Greed In The Off Seasons

In both excerpts, an apparent theme is that greed can encompass us so strongly to where it is almost controlling, and that we often take extensive measures to get what we want as we are often ignorant and insensible to the effects it has on others. In both passages, there is so much greed as people feel so entitled to certain things. The Martian quote features many people, who are all trying to have Tom, a martian that can look like the person someone wants to see the most. They all think he is theirs, and are authorized to take him. Repeatedly, they say “my prisoner”, and “my daughter” with “my” “my” my” being said so many times. They all feel like they are the utmost entitled to Tom, just like how in The Off Season Sam Parkhill strongly believes the land is his as he says, “If it’s about this land,

As the people from the town are pleading, yelling, grabbing, and demanding, Tom is stuck in the midst of this turmoil and chaos, and eventually dies. And the moment that happens, almost everyone leaves right away, as if nothing happened, as if no one died, because as Tom disappears, so does their want for him. This can be easily connected to the excerpt from The Off Season. Sam is talking to a Martian saying, “You Martians are a couple dozen left, got no cities, you wander around in the hills, no leaders, no laws”. But why is it that they are only a couple dozen left? Because of the large extent of greed that the humans had towards the planet Mars. The human practically wiped out the human race, and it all started because they were greedy and wanted Mars to themselves. Just like Tom had to lose his life to other people’s greed, so did millions of Martians, because of the greedy humans who were oblivious and insensible to the impact it would have on