When someone allows themselves to believe something whole-heartedly, it can often spur an event or change in their life or the lives of others. These beliefs, or perceptions, have the ability to change people’s points of view so completely that they are unable to return to their previous standard of life. This perceivable change in one’s psyche is exactly what Bradbury attempts to capture in The Martian Chronicles. Bradbury’s words paint a picture of the crumbling of two thriving cultures as they come in to contact with each other. He shows the questioning and cracking of individual’s identities as they face circumstances which interfere with their personal points of view. A few of these circumstances which cause mental breakdown in The Martian Chronicles are brought about by a disbelief in aliens, the inability to cope with the loss of Negro slaves, and the removal of basic literary freedom. In the case of Dr. Xxx, his disbelief blinds …show more content…
After all fantasy has been banned from the cannon of literature, he recreates the dismal House of Usher laid out in the works of Edgar Allen Poe. His use for the house, however, is bleaker then even the layout itself. When the first agent, Garret, is sent to see if the house goes against the law, Stendahl has him killed almost immediately. Then an automaton replica is sent to delay the government from tearing the house down. Meanwhile he hosts a killing party with all the prominent government officials. Soon the real Garret shows up, as he only sent a robot the first time only to watch the government officials be killed one by one before his own death in the crumbling house. When told he was insane Stendahl’s only reply is that he, “Won’t argue that point” (Bradbury 118). He drives himself insane and murders a house full of people rather than relinquish his belief of what freedom should