Ethnocentrism Exposed In Martian Chronicles By Ray Bradbury

The science fiction Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury consists of several short stories and is about the Expeditions of Earthmen to Mars. In the end of the story, Earth is destroyed due to nuclear war and the Martian civilization is in ruins. Bradbury criticizes ethnocentrism, the belief that one’s race is superior to another race, by portraying its destructive outcomes and using the device allusion. Ethnocentrism leads to many problems including murder that could have been avoided. In “Earth Men,” the psychologist is amazed at the rocket the Earth men present to him because he believes it is only a hallucination; he says “...what a lovely insanity...Ten thousand separate items I checked on your vessel. Never have I seen such a complexity. There were even shadows under the

This illustrates how Martians are convinced that their knowledge is correct and the ignorance from ethnocentrism. The Earth men on the other hand only expects to be celebrated and treated as a hero but is instead greeted with a Martian crying out “All over my clean floor!...Mud! Get out!” (17). Here, the Earth men are shown to firmly believe that they are greater than the Martians and deserves treatment as royalty. The Martians and the Earth men both think one’s own race is superior to the other’s--the Martians firmly believe they are right in that the Earth men are insane and hallucinating while the Earth men demand respect and honor for arriving on Mars. Consequently, both stubbornly refuse to try and understand one another’s perspective. At the end, such misunderstandings lead to the death of the crewmembers and the psychologist-- “‘Contaminated’ he whispered wildly. ‘Now I’m insane’...A shot rang out, Mr. Xxx fell” (30). In addition, ethnocentrism is also illustrated in “Way in the Middle of the Air” by Teece’s racist attitude. If the Martians realized that the