The War of the Worlds (Style)

Style

Narrative

In order to present this story as a first person narrative, told by an "I" speaker who is a character in the book, Wells has to resort to some clever tricks. For one thing, the narrator is a scientist and a friend of an astronomer, Ogilvy: this gives him access to the world of astronomy when most of the news about the first projectile from Mars is not commonly talked about. Another method used is to have the narrator speaking from six years after the action has taken place, so that information that would not have been available during the Martian invasion, such as the details of their physiognomy, can be introduced into the book at appropriate times.

The most obvious narrative device, though, is in switching the action's point of view for several chapters into that of the narrator's brother. This is not a character whom readers come to know with any depth. The details of his experience are known without much insight into his personality. The function of these chapters is to show what the general reaction to the invasion was around London, and perhaps to introduce a dashing, romantic figure aiding damsels in distress without breaking away from the reality of the narrator's perspective.

Foreshadowing

Once readers reach the end of The War of the Worlds, many realize that they should have seen the Martians' defeat clearly prepared in the course of the story. When an action in the story prepares readers for what is going to be done, it is called foreshadowing. Done well, readers will not even notice foreshadowing until after they have seen the event foreshadowed.

As early as Chapter 2 of Book 2, the narrator explains that

Micro-organisms, which cause so much disease and pain on earth, have either never appeared upon Mars or Martian sanitary science eliminated them ages ago. A hundred diseases, all the fevers and contagions of human life, consumption, cancers, tumours and such morbidities, never enter the scheme of their life.

Readers who do not see this as a clue to the Martians' eventual inability to survive on Earth are given further evidence when the narrator goes on to introduce the red weed that came with them from Mars, which grew prodigiously but was unable to survive local bacteria. The end is foreshadowed early on, but readers who are engrossed in the story might miss it.

Topics For Further Study

• This novel is specific about what sorts of physical characteristics the Martians would have developed, due to the kind of atmosphere Wells believed Mars to have. Using current information about Mars, describe what types of creatures would live there if there were any Martians at all.
• Examine the information that has been printed by people who suspect that aliens have already come to Earth, especially the theories around Roswell, New Mexico, and the government facility at Area 51 in Nevada. After reading the information, explain why you do or do not believe that the government is keeping the presence of aliens a secret.
• Listen to a recording of the Mercury Theatre's 1938 broadcast of their adaptation of The War of the Worlds, and then read about the panic that broadcast caused. Compare the public's response to that fictional account with the reaction to the real-life destruction of the World Trade Center, which was broadcast live throughout the world. Explain whether you think people in the 1930s acted rationally or irrationally.
• The invasion of London in this novel can be compared to the attack against New York City in 2001. Write a report about the ways people behaved at that time, comparing and contrasting them to the behaviors that Wells describes.