FINAL PT. 2

By: Dion Matthews

H.G. WELLS BIOAuthor Herbert George Wells was one of the best authors known in 1800

century English literature. Wells was born in Kent, England on September 21,

1866. His father and mother were Joseph Wells and Sarah Neal. Herbert was

the last child of four. Herbert Wells grew up in a lower middle class family with

his dad as a shop owner and his mom as a housekeeper. H.G. Wells, as a teen,

had it hard because his brothers and he had to work to help pay the bills. Wells

did apprenticeship as a draper but realizes that he does not like it and quit.

Wells took a liking to literature even in his early childhood.

Herbert Wells received a scholarship for the Normal School of Science in

London, England. Wells liked it in the beginning but felt like he didn’t want to

be doing this kind of work. He left the school without a degree. In 1883, Wells

decided to take a teacher/pupil job at Midhurst Grammar School. He became a

full-time teacher after he got his B.S. Degree. Soon after, Wells got married to

his cousin Isabel. In three years Wells left his cousin for one of his brightest

students Amy Catherine Robbins.

Wells and Robbins had two sons together named George Philip and Frank Richard. The

marriage lasted until Robbins death, but Wells’ having children did not stop there. He had

a daughter, Anna-Jane, from a writer named Amber Reeves in 1909. The last child he had

was a son Anthony West, by the novelist and feminist Rebecca West. Those last two

children were conceived out of wedlock.

H.G Wells had wrote tons of books in his time. Some of his bestsellers are The Time

Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man,The War of the Worlds, When the

Sleeper Wakes, and The First Men in the Moon. He also wrote other, non-fantastic novels

including Kipps and Tono-Bungay. The genre of most of the novels were scientific romance.

Wells novels talk about futuristic ideals, that man will accomplish. He also talk about

religion, Darwinism, and social class in his books.

Wells later life was filled with a lot of confrontations with religious people especially with

the Catholic Church. Wells was a diabetic and decided to be a co-founder of the Diabetes

UK in 1934. He died on August 13, 1946 at his home in London. His family cremated at

Golders Green Crematorium, and his ashes were scattered at sea.

SUMMARY The book “The War of the Worlds” starts out with streams of light shooting out of the planet Mars. The narrator

visits Ogilvy, an astronomer at his observatory at night, because Ogilvy is quite interested in the red planet.

During the night there were a consecutive sound of 10 shots, then it stopped completely. Over the next few days,

the things that came out of Mars got closer and closer. The Martian meteorite hit Earth, and landed near the pits

of Horsell Common. The astronomer Ogilvy was the first one to find it. Ogilvy described it as a huge cylinder with

a 30 yard diameter, where he heard a stirring noise coming from within. The sand starts to fall off from one end of

the end, “spinning like a hatch of submarine when someone is trying to get out.”(In text) This was when Ogilvy

knew that the thing was not a meteorite from space. Excited from the discovery, he ran to the nearest town,

Woking, to tell a journalist, Henderson. Excavation started on the cylinder with a few of men and Ogilvy and

Henderson leading the excavation. When the cylinder opened a creature with tentacles came out, this made the

crowd back up. The creature from Mars was in agony because of the atmosphere and gravity. The size of a bear,

grayish color, and had two big black eyes. As the narrator was running away in terror, he looked back and saw

another creature in the pit. A pole with an awkwardly spinning disk at the top of it was sticking right out of the

pit. A green puff of smoke a rose and then a silent flame of light shot out of the disk. The light hit some people,

and they catch on fire and die. Soon after the incident, the army comes and soon after they came, the Martians

started to attack. A second cylinder fell down near the Byfleet Golf Links. The narrator sees a third cylinder fall.

He saw a Martian machine that looked like a tripod with a head turning to plan out a strategy.

The narrator and a soldier he met while running away from the Martians, started their journey to go to

Weybridge to meet General Marvin. The town Weybridge is in turmoil; the Martians started heading

toward the crowd where the narrator was. The narrator jumped in the river like the rest of the crowd to

take cover from the heat-ray. The machine guns from Shepperton took down the Martian’s machine, but

the other Martians came and take over the town. The narrator swam downstream and found a boat. The

narrator falls sick and weary on the bank of Middlesex. When he woke up he saw a curate sitting right

next to him. The curate was on edge because of seeing all the town of Weybridge destroyed. The two

walked to a town where they ransack a house to get a hatchet and some food. Then get stuck in a house

because a fifth cylinder landed right near the house. It created a big sound wave which knocks out the two

men. When the narrator and curate woke up, they both sat silently, listening to the commotion outside

made by the Martians. The narrator came to the conclusion about three differences between Martians and

Man. First, the Martians do not need to rest because of having substantial muscle structure. The second

difference was they do not have sex to reproduce; instead they reproduced through budded growth. The

last difference was that they do not have microorganisms. With everyday that gone by the narrator’s

patience is getting low with the curate. The curate ate up everything and drank non-stop to calm his

nerves. The narrator saw the curate looking out of a peep hole, spying on the Martians. The narrator took

a look for himself and saw the Martians taking humans out of a tub and draining their life, to refuel

themselves. After seeing this, narrator tried to dig a hole in the opposite direction of the pit and the

Martians. When the hole collapsed, the narrator gave up hope and decides to wait until the Martians

leave.

On the sixth day, the narrator was wondering where the curate was and sees

that he was in the scullery drinking. He was forced with the decision to ration

the food to last ten days. On the eighth day the curate became more insane and

his speech got louder and louder. The curate got so loud that the narrator was

forced to knock him out. This did not stop the Martians from hearing him and

they sent a tentacle through the small peep hole to check it out. The tentacle

took the unconscious body of the curate out in an open space in the pit. The

narrator crawled into the coal cellar to hide. For the next few of days, the

narrator stayed in the cellar without food and water. On the fifth-teen day, the

narrator finds out that the Martians had left. The narrator started his journey to

Leatherhead to see if his wife was ok. While on his journey, he met the artillery

man from the beginning of the book. The man told him that he will be taking in

people who want to resist the Martians rule, and be hiding underground to

build up forces. The narrator felt that was the wrong idea and decides to move

on. Before he goes, the artillery man told the narrator that the town of

Leatherhead has been wipeout by the Martians. The narrator decided to walk

back where this nightmare began. On the way, the narrator walked through

London seeing that the Martians were dying from a disease that humans were

an immune. When he got back to his house, he walked around the messy house

to see any signs of his wife. The narrator saw his wife and her cousin. His wife

fainted and the story ended with the narrator’s family all together.

LITERARY DEVICES

Symbolism

Flashback

Theme

SYMBOLISM

“practice of representing things by means of

symbols or of attributing symbolic meanings or

significance to objects, events, or relationships.”

(www.thefreedictionary.com) Symbolism is used in

The War of the Worlds to compare humans and

animals.

FLASHBACK

“literary or cinematic device in which an earlier event is

inserted into the normal chronological order of a

narrative.”(www.thefreedictionary.com) H.G Wells uses

Flashbacks in the novel often, especially in the book two.

THEME

“an idea or topic expanded in a discourse,

discussion, etc”. (www.thefreedictionary.com) One of

the themes is the possible submission of men.

PERSONAL REVIEW

The novel The War of the Worlds was a great book, if you like science

friction stuff. What I felt the best part in the book was in the middle

when the narrator and the curate are stuck in the house because of the

Martians. The way H.G. Wells shows how the two different personalities

of the narrator and curate collide with each other in the house when

under pressure. Made me think to myself of what attitude will I have

towards the situation the characters were in. The book was very long

and sometimes difficult to understand at some parts. I feel the first six

chapters gave me the most trouble. Overall its a great book, and when

you ever get the chance, read it.

WORK CITED

"Flashback." The Free Dictionary. Farlex. Web. 14

May 2012.http://www.thefreedictionary.com/

flashback.

"Symbolism." The Free Dictionary. Farlex. Web. 14

May 2012. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/

symbolism.

"Theme." The Free Dictionary. Farlex. Web. 14 May

2012. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Theme.