Theme Of Heaven In Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles

As people get older, they start to wonder about what happens after death. Is it heaven, is it an afterlife, is it an endless void of nothing, a spirit realm, the purest place you can go to, a place where everything is perfect and just as it used to be, a peaceful place of rest before heaven? No one truly knows where you go until death but at that point, there is no way for us to know what is to come. So how would one know when they’ve died and reached heaven? Since no one knows, many people choose to follow certain religions to help prepare for what is to come after death and hope that the religion they follow is true and will end them up in their version of heaven. Knowing that no one has the slightest clue as to what Heaven could be, it is

At the beginning of the short story, it didn’t seem to me as if they were dead, it seemed like their expedition was going well and they made it to their destination. As I read more I slowly started to find more and more little details that lead me to believe that Captain Black and his crew never made it to mars, but died on the way there and were in Heaven instead. The first thing that stood out to me was when Lustig had seen his grandparents, and talked about how they’d been dead for 30 years. Many religions say that once you pass over to Heaven, you’ll see all of your loved ones that had passed before you. At first, it was Lustig who had seen his loved ones, then the rest of the crew, Captain Black, and lastly Hinkston. Out of everyone who had seen their family Captain Black was the only one who was suspicious as to why he was seeing his loved ones who had already passed if they weren’t in heaven but supposedly on mars. When Lustig’s grandparents were asked if this was heaven they said,”’ Nonsense, no. It’s a world and we get a second chance,’” never once acknowledging where they are (Bradbury 52). This shows that it is not heaven but can be in between earth and heaven, being a transitional

They made them comfortable throughout the day, bringing back memories and having everything be just the way they had remembered it, and once it became night made sure they went to sleep. Another piece in the story is when Captain is finally thinking rationally instead of emotionally, he starts to realize what could truly be happening and tries to leave but is too late. Although it took Captain some time to figure out what was going on, he was never going to be able to leave even if he had been able to figure it out earlier. Towards the end of the story when Captain tried to leave and his brother knew he was lying and stopped him, it was also the first time someone had tried to leave. No one before Captain had tried to leave because of how overwhelming and perfect everything was and being so caught up in emotions, so why would anyone want to leave? We can tell that they transitioned to heaven overnight considering when the next day came “there were new holes freshly dug and new tombstones installed,” enough for sixteen of the men from the crew (Bradbury 60). Originally seventeen men were aboard the Captain's ship, including him, but he was unable to transition because he was aware of what was going on and tried to stop