The Martian Chronicals

Chapter 1

Setting: January 1999 Ohio

Characters: N/A

Events: A rocket descends upon Ohio and creates a temporary summer feel in the winter due to the heat the rocket expelled.

Opinion: I don't think that a rocket landing would actually melt away all of the snow in January.

Chapter 2

Setting: February 1999 Mars

Characters: Yll, Ylla, Nathaniel York, Pao, Dr. Nile

Events: Ylla a Martian women has a dream that a rocket comes from the third planet from the sun. In this dream a human named Nathaniel York talks to her tells her she is beautiful and takes her away in his ship. This man had blond hair, blue eyes and was light skinned. This was unheard of on mars because Martians had coin like eyes yellow skin and blondish hair. She also has picked up a song that is not in their language; that she does not know where it is from. She tells her husband Yll about these dreams but he becomes worried and thinks she is sick and insists on going to town for entertainment. That night Ylla dreams more about the rocket and Nathaniel and learns where and when the rocket will land. Yll hears her entire dream and plots to keep her away from that area. He tells her that his friend is joining them for dinner and he wants her to be there for it. While they are waiting he informs her that he is going to go hunting while he is out Ylla hears two shots going off and she begins to scream hysterically. She forgets the song that she was singing and no longer has the dreams.

Opinion: The chapter was very depressing it is like the life that could have been versus the life that it is. Ylla could have gone to earth with Nathaniel but instead because of her visions she instead is to live out her life on Mars.

Chapter 3

Setting: August 1999 Mars

Characters: N/A

Events: The Martian race starts receiving telepathic signals from the approaching humans in the rocket. The children are singing nursery rhymes from earth bands play music from Earth and singers are singing in English. This is all puzzling to the Martians because such things are inexistent on Mars.

Opinion: That is pretty freaky that the alien can use telepathy and are receiving all of these earth customs. What is most disturbing though is that they are not aware of who they are getting these readings from leading me to believe that they have little control of their powers.

Chapter 4

Setting: August 1999 Mars

Characters: Captain Williams, Mr. Iii Mr. Xxx, Martians in asylum, little Martian girl, Captain Williams' crew.

Events: All over Mars children sing earth nursery rhymes, bands play earth tunes and musicians sing earth songs. The next day Captain Williams and his crew arrive on Mars. They go door to door for some kind of recognition for being the first ones to make it from Earth to Mars. To their dismay each person sends them off to another place until the crew reach Mr. Iii's house. Mr. Iii puts them in what they think is a rest area where they meet many other Martians claiming to be from Earth. As the Captain soon discovers that where they were was an insane asylum and that Mr. Iii believes that he is crazy and that the crew is just a telepathic hallucination of his. Mr. Xxx, some sort of psychologist inspects the rocket thoroughly and says that the hallucinations are the most real he has ever seen. Then he kills the captain expecting that the crew and rocket would disappear. When they remained he came to the conclusion that he was now insane as well. With that he killed the crew and then himself.

Opinion: This was proof that a lot of the Martians had little control of their powers. The Martians in the Asylum spoke of earth so that leads the readers to believe that the telepathy that they were receiving from the crew had driven them insane. It is sad that the crew died the way they did all because of misunderstandings of two completely different societies.

Chapter 5

Setting: March 2000 Earth

Characters: Pritchard

Events: Pritchard is an American citizen that claims that he should be aloud on the ship to Mars because he is a taxpayer. He wants to leave Earth because of his fear of nuclear war. He is denied by the government and must stay on earth.

Opinion: It is foolish of the government to not let him go since the last two trips were failures. The earth must be on the brink of nuclear war if random people would go to a totally new planet just to escape.

Chapter 6

Setting: April 2000 Mars

Characters: Captain Black, Hinkston, Lustig, Black's Mother and Father, John Black.

Events: Black and his crew arrive on Mars only to find that it is like an American town from the childhood of the captain. On this planet there were relatives of the crew that had passed away. Black was not sure about the whole situation until he saw his brother that had died 30 years ago. Black stays the night at his parents' house and sleeps in the same room as his brother. Black deduces that this may be a Martian trap and as he goes to the door he is caught by his brother he screams twice but does not make it to the door. The next day 16 coffins come out of the homes and the members of the families go to the funeral. In the end it turns out that they were really Martians.

Opinion: This was an extremely interesting chapter the Martians had taken on the appearance and personality of the crews' deceased loved ones. The Captain was smart to want to sneak off and probably would have been able to escape if the Martians were not telepathic. The line where it says that he screamed twice but never made it to the door was a good touch to inspire imagination on how the captain was killed and to and a sense of fear.

Chapter 7

Setting: June 2000 Mars

Characters: Jeff Spender, Sam Parkhill, Cheroke, Captain Wilder, Biggs, Hathway,

Events: Wilder and the crew discover that the Martian were killed off by chickenpox. The majority of the crew gets drunk and when Biggs goes to dump a few bottles in an old canal Spender flips out and punches him