Analysis Of Orson Welles's 'The War Of The Worlds'

H.G. Wells demonstrates proper use of different literacy techniques throughout The War of the Worlds. The first technique that he uses is descriptive language. Throughout the story, he uses his words to describe characters or his surroundings. One example would be when he states “the turf and gravel about it seemed charred as if by a sudden explosion.” (pp. 11). This statement describes the narrator's surroundings. He also uses descriptive language when describing the Martians, by stating their physical characteristics. A specific example would include when the narrator is describing the Martian's behavior in Chapter Two of the second book. Also, Wells also uses foreshadowing as a technique. At the end of Chapter Five in Book One, the Martians

Imagine, if you will, a time that seemed innocent... almost too innocent. Imagine a nation under whose seemingly conformist and conservative surface dramatic social changes were brewing, changes as obvious as integration and as subtle as fast food. And imagine, if you will, a radical television show that scrutinized, criticized, and most importantly, publicized these changes, making the social turmoil of a nation apparent to its post-world war, self-contented middle-class citizens. But what if this television show was not as it appeared? What if it masqueraded as simple science fiction, and did not reveal its true agenda until viewers took a closer look? Let us examine how

The United States government has historically used propaganda to entice, encourage, and even shame a person into enlisting in to the uniformed services and/or supporting the war effort. The effective use of propaganda does not only affect the American public’s opinion of a war and its leaders, but also affects their commitment to the war effort. Ineffective use (or lack of) of propaganda can lead to resentment and undermine public trust in its leaders and their ability to lead the nation. This essay will show how the use of media has either supported or hindered the effective use of governmental propaganda in influencing the American public during times of war and why is it sometimes not important to know what is the “whole truth.” The areas that will be covered will be the propaganda used during the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I-II, the Cold War/Vietnam, and also it’s affect on public opinion.

The War of the Worlds podcast discusses an event that happened in New Jersey, 1938. A radio station was broadcasting a drama series called The Mercury Theater on the Air where the episode relates a story which is supposed to be unreal. However, it caused controversy in the audience due to many factors, such as the time in which it was transmitted, the interruptions during the broadcast, the recreation of the scenario, and the voice with which the podcast was transmitted. Those aspects created confusion in the audience. As a result, the audience believed what they listened were truth facts. The episode was about the narration of an invasion of Martians that took place in a small and calm village of New Jersey. As a matter of fact, people considered

The 1940s film industry favored films that were based on reality, such as Citizen Kane. Orson Welles is the director of the 1941 film, Citizen Kane, which uses the cinematic techniques of long takes and deep focus shots. Long takes and deep focus shots are associated with space and time. I will be writing about scene D where Susan, the second Ms. Kane, is in the middle of a singing lesson. Scene D contains examples of long takes, deep focus takes, and camera movements.

In her introduction to Real Enemies, Kathryn Olmsted argues that the ways in which conspiracy theories were thought about in America changed significantly in the 20th century. More specifically, Olmsted pins down World War One as the 'watershed' moment which, she claims, marks the time the American government gained enough power to enable them to carry out real conspiracies against its citizens. It is thought that, before this point in history, American citizens felt vulnerable and subject to ‘alien subversion’ in which a foreign other was set to attack and invade the American government and use it for their own devices. However, Olmsted effectively uses Richard Hofstadter's framework of the paranoid style to extend her own theories about

“Ads implied that if you bought a war bond your sacrifice was on par with that of the man in the front lines.” (74) The US government and industry played on Americans’ sense of patriotism in order to get them to support the war or buy their products. However, “Advertising had inherent problems as an educational tool. It is by nature emotional, rather than intellectual; it sells feelings rather than ideas.” (73) Government propaganda and business advertising were not the only factors in forming the inaccurate myth of the Second World War. Hollywood made films where “people get blown up with their clothes and fall gracefully to the ground” (100). Through the realism of motion pictures, such as 1998’s ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and 2001’s ‘Pearl Harbor’, Americans were falsely led to believe in a glorified war.

How could more than one million people believe that the broadcast was real? One of the reasons was the originality of the broadcast itself. Orson Welles thought through every detail; he knew how to blur the lines between fact and reality and used the power of imagination to his advantage. He used real cities and skillfully simulated live music and reporters. He knew that many people would be tuned into a rival network listening to the Chase and Sanbom hour and wouldn’t hear the introduction. However, when the main act took a break they would switch over to the Mercury Theatres’ radio play (Krull). The actors he used did an amazing

There were many tactics used by the United States in order to unify citizens because the government felt as if Americans didn’t know who the real villain was. The government thought it was necessary to get everyone on America’s side in order to, “convince men to go to war with the risk of sacrificing their life to kill others.” (From Lecture) In order to accomplish this, the U.S created the Committee on Public Information otherwise known as CPI that was headed by Herbert Hoover. Their task was to oversee all war propaganda and ensure that it met their standards. One way the CPI tried to persuade Americans included creating movies that informed Americans about how Germans or “Huns” were the ones that needed to be eradicated. Another form of

Even after war, groups will always produce media with the intent of influencing the public. “Meet King Joe,” for example, is a post World War II film that follows Joe on an educational journey where he learns about how the American economy works to make his life better. The other post World War II film to be analyzed, “Don’t Be a Sucker,” follows Mike as a wise stranger tells him about how, as Americans, we should all be tolerant of each others differences lest we become like Nazi Germany. Both of these films utilize Plain Folks appeals and other techniques in an effort to influence public opinion; but one is black, deceptive, and unethical propaganda while the other may be closer to a rational attempt at persuasion than a piece of propaganda.

War of the Worlds is a novel written by Herbert George (H.G.) Wells in the year 1898. It is a story of and alien invasion that takes place in London, England and how humanity as a whole come together in the toughest possible situation, against the odds, and in the face of adversity, and still come out victorious despite the countless numbers of dead. Destroyed buildings and landmarks. And at times loss of hope. In this report, I will be discussing three of the most important terms of the book: conflict, setting, and motif. The conflict, setting, and motif of War of the Worlds is: Man vs. Martian, early 20th century London, and Death (as the motif).

If you watch any modern television shows or listen to modern media, you realize how many huge occurrences for the world could be thought of as fake or a hoax. Huge networks like ‘Discovery,’ ‘National Geographic,’ and ‘Fox News’ support these kind of conspiracies as well, making articles

Throughout history, we observe a countless amount of leaders who implement a point of view in which that one person or a thousand people need to sacrificed in order to save a million others, then that is what is necessary. The idea of sacrificing a few for the greater good of mankind is an ideology that should be respected and followed, and we can see many real world implementations of sacrificing for the greater good in wars, history, books and movies. In a novel by Max Brooks, World War Z, the narrator retells the stories of numerous different characters who all have a different perspective on the zombie war. One of these characters, Paul Redeker, embodies this idea that when it comes to a zombie apocalypse, or what the people of this novel assume to be a form of rabies. During a zombie apocalypse, if there was a virus that possibly was threatening humanity, the approach of eradicating infected areas in order to save the majority is a solution that should be looked into. This ideology is often tied to a morality and philosophical standpoint in which it would be more difficult to assume a definite position on the topic due to numerous types of situational problems regarding extremely specific examples. Some of these examples revolved around what type of people are being used in the scenario and what they can contribute to society. This is done to develop theories on the morality of this idea. Putting morality aside and viewing the ideology

Before analysing individual science-fiction films from the 1950s, it is important to gain a clear understanding of the social, cultural and political background against which these films were set. Paranoia is a term frequently used to describe an acute, anxiety dominated medical condition (Paranoia, 2009), however in the context of 1950’s America, this term can be used more accurately to describe the general, delusionary mood of the nation. The first important event that influenced a paranoiac filmmaking atmosphere was the Cold War. As opposed to the ‘hot war’ (WWII) that involved active military hostilities, the Cold War was based on heightened tension and suspicions between Western Bloc (USA) powers and Eastern Bloc (Soviet Union) powers (The

As already mentioned, the United States readily took part in the propaganda parley of World War II. The threat of subversive Nazi propaganda on U.S. soil caused private citizens to use their contacts to pressure the government into counteracting the “attack on democracy” (Laurie 30-32). This spurred the creation of government organizations such as the U.S. Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI) and the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS). The role of these organizations was to oversee the propaganda released on behalf of the government (Laurie 45). The military naturally became involved in the creation and implementation of propaganda films to promote anti-Nazi feelings across a nation immersed in a global war. Also, the hope was that these films would act as a morale booster necessary in a nation that had just experienced the horrors of Pearl Harbor (Fyne 12).