During the period after the Industrial Revolution the rich Western nations of the world began their imperialist expansion, racing to colonize any “unclaimed” territories. All of the colonized regions had their own culture and government, but because the West was so much stronger, they were taken over. When these areas were finally freed from years of oppression, their society was left in shambles and much of their culture was destroyed. Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles explores this theme of imperial expansion as applied to the hypothetical situation of humans colonizing the planet Mars. In the novel, the humans who flock to the planet are portrayed as reckless beings with no care for their new home. They destroy ruins, clear the land, and rebuild a comfortable human society on Mars. The parallels between the Earthlings in the novel and imperialists today are made very apparent, exposing the reader to the idea that humans have been colonizing territories in the wrong way. Instead, Bradbury offers the correct solution by stating that the righteous way to colonize a new land is by preserving and adapting to the native culture of the land, and by becoming a foreigner, or Martian, themselves.
Throughout the novel, Bradbury illustrates numerous accounts of the settlers disrespect for their new planet, and the reader is able to understand that he regards varying cultures highly. These instances of clear irreverence for Mars explain to the reader that the Earthlings are going about colonization in the wrong way, and should instead preserve their new home and culture. Early in the novel, Biggs, a member of the fourth expedition, throws his empty beer bottles into a Martian canal and arrogantly remarks, “I christen thee, I christe...
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... is by preserving the Martians’ old customs and cities, and by starting over as a Martian themselves. His message has such a great application to the modern world because in Bradbury’s time many industrial nations were forgetting that a state could excel without imposing Western ideas. Instead, they destroyed ancient civilizations simply because they failed to see the accomplishments of the natives, and left many cultures in a state where they could not be recovered. Bradbury’s theme is one that can pertain to nations of the past, present, and future. Colonizing should not be a game of trying to rebuild exactly the life one is used to. Instead, settlers should build and improve upon the nations that once thrived there, without erasing the evidence of native success.
Works Cited
Bradbury, Ray. The Martian Chronicles. New York: Bantam Books, 1950. Print.
Césaire states that “colonization works to decline the colonizer, to brutalize him in the truest sense of the word, to degrade him, to awaken him to buried instincts, to covetousness, violence, race hatred and moral relativism” (Césaire, 173). This can be seen
Tells a story of the creation and defense of communities, the utilization of the land, the development of markets, and the formation of states. It is filled with unexpected twists and turns. It is a tale of conquest, but also one of survival and persistence, and of the merging of peoples and cultures that gave birth and continuing life to America as we think of and experience it today (page 5).
The opening paragraph summarizes American history in abstract terms: “It was happy in a new sense of freedom from control, happy in the opportunity of exploration and adventure; for this child’s spirit, in bodies of its ancestors, had for thousands of years been trained to memorable feats of discovery and conquest” (455). The diction Bierce uses conveys a sense of warmongering and that war and conquest is what brings about “memorable feats.” The ever expanding frontier, the cross-continental explorations, and the colonizing of the West, though, are all described by Bierce in terms of a mirthful child going to play in the woods unabated and “unobserved” (Ibid). Bierce undermines the notion that American conquests in the past were grand exploits of a privileged and godly people.
Americans throughout history have always felt that they were superior. The concept of “Manifest Destiny” has been the fuel to the fire of superiority. Manifest Destiny is the belief that it is American’s are the chosen ones and have the obvious right to conquer and own land between the eastern and western seaboards and that such expansion was inevitable. Manifest Destiny along with Christianity were two reasons that drove and encouraged both expansion within North Amer...
While the US may have prided themselves in the fact that we didn’t practice imperialism or colonialism, and we weren’t an Empire country, the actions conquering land in our own country may seem to rebuff that claim. In the 19th century, the West was a synonym for the frontier, or edge of current settlement. Early on this was anything west of just about Mississippi, but beyond that is where the Indian tribes had been pushed to live, and promised land in Oklahoma after policies like Indian removal, and events like the Trail of Tears. Indian’s brief feeling of security and this promise were shattered when American’s believed it was their god given right, their Manifest Destiny, to conquer the West; they began to settle the land, and relatively quickly. And with this move, cam...
The colonists who first arrived in America came to this land because they saw an opportunity to regenerate their religion and to live according to it without subjugation. The immense size of the land sugge...
he doesn't he even own one. This where you can see how he is different
Throughout history, the United States had come off as a stubborn nation that would take what they wanted at any cost. This was prevalent in both cases of expansion as the Americans risked war and national safety for the sake of gaining land, or even merely for proving a point. During the early years of expansion, the Americans had pushed aside the Native Americans and whoever else inhabited the land they wanted. They believed that the land was rightfully theirs and that every one else was merely squatting on their territory. This idea was continued into the early twentieth century as the Americans looked to the oceans for new territories to their kingdom. This idea is greatly exemplified in document 'E', in which Senator Albert J. Beveridge delivers a speech to Congress, saying that, "...and thanksgiving to Almighty God that He has marked us as His chosen people, henceforth to lead in the regeneration of the world..."
Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles shows us not only a different world from Earth and Mars, but also the future of America. Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles depicts the colonization of Mars in terms of the colonization of America. The story is similar to what America experienced, such as thediscovery of America, the invasion of Indian colonies, and the new civilization. Dana's response paper also discussed the colonization of Mars.
When the shape of America first started to grow from just land to the 13 colonies to the westward expansion of our country in less than a century, it sure feels like hopes and dreams came true. Though it might have seemed like an easier task, it took luck, labor, and intense warfare. The long process of American territorial expansion was justified by a mid-century ideology known as Manifest Destiny (pg 1). The one people we seem to forget about when we discuss the growing settlement of our country are the Native Americans. They had inhabited the country long before Columbus had discovered America, and still play an important part in today’s society. Manifest Destiny justified the displacement and domestication of Native Americans all while
The prevailing opinion is that European explorers came to the America’s to peacefully colonize and gradually begin mutually beneficial relationships with the native people. However, Howard Zinn proves that the majority of explorers could not coexist with the native tribes, as the conquerors slowly stole their land, and did not return the initial hospitality most of the natives had showed to them. Therefore, the European colonizers blatantly ignored the rights of the Native Americans and acted with violence towards them. In order to conquer the natives, the colonizers “set fire to the wigwams of the village” and “ [destroyed] their crops” (Zinn).
Pre-dating to the early 15th century, when contact with European settlers was originally established, Indigenous peoples have been required to succumb to settler – colonization in an attempt to be integrated into mainstream culture. The initial purpose of colonialism was to be used as a tool to gain access to resources not otherwise available. As colonialism evolved, it has become a method by which foreign populations move into unfamiliar territories, and attempt to remove the colonized group from the currently occupied space.
...heir superiority. Achebe embraces the beauty of humanity while simultaneously addressing its flaws. With his ability to contemplate conflicting perspectives, Achebe illustrates the benefits of cultural relativity. Achebe does not target religion or even the colonizers; he addresses people universally, encouraging global consideration and individual reflection. To accentuate the forcefulness of the colonizers, Achebe contrasts it with his own temperateness—he portrays his characters without generalization, he presents his opinions with a carefully restrained perspective, and remains calm in his writing, never resorting to hatred. Instead of passively resenting his village’s colonization, Achebe productively channels his specified anger into global compassion, showing his readers the value in considering different cultures with objective and thoughtful rationality.
The beginning of this book puzzles the reader. It doesn't clearly state the setting and plot in the first chapter; it almost leaves the mood open to how the reader interprets it. In the romance story The Notebook, by Nicholas Sparks, the plot then shifts from a nursing home to a small town -- New Bern, North Carolina. It baffles the reader so much that it urges one to read on. The romance of Noah and Allie in this book is so deep and complex that it will bring a tear to the eye of any reader.
The novel The Maze Runner by James Dashner begins with a teenage boy waking up in an elevator who has no memory of the past, only that his name is Thomas. When the doors of the elevator open up he is pulled into a humongous square surrounding, called the Glade, by a group of teenage boys. The boys in the Glade refer to themselves as the ‘Gladers’. Thomas learns that the Gladers have lived in there for two years and that the Glade is located in the center of a maze which contains a labyrinth of high walls that move during the night and deadly creatures called grievers. The Glade is led by two boys, Alby and Newt; they both maintain order in the Glade by enforcing strict rules and jobs that keep the Gladers busy. A day after Thomas’ arrival an unknown girl arrives in the Glade. This shocks everyone because the Gladers only receive a new person every month, never within the same week. This also shocks everyone because she was the only girl in a maze full of boys. The girl also gives a message that everything is going to change and that she is the last one ever. Right after her message she immediately falls into a coma. The arrival of the girl causes many things to go chaotic including the sun seizing to rise, the Gladers stop receiving supplies from the creators of the maze, and the doors of the Glade that protect the Gladers from the grievers at night stop closing. When the girl, Teresa wakes up she informs Thomas that they both knew each other in the past and that the maze was a code. Thomas and the people who run around the maze to map out the labyrinth, the runners, look through the archives of the maps and find out the code. Then the leader of the runners, Minho, figures out that the cliff they thought was just a cliff was actua...