Think you’ve got your head wrapped around The Martian Chronicles? Put your knowledge to
the test. Good luck — the Stickman is counting on you!
Q. What example from The Martian Chronicles reveals the theme of change and the resistance to change?
The rocket changes winter into summer.
Martians never change from looking like one thing to looking like another.
Ylla is prevented from killing off the human explorers just to preserve his unhappy marriage.
The man from the moon comes into Mars for a vacation.
Q. How does The Martian Chronicles make a strong case that life without art and culture is pretty meaningless?
People from Earth bring art and culture to Mars and bring new meaning to the Martians' lives.
Several characters we like (Ylla and Spender, for instance) seem to have positive feelings toward art, philosophy, and literature, whereas characters we don't like (Briggs and Parkhill) see culture primarily as target practice.
Life on Mars is dull and mundane because of their primitive culture.
Martians are boring because the Beatles never played a concert there.
Q. How does The Martian Chronicles challenge characters' identities?
In the book, two cultures are meeting, trying to communicate, and figuring just what the other is all about.
The Martians are often what they appear to be on the surface.
The Martians are green.
The Martians reveal deep-seated stereotypes about human instability
Q. What is Bradbury trying to say by allowing so few characters to achieve their dreams?
The world is constantly changing. A character may momentarily get his wish, but it doesn't last.
Life is hopeless.
Dreams are only fantasies that cannot change our lives.
Success only comes from hard work and persistence, not from foolish dreams.
Q. How does The Martian Chronicles reveal the quest for freedom?
Freedom ultimately leads to a civilization's destruction
Freedom is most interesting when it's taken away. For instance, the government passes a law (banning books), restricting the freedom of a guy like Stendahl. So he gets revenge.
Martin Luther King was really a Martian.
Freedom can only be found in a place far removed from the source of persecution and enslavement.