Questions Answered by The War of the Worlds

The War of the Worlds broadcast happened quite a while ago. But even today people think about whether it was real or not. I know that I thought it was real in the beginning, but near the end I found out that it was just a dramatization. After we listened to it, we got some questions that we had to answer. The answers to the questions are below.

People everywhere were freaking out. They were in a state of panic. People loaded blankets and supplies in their cars and prepared to leave. Others hid in basements and cellars hoping that the poisonous gas would blow over them. One other in New England reportedly packed her babies and lots of bread into her car, thinking that “If everything is burning, you can’t eat money, but you can eat bread.” But what made them believe that it was real? Well many listeners tuned in late and didn’t hear the announcement made at the beginning of the broadcast that it was just a dramatization. Also, the global situation in 1938 provided a context that allowed many people to believe such a series of events could actually be happening. Tensions in Europe were rising, and it was common for radio broadcasts to be interrupted by reporters delivering ominous news from Europe. Many people who panicked later explained that they had assumed the “Martian invasion” was a cleverly disguised German attack. Most of the people who panicked were middle-aged or older. Younger listeners tended to not panic because they recognized Orson Welles's voice as the voice of the hero in the popular radio series, The Shadow.

This isn’t something that could only happen in the 1930s. Though, we have better technology which makes it easier to spread things around to everyone, something similar to this could still happen. Though this...

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...n Earth” or something like that. After I heard that, I calmed down because if it happened so long ago how would I be alive now if he was the last person on Earth? Then at the very end he said, once again, that it was just a dramatization of the book War of the Worlds.

First off, if someone told me how a movie ended, I would slap them. I don’t like spoilers. But anyhow, of course I would still go see the movie! Even though I know how it ends, it is still good to go see it. You could understand how the movie ended the way it did. If it’s a book I’ve read, being turned into a movie, I would still go see it out of excitement that a book that I’ve read is being turned into a movie. Even though I already know what happens.

In conclusion, the War of the Worlds broadcast had people thinking that the world was actually ending even though the whole thing was a dramatization.