Regarding Bradbury's short story
Rocket Summer,
The Locusts, and
The Musicians,
what are
you contemplating about humanity and progress? What does the reading of
these stories challenge you to consider? Please respond during
class on September 28th, 2015.
22 comments:
I think Ray Bradbury has a mixed view of progress, like myself. He, or at least I, think that progress is something that can be a good thing, but we as a race struggle with it. We try to make other places like the ones we now, rather than letting our surroundings change us. We need to let go of the familiar and embrace change a little more.
While I read the short stories from “The Martian Chronicles”, I thought about how Bradbury portrays the idea of how our society will progress. Our humanity is progressing rapidly and it currently looks like there’s no end. I have considered if that if Mars is a real possibility for people on Earth someday. Obviously we’re not going to hop onto a rocket after school and visit Mars. But can this be a possibility for people in the future? Will our generation have a chance to witness this or will this happen long after we’re gone? This does make me consider about our future on Earth or if we even stay on Earth.
Ray Bradbury's short stories tend to make me think very lowly about the way that humanity tends to progress. As shown in the short story The Musicians, humanity generally has very little to no respect for the race that is being conquered. In the text the kids also have no respect for the Martians, disturbing the remains of the Martians. Because of this, I think that humanity should think about others before we progress.
In all these short stories, author shows us different ways that humanity has changed since they began occupying Mars. The rocket sunday idea may have been a new ordinary event that happened every day. The idea of the martian remains being left around shows how the world has already defeated the martians and basically forgotten their race. At the end when the rest of the bones are cleaned up, it really signifies the end of martian remembrance. It challenges us to think about what we would do in the event of an invasion or what we would do about the people we were invading. Based on the stories, humanity’s transition to Mars has been quite easy and all humans seem to be living a good life in Mars.
Bradbury's short story questions the actions and goals of humanity. Humans on Mars progress using their own methods rather than adapting. This resulted in the destruction of the Martians' way of life. This course of progression would seem almost unfair to humans if the Martian's did it to Earth, which makes methods of the humans inhuman.
In the short story's Rocket Summer, The Locusts, and The Musicians, by Ray Bradbury it gives you a whole different perspective on humanity.The kids are trying to make mars like home. They miss home and trying to make mars feel like home. These kids are going in deserted towns and don't have much care for what they do even know there parents tell them not to go in these towns. This makes you think that the kids need to care more about what they have and adapt to there environment. These stories challenges me to consider in the future we may have to live on mars. Also that kids are becoming ignorant to there parents and the environment. I believe kids need to listen to there parents and respect the environment. If people do not adapt to where they live they can not succeed or live for long because it's like animals have to adapt to there habitat. Overall Ray Bradbury changes the way I think of the world and humanity,
After reading the the few pages in The Martian Chronicles, I am thinking that humanity can sometimes be really careless and that shows through Bradbury's writing. For example, this is shown on page 89. The boys are in the Martian ghost town and are running through the 'flakes' of the dead Martian carcasses pretending that it is Earth's Autumn leaves. In my opinion, this act is careless because those boys are not being respectful of the deceased martians. Ray Bradbury's writing also shows progress in humanity because instead of the usual space travel to the Moon, humanity has made it to another planet.
Regarding Bradbury's short story Rocket Summer, The Locusts, and The Musicians, I am contemplating a few different things about humanity. Since all of these stories are fictional, they aren’t real examples. One of the things I am contemplating is how grateful we are to have such a thriving and growing humanity. We need to utilize this great civilization because if time happened like it happens in this book, we could end up having to move to another planet and figure out a way to make our civilization thrive again. Another thing I am contemplating is that if we were to move planets and we need to thrive off of the resources on that planet, we would need to not allow things to happen like what happens in the book, such as having kids go around and ruin other structures. we would need to utilize the resources that we would have when we were there because we cannot run out. If we were to run out, the whole human race would die off. We can’t let that happen so we need to prepare for things like this to happen.
While reading "The Martian Chronicles", Bradbury describes a fiction story on how maybe one day humans can live on Mars. There seems to be no end, to our advances but eventually it will. The possibility of living on Mars one day is slight, but maybe in our future generation or further on when were gone could be possible.
After reading each of Ray Bradbury's short stories, it can be noticed that humanity and progress are present in each story. They all touch on human greed and yearning for power and control. Colonizing Mars shows human spirit and need for expansion. Not unlike the Manifest Destiny, humans settle on Mars while endangering the native Martians that live there. "The Musicians" touches on ignorance and disrespect. The "black leafs" are actually Martian remains. Human boys play in the remains and totally disrespect the deceased Martians. These stories challenge me to consider the fact that humans have been destroying habitats and taking land from others on Earth, and we do the same on Mars, according to Ray Bradbury. It makes readers consider the possibility of settling new territory at the expense of others.
After reading the short stories from "The Martian Chronicles", I was really thinking about how the author thinks that the future unfold. It's sort of makes me think that we aren't progressing as quickly as we thought that we would be. The story says that in Ohio, because of so many rockets being launched, it never gets cold enough to go sledding anymore. The author told this to be in 1999, and today it is 2015. As of right now, we have no people living on Mars at all.
After reading Bradbury's short stories Rocket Summer, The Locusts, and The Musicians I have begun to think about what they mean in today’s society. In Rocket Summer we see advances in technology ruining a climate system. Building on to this The Musicians we see boys playing the the bones and remains of the martians they killed. The author writes, “A great skull would roll into view...” yet these boys only danced on. This leads me to how in the US we can often cause ruin by only thinking of our own intentions. And like in the The Musicians we can not see the damage we have done, and sometimes dance on the remains of what we have destroyed. Even though these stories were written over 60 years ago I feel that they have a large significance today, and these stories have helped me to rethink my opinions on our current society, thinking a little bit deeper.
While we were reading the short chapter from the story "The Martian Chronicles," I thought about how the author showed how kids acted during this time and place. This shows for society that kids have imaginations and want to always be doing something instead of nothing. These stories challenged me to think that if one day we are able to live on Mars, there will be kids that want to explore around the area. This makes me question if one day will there be life on Mars? Is the atmosphere and weather conditions to extreme to live there? This story makes me consider what would life be not on Earth, and rather other places.
After reading the Passages from Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles, I couldn't stop thinking about how as Humanity progresses, we do not think of the side affects of our progression and what it will do to others. In all three passages we read, Humanity either left earth in a worse state than when we started from earth because of the terrible pollution the rockets gave off or made the Martians angered because of the Humanization they were doing to their planet of Mars. I think that for the sake of Humanity and all other forms of life, we must be cautious with our progress and be mindful of our needs but do the best in our power to help other species as well as we make our lives better. I once heard that Humankind is the nicest and most cruel form of life. We must be mindful of these habits and focus on the good for the progress of all life.
All of these stories have one thing in common; the humans are changing things. Whether it is the climate, the buildings and culture, or just general respect, the humans are taking part of it. I guess humans just have a way of adapting and making things comfortable and familiar. Bradbury shows this through the text. I know this isn't real, but it reminds us of the power and damage we are capable of doing.
After reading Ray Bradbury's short stories "Rocket Summer", "The Locusts" and "The Musicians", I have contemplated several things about humanity and progress. Regarding "progress", I think that these stories showed Bradbury's interpretation of our future, and how we will evolve over time. This will require great progress, starting with one thing and going to another. As he said in "Locusts" that "ninety thousand people came to mars, and more, on earth, were packing their grips...". This shows a progressive idea, that the future will consist of us changing our location over a progressive amount of time. For humanity, I considered the idea of evolving. This shift in our future will most likely make us evolve as people, and find new ways to efficiently live. We will never forget the memories of earth, but we will miss them, if something like this were ever to happen.
Reading Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles," I had to consider my own opinions and thoughts on how the actions of these human's line up with my morals and how I think they should act. The way in which the humans invade Mars and change it to be familiar is similar to how we have dominated other nations and lands, including our own. For example, we took the Native American's land and destroyed their way of life. The book describes how the human's presence diminishes the Martian population, just as the European's intervention pretty much expunged all of the Native American population. They think they are doing the right thing, but they do not see the future affects of their actions. We need to preserve what has been created for us and not throw it away by polluting, excavating, building on and destroying even the natural landscape on Earth. The way the boys in "The Musicians" and many people in "Rocket Summer" and "The Locusts" invade Mars and have no respect for what is pre-existing there. We need to learn from this and apply what we have learned to our own planet. If we don't cherish and protect what we have now, it won't be around for future generations.
As I was reading the short stories from 'The Martian Chronicles," by Ray Bradbury, I started to imagine if Ray Bradbury new a lot more about our society now than we do. We've advanced so much. There is all this talk about eventually being able to go up and live in space. Then I wonder what that makes us. In history, we are talking about imperialism, and I do think that we are a world of imperialistic countries. I think we pretty much know the world, and we are sort of looking for more, these days. I wonder if we will eventually be more that just countries. Maybe we'll all have different planets. After that, what do we have? It's probably not so smart to give people portions of the whole galaxy. That's just a really strange thing to think about. The other thing I thought about was what happens if there is a world of other living beings? We kind of forced away the Native Americans and then continued to expand, so will we do the same? How will we decide who gets what land. I guess the big question here is not 'Will this be a possibility for the future," but more so, "If this is our future, what are the possibilities." I guess the other question is not, "Will we really always be one planet," but more so, "Is it smarter to stay as one planet." This is really what I consider when I read these texts from 'The Martian Chronicles' by Ray Bradbury.
As I read the short stories from the book "The Martian Chronicles" written by Ray Bradbury,I thought about humanity and progress and how theses are affecting the world today. Humans are being born each and everyday. I believe that the more people, the better understanding or progress we will have of everything. Progress is pretty amazing, but the question is. Are we as humans ready for the changes to be made? I wonder how the earth will be long after this generation is gone. This makes me wonder and think about how life as humans will transform and change as generations keep on passing by.
Regarding Bradbury´s short story Rocket Summer, The Locusts, and The Musicians, are contemplating about humanity and progress by knowing that Bradbury does not show much hope for humanity. He shows the darker side of both progress and survival. In Rocket Summer, the humans are taking over Mars by launching rockets from Earth, this results in extreme pollution. While in The Musicians, the boys are playing the dead remains of the MArtians who used to live their. This is one example that shows how humans can be insensitive to others. What is also disturbing is the part where the firemen come to clean the remains of the martians because that was the martians residence and now the humans are taking over. Wiping an entire species into extinction and acting like there is nothing wrong about it is just inhuman. The point of view in these short stories is to show how humans can become overpowered when taking over and that we should think about others before building a civilization.
After reading "Rocket Summer", "The Locusts" and "The Musicians", I believe that Ray Bradbury believed human progression, can be both good and bad. Reading these stories challenge me to understand human nature, to see why humans don't adapt to their surroundings. Maybe it's just a sense of home that we always long for, or maybe we are just bad at it. In "The Locusts" Ray said that humans came like Locusts to mars, referring that we came in large numbers. This made me think that it may not have been just for humans to imperials Mars. Bradbury might have also been referring to humans as pests.
In Ray Bradbury's series of short stories he talks about humanity advancing. In each story humanity gets farther and farther ahead of it's time. In the story "The Locusts" it's talks about how humans coming to earth was like when the "aliens" went to mars. We made a home for ourselves. In each story the year advances and so does the technology we have. In the very last story we are able to go to mars. These stories seem to me to be how Ray Bradbury will see us in humanity in the future.
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