can surpass them.

This book covers a pretty outrageous topic of Alien invasion. Although the topic is a little far fetched, the idea of a greater culture and species other than our own being out there in the far reaches of space is not all that unbelievable. The book shows that the possibility of an invasion from Mars is not likely to happen but gives a vivid account of how people might react if the envelope of security they lived in was shattered by the discovery of a greater species. Showing at first the panic and fear of ignorance then the mans’ nature would begin to show. Humans would want to prove that they are the top of the evolutionary scale and begin to fight. In the case of the book mans’ war against the Martians was a futile effort losing many lives and their pride. It came to the point where the artillaryman began to talk of suicide missions and how it isn’t worth living if they were living under the martians rule. Mans’ ability to think and reason logically had disappeared and his primal instincts of survival and revenge began to show.

In the late l9th century the world was in the midst of the beginnings of World War I. World War I shows us how a group of people believing that they are superior can cause conflict, fear, anxiety and panic among the rest of society. This book shows the parallels of man’s desire to destroy and be superior over those they find to be beneath them and the Alien’s concept of their race being superior over humanity. For all of man’s history he has been the top of the evolutionary scale. He has found himself unchallenged, which has led him to believe he is to have no concern of those beasts he sees under him and gives himself a false blanket of protection. Since the time of man’s emergence from animals the only true fear a man had was that of his fellow man. So this book introduces a new topic other than mans’ fighting of beasts who bear teeth and claws or other men whose weapons were fairly equal to there own, now man was fighting a greater foe. There enemy now didn’t just have speed or strength like man was used to having to fight, but had an intelligence and technology that far surpassed their own. Their previous ideal of superiority and protection had been crushed by a fiction book noting the possibility of greater intelligence that surpassed their own could be out there no farther then our nearest neighboring planet.

With the human race never having a competitor their ignorance to the utter possibility of life beyond their home planet grew. It was not until recently man has begun a search for life outside their own. For eons the sheer notion of life off of earth was just passed off as impossible or improbable. This is not the first time man’s ignorance has stopped him from believing there was life beyond that which he could see. Hundreds of years ago the modern scientific world knew that if you sailed past the horizon you fell off the edge of the world. This mental thought of not being able to see life on the other side of the ocean or land for that matter it must not be there. This fact was touched on in the book showing how humans need to except the possibility that they aren’t the only one’s out there. H.G. Wells’ thesis is that we need begin to prepare or come to conclusion that if there is another form of life out there other than our own than we are to need to abandon our self-contrived thoughts of dominance and begin to make ourselves that by becoming more open-minded and to search for which we do not know.

In all of mans’ time on Earth he has been secure in the fact that the only problems he had were those of other man and nature. If man truly wants to better himself he needs to stop fighting other men and begin to try to open his mind to learning and not to the concept of survival of the fittest but survival of the smartest and best equipped.