[Author’s Name]
[Institution’s Name]
Essay on
The Idea of Imagination
The War of Worlds
The War of the Worlds takes us to the bottom of the colonial/imperial heap. But The War of the Worlds also resists such easy analysis and part of the beauty of this book is its simple attention to detail and the way it evokes the British countryside and city under attack. Since 1898, we've been inundated with stories that lift Wells' style but use it to no particular reason. Wells is entertaining in the way that a melodramatic disaster movie is fun, but he also leaves you with things to think about.
The characters of The War of the Worlds are mostly interesting. The narrator is the typical kind of erudite British competent man, straight out of Kipling, except that the narrator here is uttering Victorian heresy. Were the Martians superior, God help us, to Britishers? What is the nature of power and do we ourselves abuse it? He's not afraid to ponder these matters and he has a fabulously well-told tale to keep us on the edge of our seats in the meantime. The narrator's brother is a bit of a cipher, although we can find out a few things about him from his actions (much the same as the women that the brother meets). Author shuffles the lesser characters on and off stage with ease, and this puts us right into the chaos of the situation.
The narrator meets an artilleryman near the beginning of the book, and they chat briefly. The narrator then endures much hardship trying to find one particular person, his wife, only to run into the same artilleryman later on. The irritating curate (who gets a greatly expanded role in the musical) is the opposite number in a psychological pas de deux with the narrator, as close quarters and diminishing food destroy the social veneer of civility......
