Dec 20, 2009

The War of the Worlds | Topics for Discussion

1. Why are the characters given abstract names such as "the Narrator" and "the Curate"? Are the names symbolic? What would be the point of symbolic names?

2. In many stories about invaders from outer space, the aliens are so advanced that human beings can do nothing to hurt them. Wells allows his human beings to destroy some Martian war-machines. Why does he do this?

3. Is the ending of the book, in which the Martians are destroyed by microbes and chased down by packs of dogs, a let down? Can you think of a better ending?

4. If modern scientists were to spot...