Martian Chronicles Criticism

Criticism of Technology in “The Martian Chronicles” Ray Bradbury, an author from the Cold War time period, wrote when technology was rapidly advancing because of threats made back and forth by America and Russia . As a result of this paranoia, technology was advanced out of fear rather than a will for innovation, causing man to create weapons with destructive power that, if used, could destroy the world many times over. Bradbury warns of the dangers that come with creating technology ignorantly and out of fear. Using the anthology “The Martian Chronicles”, Bradbury criticizes man’s ignorance and inability to adapt through their rapid advances in technology, which are used as a response to cover up flaws and nullify the need for change. Bradbury

Bradbury expresses this idea of ethical value and impact in the image presented as the narrator says, ”The entire west wall was black, save for five white spaces. Here, the silhouette, in paint, of a man mowing a lawn…”(167). As seen in the image, Bradbury criticizes man’s ignorance to the dangers of nuclear technology and disregard to whether or not it is ethically correct to construct these weapons of mass destruction. The “man mowing a lawn” symbolizes how ignorant man is and how humans still have not fully realized how insignificant and weak they are in wake of the technology that they have created. This idea is further expanded upon in the poem read by the house just before the fire and tree reclaim it. The fifth stanza states that “Not one would mind neither bird nor tree, if mankind perished utterly,”(170). The bird and tree symbolize Earth and nature, criticizing how man and their technology are not worth the trouble, being only a burden to mother nature. In another one of Bradbury’s stories, “Off Season”, he depicts American greed and ignorance as two of the main reasons for the destruction of Earth. After gaining half of Mars from the martians, the protagonist Sam Parkhill says, “‘We’ll be flooded! We’ll work long hours for days, what with tourists riding around seeing things, Elma. Think of the money!’”(142). However, due to his ignorance, Sam did not know that, “Earth changed black in the sky. It caught fire. Part of it seemed to come apart in a million pieces…”(143). Using this course of events, Bradbury portrays human greed and ignorance as major factors in the downfall of man. The fact that the Earth exploded just as Sam received his land is obviously intentional from Bradbury to express his idea further. Overall, Bradbury’s images portray man’s ethical disregard to