The Martian Chronicles
Ray Bradbury (1950)
“A book about Mars that is really about Earth -- written by a man who never learned to drive, distrusted machines, and saw the American frontier myth for the beautiful lie it always was.”
Characters in The Martian Chronicles
by Ray Bradbury · 1950 · 7 characters analyzed
Cast: Captain Wilder, Jeff Spender, Ylla, Hathaway, The Martians (collective), William Stendahl, The Father (The Million-Year Picnic).
Character Analysis
The liberal conscience of colonization -- decent, thoughtful, and ultimately powerless. Wilder sees the destruction coming and objects to it, but his objections change nothing. He is transferred to the outer planets, conveniently removed from the scene of the crime. Bradbury uses him to demonstrate that individual morality cannot resist systemic momentum.
Measured, moderate, the language of command tempered by reflection -- neither as plain as the settlers nor as elevated as Spender