War of the Worlds: Arrogance (Humans)

Question 1

orchid man value

Chapter 12 - The Orchid Man (wont abandon his orchids )

Answer 1

‘ I was explainin’ these is vallyble’
- VICTORIAN CLASS, NAIVE HUMANS
- ‘explainin’’ and ‘vallyable’ contrast, one shows knowledge, but at the same time he cannot pronounce properly, represents the human arrogance at the time
- narrator writes the phonetic spelling to show his class above the man

Narrator

Question 2

man vs antz

Book 2 - rants about his planned society

Answer 2

‘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 3

narrator being cocky

Artilleryman talking about society

Answer 3

‘In the days before the invasion no one would have questioned my intellectual superiority to his - I, a professed and recognised writer on philosophical themes, and he, a common soldier’
- CONT: VICTORIAN SOCIETY + CLASS
- ‘I, a professed and recognised writer on philsomical themes’ - long description compared to soldier shows the difference in class
- PARALLEL TO MARTIANS, both under GOD but one is better than the other

Narrator

Question 4

railways go down

Fall of London

Answer 4

‘Even the railway organisations were losing coherency, losing shape and efficiency, guttering, softening running at last in that swift liquefaction of the social body’
- VICTORIAN SOCIETY, CHAOS
- CONT: railways are the peak of Victorian Society
- ‘even the railway organisations’ - ‘even’ shows the incredulity of the narrator as the railways are the peak of Victorian technology and they are breaking
- repetition of verbs emphasises the speed at which this occurs ‘losing’, ‘guttering’, ‘softening’, running’

Narrators Brother

Question 5

dead london

London at the end

Answer 5

‘ London about me gazed at me spectrally. The windows in the white houses were like eye sockets in skulls’
- CONT: GOTHIC - precusor to dystopian, had some influence
- CONT: London is the center of the empire
- ‘sprectrally’ - connotations of emptiness - Gothic word
- ‘eye sockets of skulls - deathly imagery, personified using a similie

Narrator

Question 6

describing martian nature but arrogant

Book 2 Chapter 2

Answer 6

‘ A mere selfish intelligence, without any of the emotional substratum of the human being’
- HUMAN ARROGANCE
- LNK artilleryman
- ‘mere’ - highlights arrogance of humans as they say the intelligence of Martians is not enough (implied compared to them )

Talking abour martians nature - Narrator

Question 7

empire over matter

Chapter 1 Book 1

Answer 7

‘With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance over their empire over matter’
- HUMAN PERCEIVED POWER/IMPERIALSIM/WEAKNESS
- ‘infinite’ - exxageration of complacency highlights the human arrogance
- ‘to and fro’ - back and forth, no real destination, connotations of useless
- ‘empire of matter’ - empire over everything, arrogance challenged in the book
- CONT Imperialism, Industrial Revolution

First Chapter the narrator

Question 8

narrator reassuring his wife

Book 1 Chapter 7

Answer 8

‘ “A shell in the pit” said I,”if the worst comes to worst, will kill them all”’
- HUMAN ARROGANCE
- ‘worst comes to worst’ - saying humans will still be in control in the worst scenario
- ‘shell…will kill them all’ - human artillery is stronger than anything, human arrogance
- ‘will’ - no hesitation or doubt, straight belief

narrator reassuring his wife

Question 9

sapper arrogance

Book 1 Chapter 9

Answer 9

‘Talk about fishers of men - fighters of fish it is this time!/It ain’t no murder killing beasts like that ‘
- HUMAN ARROGANCE
- ‘beasts’ - refers to them as animals, trying to signify them as below humans and less reasonable

sappers talking

Question 10

dethroned

Book 2 Chapter 6

Answer 10

‘ 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