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“I was positive now that the trailers were Apache and that they wished to capture Powell alive for the fiendish pleasure of the torture, so I urged my horse onward at a most dangerous pace, hoping against hope that I would catch up with the red rascals before they attacked him.” 6

The language throughout this passage is so striking to me. The vivid descriptions of both his attackers and his surroundings paint a picture of panic that almost allows the reader to enter the situation.

American literature, especially that which we have read about the west likes to paint natives as a “savage” and constant threat. In reality the west was huge, how often did westward expanders encounter Native Americans and were these interaction entirely violent or were their civil interactions as well?

Quotation: “It was dark when I opened my eyes again. Strange, stiff garments were upon my body; garments that cracked and powdered away from me as I rose to a sitting posture. I felt myself . . . A new heaven and a new landscape met my gaze. The silvered mountains in the distance, the almost stationary moon hanging in the sky, the catcti-studded valley that looked below me were not of Mars. . . I was looking upon Arizona from the same ledge from which ten years before I had gazed with longing upon Mars.” (Burrough 88-89)

Comment: This whole text had been interesting, to say the least, but the abrupt ending of being back on earth was jarring. This whole comparison of Arizona and the author’s depiction of Mars was intriguing.

Question: Was the end alluding that the main character went to Mars? Or was this up to interpretation?

Quotation: “Few Western wonders are more inspiring than the beauties of an Arizona moonlit landscape; the silvered mountains in the distance, the strange lights and shadows upon hog back and arroyo, and the grotesque details of the stiff, yet beautiful cacti from a picture at once enchanting and inspiring; as though one were catching for the first time a glimpse of some dead and forgotten world, so different is it from the aspect of any other spot upon our earth.” (Burroughs, 9-10).

Comment: This description is very reminiscent of other depictions of the West that emerged in the wake of its colonization. It paints a romanticized picture of the Western frontier several decades after the fact, appealing to the notion that this time period was a better, almost mythical reality that is now unattainable. Burroughs later takes this a step further by basing his version of Mars upon the old West, which serves to increase the romanticization of the bygone time and place.

Question: How can Western geographical influence be seen today in fictional works?

Quote: “Under the clear rays of the Arizona moon lay Powell, his body fairly bristling with the hostile arrows of the braves.” Page 17

Comment: A common theme of many of the readings we’ve done is the inevitable attack coming from Native Americans. Often times, when describing the move from East to West, the narrator will mention trying to avoid the Natives and if they don’t, it’s very likely they die.

Question: What was the likelihood those moving west would actually meet Indians face to face? And if they did meet them, were some Indians willing to engage in trade to spare their lives? Were some just out for blood?

Quote: ” I do not mean that the adult martians are unnecessarily or intentionally cruel to the young, but theirs is a hard and pitiless struggle for a dying planet, the natural resources of which have dwindled to a point where the support of additional life means an added tax upon the community into which it is thrown” (21)

Comment: In a story that is clearly a fantastical version of America’s western frontier, I found this bit of commentary especially interesting. Although the author’s depiction of human Native Americans is largely stereotypical and unforgiving in its nature, he also seems to share an understanding of their plight, even if he can only acknowledge it through the lens of Martian birthing rituals. I would not have expected any social commentary in a work like this, especially one so entranced in mystical “Old West” mythology.

Question: Did this set any kind of precedent for the west and/or space were portrayed in media after it was published? Did this guy come up with the concept for the modern alien???

Quote- “During the ages of hardships and incessant warning between their own various races, as well as with the green men, and before they had fitted themselves to the changed conditions, much of the high civilization and many of the arts of the fair-haired Martians had been lost” (33)

Comment-This quote invoked images that are familiar in our own world, images of civilizations collapsing, its accomplishments being lost to the sands of time, and its people scattered amongst the debris of what once was a nation. It’s an all too familiar site and story, which made me wonder If Burroughs was trying to in some way, warn the then modern era of what could happen to the world if war was to continue its eternal rampage on the planet. Since this text was released in 1917, The First World War ravaged the European continent, and perhaps Burroughs wrote this text as a means of anti-war propaganda to tell a tale of what happens to a society once the war ends.

Question-After reading the foreword, I still have no idea as to the reason why Burroughs wrote this text, thus I’m left wondering, what was the message Burroughs was attempting to convey through his work?

Quote: “Why, oh, why will you not learn to live in amity with your fellows. Must you ever go on down the ages to your final extinction but little above the plane of the dumb brutes that serve you!…  Owning everything in common, even to your women and children, has resulted in your owning nothing in common… Come back to the ways of our common ancestors, come back to the light of kindliness and fellowship. The way is open to you, you will find the hands of the red men stretched out to aid you. Together we may do still more to regenerate our dying planet.” (Burroughs, chapter 10).

Comment: I thought this excerpt was a unique descriptor for the novels parallels between racial relations historically in the U.S. and how their portrayed in alien counterparts. The green Martians are described as beings who do not uphold education and are rather dependent on combat as a solution to their problem, a nod to the Native Americans reputation in the west for refusing educational opportunities forced by white settlers and the government. The “barbarism” of the green Martians is also utilized to enforce the idea that counterpart primitive groups like Native Americans are only able capable of using violence to solve problems. In contrast, Dejah is a red Martian, a group which uphold education, civilization and advancement, representatives of white people in the west. Dejahs words are similar to the mindset of white settlers encroaching on Native land through western development, in which tribal groups are blamed for their old ways and the lack of civilized accomplishment they could achieve if they conformed to other ways of life.

Question: Considering the story was published in 1912, what was the attitude towards Native Americans during this period? And how did it vary in novels that portrayed them or their characteristics?

Quote: I opened my eyes upon a strange and weird landscape. I knew that I was on Mars; not once did I question either my sanity or my wakefulness. I was not asleep, no need for pinching here; my inner consciousness told me as plainly that I was upon Mars as your conscious mind tells you that you are upon Earth. You do not question the fact; neither did I. “I found myself lying prone upon a bed of yellowish, mosslike vegetation which stretched around me in all directions for interminable miles. I seemed to be lying in a deep, circular basin, along the outer verge of which I could distinguish the irregularities of low hills.”(10)

Comment: This quote stuck out to me as it’s the point in the story where the protagonist first arrives in a new foreign place. He talks about how the experience of first waking up and how despite being in a strange new environment he found himself still able to retain his sanity. He then goes on to explore the are he’s found himself in and comes into contact with the Martians who seem to be a sort of parallel to native American groups.

Question: How does this moment in the story affect the thoughts and actions of the main character going forward?

Quote: “The thing, which more nearly resembled our earthly men than it did the Martians I had seen, held me pinioned to the ground with one hug foot, while it jabbered and gesticulated at some answering creature behind me. This other, which was evidently its mate, soon came toward us, bearing a might stone cudgel with which it evidently intended to brain me.” (Burroughs 18)

Comment: This quote is one of many examples of describing the Martian peoples and their different groups. I assume that it is supposed to parallel America and the Native Americans in the west.

Question: This book was written in 1912 and when I think of Native American hostility in the west, I think of it as more of a 19th century conflict. What were relations between Native Americans and White Americans at this time? Was it any better and at this point in time, were Native Americans all living on reservations?

“We had gone perhaps ten miles when the ground began to rise very rapidly…In a short time we gained the foot of the mountains, and after traversing a narrow gorge came to an open valley, at the far extremity of which was a low table of land upon which I beheld an enormous city.” (13)

Clearly this imagery is taken from the landscape of the West. The narrator begins his story in Arizona, and I feel like that location was chosen specifically for its similarity to the landscape of Mars that he is describing. Was the author trying to create an accurate/realistic picture of Mars? Or is this entirely fictional and based off of Arizona’s landscape?