Essay Questions

Explain the innovative mechanism by which Bradbury has the Martians invade Earth.

In the words of Drill, the Martian, Earth is "impregnable," entirely resistant to most typical forms of violent invasion. Instead of openly communicating with world leaders or descending from the sky with armies of starships, the aliens have opted for a more insidious, tactically brilliant approach: using the children of Earth. Only children have the imagination to look under bushes, according to Drill, and their extreme susceptibility to manipulation makes them perfect targets for the Martians. Being so young, furthermore, children apparently have heightened sensitivity to detecting other, higher dimensions, such as the ones the Martians (extraterrestrials, at least) use to communicate and travel.

While the actual scientific explanation for the aliens' invasion is never mentioned, it has something to do with the construction of some geometrical metal apparatus, if the items Mink takes from the kitchen are any indication. Bradbury's omission of this explanation, however, like Shelley's in Frankenstein, indicates that the actual mechanism isn't the important bit of the story, rather being subordinated to the philosophical questions it brings up.

The choice of children as a means of enacting the invasion is a brilliant and novel one for another reason: they can be completely overt about it, and no one important will suspect a thing. No one believes the tall tales of children about the games they're playing - it's their nature to exist in a realm of heightened fantasy and imagination. Only when it's too late do the adults of the world realize they should have paid more attention to their children's activities.

How does Bradbury foreshadow the invasion at Zero Hour?

Throughout the story, Bradbury strategically places actions and bits of conversation in Mink's deportment that should have tipped her mother off; Mrs. Morris, however, being the adult that she is, plays off Mink's unusual behavior as the result of some new game. The methods Bradbury uses to foreshadow the invasion, however, are far from discreet. The most obvious of these methods of foreshadowing is Mink's explicit foretelling of the invasion at Zero Hour, which isn't foreshadowing so much as prophecy. She tells her mother that the aliens couldn't invade Earth the normal way, so they used children, and everything is building up to Zero Hour, when something important will happen. Mink also tells her mother, in a particularly chilling scene, that she probably won't be hurt during the invasion.

Hints and clues of other kinds are dropped along the way. The fact that the game excludes anyone over a certain age across the world is a bit of a clue, as well as the game's sudden universal adoption. Mink also uses large, sophisticated words she clearly is not familiar with, which should have alerted her mother to some dangerous foreign influence on her daughter's mind, especially with words like "impregnable" and "dimensions." Despite all these examples of foreshadowing, Mrs. Morris doesn't realize what's really happening until it's too late, revealing how little adults think of their children's abilities and importance in the real world.