War of the Worlds: Defeat

Question 1

colonisation parallel

Chapter 12 - The Artilleryman

Answer 1

‘Its bows and arrows against the lightning’
- MARTIAN POWER
- CONT: IMPERIALISM - how the natives felt
- ‘bows and arrows’ - primitive contrasted to ‘lightning’ - out of this world godly
- paralell to colonisation

Artilleryman

Question 2

slain by the midgest

Book 2 Chapter 3

Answer 2

‘slain by the putrefactive and disease bacteria…slain, after all man’s devices had failed, by the humblest things that God, in his wisdom, has put upon the earth
- HUMAN + MARTIAN SMALLNESS, SMALL MOTIF
- CONT: DARWINISM REJECTION
- ‘man’s devices had failed’ - human arrogance is gone
- ‘God’ - reference to higher in contrast of beliefs of the times
- ‘slain’ - heroic, old, verb - repeated
empasihes the unlikeliness of the bacteria slaying
- ‘bacteria’ - smallest thing defeats the largest reversal of the whole book

Narrator looking at slain martians in London

Question 3

man vs antz

Book 2 - rants about his planned society

Answer 3

‘It never was a war, any more than there’s a war between man and ants’
-MOTIF OF SMALL + INSIGNIFICANT, POWER OF MARTIANS, LNK TO END OF THE BOOK (bacteria win)
-‘man and ants’ - juxtaposition of size to show incredulity of war
‘ants’ - belittles humans
LNK - Infusoria under a microscope

Artilleryman

Question 4

dethroned

Book 2 Chapter 6

Answer 4

‘ a sense of dethronement, a persuasion that I was no longer a master, but an animal among the animals, under the Martian heel… the fear and empire of man had passed away’
- MARTIAN POWER
- ‘martian heel’ - like how a dog is on the heel of a human, dehumanising the humans
- ‘empire of man’ - LNK to empire over matter
- ‘dethronment’ - removal of a king for a new king, now a common subject shows that humans now understand their true value

narrator on the way to london