The Martian Chronicles, a book by Ray Bradbury, is a series of short stories about man migrating to the Red Planet. The book tells many interesting tales of what life on Mars might be like. In this book Ray Bradbury looks into the future to see what life will be like. He predicts that many social issues among humans will get worse. He believes that topics such as racism, war, and over- reliance on technology, will not only still exist, but will be much worse than what has ever been seen. Although some may argue that these topics could use improvement, society today has adjusted to the 21st century and is much better off than what Mr. Bradbury predicted.
? ?Come back, you bastard! What am I going? to do nights? Why, that lousy, insolent son of a ?? ? (100) responded Tierce. He was replying to a questioned asked by Silly, a black man who was about to leave on a rocket with the rest of the blacks.
Ray Bradbury
Photo of Ray Bradbury.
Ray BradburyBradbury predicted that racism would be one of the worst issues of the future. When he wrote that passage he was referring to Tierce murdering other blacks after sunset. Tierce was a racist who went to the extreme. He hated them so much that he and a group of men would kill them for a hobby. In this story, blacks were also the slaves of white people. Mr. Bradbury obviously thought that racism was going to be a serious problem in the future. It turns out that the world has much less racism. Although some people still may have similar thoughts to Tierce, the number of people who would actually go to the extreme lengths that Tierce did, hardly exists. In this day and age, almost everyone has realized that all men, no matter what race, are created equal.
Another problem that Mr. Bradbury sees deteriorating is atomic war. He predicted that man would destroy the earth in an atomic war. ?It caught fire. Part of it seemed to come apart in a million pieces, as if a giant jigsaw had exploded.? (143). Mr. Bradbury thought that man would destroy himself, when actually; the earth is in pretty good shape. The humans have widespread peace treaties that many countries follow. Although some countries are still fighting today, there are no atomic bombs blowing up Earth. Humans are definitely better at keeping peace than what Bradbury predicted.
Over reliance on technology is another problem Mr. Bradbury predicts in the future. A short story in his book, ?There Will Come Soft Rains,? he describes a house that does everything for humans. ?In the living room the voice-clock sang, Tick-tock, seven o?clock, time to get up, time to get up, seven o?clock!? (166). This house not only automatically wakes them up, but it makes them breakfast, and it even cleans up after them. Bradbury thought that technology would do almost everything. This may be Bradbury?s closest prediction. Humans have invented ?smart houses.? Although these houses aren?t as sophisticated as Ray Bradbury predicted them to be, they can still do many things that make life easier on humans. Humans have many great inventions to assist them in everyday life. Humans do rely on technology in about everything that they do, but not to the extent that Bradbury predicted.
In the short story series The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury predicted that many social issues would get worse. He expected to see topics such as racism, war, and overreliance on technology to get much worse. Today, many of these problems still exist. Though, through peaceful thinking, and unity among countries, these problems will constantly improve. Some people may argue that society still needs some major advancement, but for the most part, civilization is much better off than what Ray Bradbury predicted.
Bradbury receiving the National Medal of Arts awar...
Ray Bradbury
The Stories of Ray Bradbury