The Martian By Andy Weir

“August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains” is a short story taken from the book The Martian Chronicles written by Ray Bradbury in 1950. The setting of the story takes place in Allendale, California in August of 2026, where a futuristic house is programmed to wake up the McClellan family and make them breakfast and tend to their everyday needs and wants. The house goes through a routine previously programmed for it along with any other spontaneous requirements from the family. On one of the outside side panels of the house are the charred silhouettes of the McClellan family. The house goes on with its routine even when the family is no longer present until it is ultimately destroyed by a fire. The house in way follows the steps the humans did as they both caused their own destruction. Ray Bradbury uses a reality of advanced technology, such as nuclear weapons and what effects they possibly could have, as the main contributing factor in the message he portrays in this short story. Bradbury incorporates personification, juxtaposition, imagery, diction, and irony to reinforce his message that humans crave for advanced technology and this will ultimately be the reason behind their destruction.

The Martian is arguably one of my favorite books because of the fantastic tone and character development. The Martian follows Mark Watney, a scientist who majored in botany and mechanical science. He get stranded on mars after a dust storm knocks out communications with NASA and the rest of his crew leaves when they believe he is dead from shrapnel in the storm.

It starts of with stories of men from Earth trying to come to Mars. All of the men in the first three expeditions were killed by Martians with the help of their powers of telepathy and hallucinations. In the fourth expedition, the men found out that even though their men were killed, most of the Martian population was killed from chicken pox brought from Earth. A man named named Spender was upset with this news. He feared that if humans start settling in Mars, not only will the Martian race disappear but their beautiful culture with disappear also.

In the year 2035, Mark Watney is left stranded on Mars after his crew were struck by a huge dust storm and Watney was believed to have been killed. Now Watney has to use his wit and ingenuity to figure out how to grow crops, make water, and travel 3200 km to the next NASA landing site in hopes of being rescued in another 400 days. Andy Weir tells this story in such a way that putting the book down is difficult to say the least. Every time Watney accomplishes a task he is faced with another challenge. The way that Weir portrays Watney as a smart and ingenious guy, but is also fallible makes Watney relatable to reader, which makes Watney seem human and easy to root for at the same time, which is what makes this book so great.

Technology is occupying more and more positions with every passing day in our everyday lives. They have a presence in numerous aspects of our being, serving as helping devices first and foremost. Mankind has been questioning the merit of such a way of development, when a human being starts relying on technology more than on oneself. Such questioning began as far back as the middle of the previous century. Ray Bradbury in his collection of short stories "The Martian Chronicles" makes numerous predictions regarding the future of technologies and their place within the society. Remarkably, he was not too far off in his assumptions. One of the primary ideas is that the technologies may occupy the role of the next deity that would substitute religion.

People choose to see the best aspects in things and but some tend to see the worst. In The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, the plot is represented as optimistic, but also pessimistic. Bradbury is portrayed his ideas as a pessimistic because he brought the idea of that man is parasitic and ruins the environment wherever he goes, he presents the transition of the Martian culture with the Earthling’s, and reveals the destruction of Earth as the atomic war broke out.

NASA has been trying to survive on Mars for years, but in this novel, they already have. The Martian is a science fiction novel about Mark Watney, a botanist for NASA, is involved in a mission to Mars, until one day he is left behind on Mars with limited supplies. Watney has to persevere through several challenges to get back home, and try not to die in the process. The Martian is a very suspenseful book written by the interesting author, Andy Weir, who uses humor to counter the drama.

The beginning of this book starts with Mark Watney a mechanical engineer and botanist describing his current situation, how mars missions work and how he managed to get into his predicament of being stranded on mars alone. For some of the basics, he is on Aries 3 the third mission that has sent humans to mars. All of the use a really big ship to get there and back and by the time they get to mars 13 pre supply missions will have sent everything they will need onto the Martian ground.

In the book The Martian, an astronaut named Mark Watney is thrown into an awful situation on Mars. A sandstorm had come in while they were landing the Ares 3. The crew needed to get out of this trouble. When trying to get back to safety, Mark is hit by debris and is not able to find his crew. His crew all successfully got back to the Mars ascent vehicle but Mark. The crew is taught to never leave a man behind. They search for him but the sandstorm created low visibility. They see that Mark's suit is damaged and he going to die. They are forced to abandon Mark on Mars. Throughout the book, Mark, NASA, and Mark's crew show no sign of giving up, and their tenacity to never quit even when obstacles are thrown their way.

“Six days into what should be the greatest two months of my life, and it’s turned into a nightmare” (Weir 1). The first scene of Andy Weir’s The Martian is fraught with tension, which is aptly summarized by its fourth sentence above (the three that precede it are sadly less than school-appropriate). Built up by the in media res opening, the ample indirect characterization, and the diary (or in this case log) format, Weir’s entry for Sol 6 provides information on the plot, subject, and therefore theme of the novel. Based on Watney’s practical resilience, his clear, humorous view of his situation, and the suspense of the day, much of the novel’s content can be predicted. Through these 3 things, Weir brings up the theme that persistence and a sense of humor can make a difference between life and death in times of crisis.

Life is unpredictable and that is the beauty of science fiction; writers are able to create a world, which is plausible enough to engage an audience and suck them into a world they may have never experienced before reading that book. The human condition, in these very situations, becomes delicate and fragile even though real people have not lived through them because these sci-fi worlds relate to moments we all understand. The themes of fear, survival, persistence, resilience, and the power of the human spirit are undeniable experiences that transcends all cultural barriers and languages. All of these also hold true in the book The Martian, written by Andy Weir. Although all of these themes hold true in The Martian, the theme of ingenuity shows

- I liked how the author gives a close and detailed description of what the Martians look like. - Why do most of the characters not have names? - The Martians were grey. Their color might be a symbol of sadness and despair. - When the Martians kill their first victim, the sunsets and a period of darkness follows.

Book The Martian is a novel about NASA astronaut Mark Watney, a botanist and mechanical engineer, who has been left stranded by his crew of the Ares 3 mission after they were forced to evacuate the red planet due to an intense dust storm and high winds. The main character – Mark Watney – is probably the most interesting of them all. What is so interesting about him is that he is a botanist and mechanical engineer, and how he uses these skills to survive on a planet with no food - just the man-made base built on Mars and the tools inside it. Another interesting character is the young NASA engineer who is getting very bored with her job, and even wants to quit sometimes, Mindy Park.

Mars is described, as overwhelming and all consuming, quite like society. “Mars becomes a way of seeing, of being, a state of mind, a vision, an addiction,” (Harlow 311-314). Bradbury best shows the effects on Mars through his character Spender, who rages against his crewmates, murdering some as protest of destructive technology and the ignorance towards past races. When the colonization of Mars begins, many people fled for disingenuous reasons. “The men of Earth came to Mars. They came because they were afraid or unafraid, because they were happy

Ransom meets all sorts of martians and becomes immersed in the culture and language of this planet. Ransom is then faced with being called to meet a certain spirit of the planet and makes a small journey in search of this being. Through his experiences on Malacandra, Ransom grows in courage, shows his curiosity and exceptional intelligence.