English

“I was a battleground of fear and curiosity” (Chap. 5). I chose this sentence because it foreshadows events and also describes how the narrator identifies precisely how he approaches these events. This is true for everything he describes and in such amazing detail. After all, what he writes about is mayhem on a large scale, yet he is able to explain his feelings in a very calm manner. Just the word “battleground” brings to mind the horror of war with its trenches, guns, smoke, noise, and the bodies of the dead and wounded all over the place. Yet with all that, he writes in a detached manner. Maybe this is to preserve his sanity. Most people in such a situation are apt to lose memory of such chaos because it is so horrifying. They develop a kind of amnesia which is not uncommon even when one is involved in a minor auto accident. Trauma and shock are not uncommon. Yet the narrator recalls in precise detail everything that happens, even while running away and with darkness falling. In fact, he points out how he slept, the arrival of the milkman, and a chat he has with a neighbor who gives him some strawberries even while the Martians are destroying the local neighborhood (Chap IX).

But perhaps Wells has to do this or how else would he be able to tell this story about a race of people, or species, that no one has ever seen before? So it seems he wrote this book as if he were a newspaper reporter, giving details and facts as he sees them. This probably makes it more realistic for a reader, and perhaps tends to build tension. After all, what would Martian weapons really look like to an average reader? How would one describe them or provide a comparison to weapons that a reader is familiar with? It is better to go into the detail of what damage they do to build the horror of the situation. So Wells describes how the weapons basically reduce people, animals, and building to distorted cinders. Now that’s something a reader can actually picture in their mind.

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