222 Bradbury, Ray
embodies a work of literature and introduces himself
not with a name but with the title of the work he
or she has memorized. “I am Plato’s Republic,” says
one. Bradbury’s point is that the reader, through the
act of reading the text and committing it to memory,
becomes the text. In the end, we are made of and
defined by the stories we carry.
Granger explains how the group proceeds quietly,
making no overt acts of rebellion. As Granger says, “If
we are destroyed, the knowledge is dead, perhaps for
good.” In this way, the survival of the cultural wealth
of literature depends on the survival of its carriers.
Literature survives in Fahrenheit 451 by chang-
ing its medium. Literature (from the Latin littera,
or “letter”) in recent centuries has been transmitted
primarily through the written word. In Bradbury’s
novel, books are banned because the ideas they
transmit threaten the state. It is thought that these
ideas can be destroyed with the destruction of the
physical text. Bradbury tells us that the essence of
“the book” and the stories and thoughts contained
within—the “knowledge,” as Granger would say—
transcend the physical text. Literature changes in
Fahrenheit 451 from a textual form into an oral form.
Ripped from the page, the word survives.
The advantage of the oral tradition over print
is that it is infinitely portable and infinitely adaptable.
A story written on a page is set. For as long as the
text survives, the story or idea will go unchanged. But
the oral tradition that Guy Montag enters toward
the end of Fahrenheit 451 passes literature along
like dna. The oral text will forever evolve, change,
and adapt to the demands of its environment. The
story survives for as long as there are people willing
to speak and to listen. In this way, literature exists
beyond the page and is no longer dependent on the
printing press or computer for survival. Fire cannot
stop it. Freed from the page, the knowledge transmit-
ted in books returns to its place of origin within the
mind and bodies of the people it represents.
Mark D. Dunn
BRADBURY, RAY The Martian
Chronicles (1950)
Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles has enjoyed
widespread popularity since its first printing in
- Its collection of interrelated short stories is set
in the future, beginning in January 1999 and ending
in October 2026. The stories are of varying length,
ranging from a few paragraphs to approximately
14 pages. They are set both on Earth and on Mars.
They detail the Earth settlers’ struggles as they leave
home; colonize an unfamiliar land; meet strange
beings; and, most of all, confront themselves. They
cause the reader to both despair over the human
condition and hope for its fragile future.
The main subject matter of The Martian Chron-
icles is the human condition, and Bradbury explores
that condition through a variety of themes. One
theme deals with love: the dysfunction of a loveless
marriage, the loss of a son, the hope of meeting a
new love, and the heartrending grief of losing one’s
family. In exploring the theme of nature, Bradbury
describes the energy of a new planet. Its seasons are
different; its growth spurts are odd; its rains, pools,
cities, and ruins collect and reflect both the human
spirit and the alien Martian past in ways that are
familiar and strange. The natural world is insepa-
rable from both the colonizer and the native, for
both are encompassed by a planet that has its own
rhythms and mysteries. Therefore, alienation, not
only from one’s spouse, children, and culture but also
from one’s planet, plays an important role in this
book. The settlers have left Earth behind or are pre-
paring to do so; they are trying to understand a land
that is hostile and strange. How is one to understand
oneself when the fissure between oneself and one’s
land, or oneself and one’s spouse, is deep and seem-
ingly permanent?
Anna Minore
alienatiOn in The Martian Chronicles
The theme of alienation underlies almost every story
in Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles. Alien-
ation has something to do with being withdrawn,
isolated, or indifferent; it indicates separation, and it
can go so far as to include estrangement, unfriend-
liness, or even hostility. Statistically, it is a lack of
correlation; psychologically, it can be manifested
as insanity. Thus, Bradbury’s first action—placing
his characters on another planet (Mars)—in and of
itself places the characters in a state of alienation
from the reader and from the character’s own natural