Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles: Literary Criticism

In his novel, The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury conveys his perspective on American society through the actions of the humans who conquer Mars. Attempting to persuade his audience to be receptive to change, Bradbury criticizes human nature’s ethnocentric personality as they continue to annihilate nature through the ignorance of other cultures.

Conveyed by their environmental havoc, Bradbury criticizes human’s greedy persona. By alluding to the colonization of the American West, he portrays self-centered Americans who did not respect the native culture as they annihilated Martian settlements in order to establish an ethnocentric society. For example, in “–And the Moon Be Still As Bright”, Spender notices the destruction that humans have

While talking to the captain about human’s destructive nature, Spender said, “‘...we’ll rip it up, rip the skin off, and change it to fit ourselves.’” (54). Bradbury criticizes the haughty human behavior and their feeling of superiority which leads to an abundance of pride, causing their destructive personality to surface. This supports Bradbury’s argument that ideal frontiersmen are people who appreciate an unknown environment along with it’s native culture by adapting to it rather than changing it. Moreover, Bradbury compares the current condition of Earth to what he believes is the future of Mars, in order to convey the violence that humans have exposed to the environment in “The Million Years Picnic”. On Earth, there was “nothing at all any more. No more Minneapolis, no more rockets, no more Earth.” (178). Throughout “The Million Year Picnic”, Bradbury uses irony to contrast human nature’s adaptive behavior to its destructive demeanor. In this quote, Bradbury illustrates that humans have the knowledge and capability to establish an advanced civilization, but in the end their creations will lead to the fall of their society. He believes that humans will destroy themselves if they destroy

During an encounter with a Martian in “Off Season”, Sam Parkhill arrogantly said, “‘Why you come on down and bother me?’” (134). Although the Martians are native inhabitants on the planet, the egotistic humans declare that they are the owners of the land. Using irony, Bradbury depicts the excessive hubris that humans express as they attempt to establish a superior position in society. As a result, humans are ignorant of the Martian society and create their own ethnocentric civilization after they have colonized the Martian land. Additionally, while conversing with Captain Wilder about the Martian land in “–And the Moon Be Still As Bright”, Spender said,“‘...we’ll give them new names, but the old ones are still there...and the mountains were shaped and seen by these names.’” (54). As humans colonized Mars, they changed it to fit their desires by ignoring other societies around them, thus establishing a sense of superiority. Bradbury uses this quote to allude to the colonization of Western American in which Americans violently conquered the Native American territory and took complete dominance over them. Due to their ethnocentric personality, Americans ignore other cultures as they establish a sense of