125 pages • 4 hours read
Ray BradburyThe Martian Chronicles
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1950A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics.
“February 2002: The Locusts”
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
“February 2002: The Locusts” Summary
Swarms of settlers likened to locusts arrive on Mars and immediately begin to “beat the strange world into a shape that was familiar to the eye, to bludgeon away all the strangeness” (103). The male settlers build homes and towns like those on Earth, to combat the alien nature of Mars, and after them the female settlers decorate and craft an appearance of Earth. In six months, 90,000 people have arrived on Mars, and a dozen small towns have been established.
“February 2002: The Locusts” Analysis
The arrival of 90,000 emigrants from Earth is likened to the arrival of a plague of locusts. The busyness of their construction and their nesting is portrayed without glory, or rational. The emigrants are not given names or motivations, they are an alien mass arriving and forcing their habitats on unfamiliar territory. In contrast to “Rocket Summer,” where the rocket changes the environment in a positive manner, the landing rockets alter Mars in a negative way, setting “bony meadows afire, turn[ing] rock to lava” (103).
The banality of the construction and the decorating is depicted as though the observing intelligence of the story were unfamiliar with the customs of this group.
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