Censorship Exposed In The Book 'The Martian Chronicles'

Max Hsu

Ms. Trinh

English 2 H

22 February, 2023

Martian Chronicles “The Martian Chronicles” is a book that talks about many social commentaries that are still talked about today. The book was written right after the end of world war 2, a time of change. Even though the book is science fiction, many parts of current social commentary is still described across the whole book. In “The Martian Chronicles”, the idea of nuclear warfare is talked about multiple times and takes a huge part on why humans leave earth. It also talks about new technology and how it might be a huge part of the future. Bradbury, so do the advancements in technology. Lastly, another social commentary Bradbury talks about in his book is Censorship. The censorship of books

In one of the most interesting chapters in the book, a man named Stendahl, was angered by the banning of books on earth. To Stendahl, it was surprising how some people knew about Edgar Allen Poe because of how all his books were burned 30 years before. Stendhal made a house that was replicated from one of Edgar Allen Poe’s books called “The fall of the house of usher”. Bradbury uses this chapter to show what censorship of books can do. Take away people's imagination and creativity. In the book, the great fire in the 1970s is what took books away from humans on earth. Stendhal states, “How could I expect you to know blessed Mr. Poe? He died a long while ago, before Lincoln. All of his books were burned in the Great Fire.

People like Stendahl aren't happy because of what happened to books in the Great Fire. It took peoples fantasy away and basically took away their freedom. In current times, books are still being censored at places like schools where children learn. Every year in the US, more books are banned from schools, denying some students from learning different topics. In Smithsonian magazine, an article states, “Between July 2021 and June 2022, the report—Banned in the USA: The Growing Movement to Censor Books in Schools —found 2,532 instances of individual bans, which covered 1,648 unique books.”(Feldman2). So even after decades, books getting banned are still on rise. Just like books being banned in “The Martian Chronicles.” The US is taking away books that can potentially teach young individuals about important topics. Something that was common 70 years ago is still happening