Monday, September 28, 2015

Humanity? Progress? Thoughts?

Regarding Bradbury's short story Rocket Summer, The Locusts, and The Musicians, what are you contemplating about humanity and progress?  What does the reading of these stories challenge you to consider? Please respond during class on September 28th, 2015.

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

Based on Bradbury's writings, the reader can assume that Bradbury is not very hopeful for humanity. Bradbury shows the reader that humans are erasing all life and history of the martians on Mars and nobody seems to care that we are affecting Mars in a very negative way. We've killed martians and our kids dance over their dead corpses. I think that Bradbury is trying to show us that we are a race who is selfish and doesn't care about how our actions affect others.

Anonymous said...

This story says a lot about what humanity and progress of humans is. The author has a sort of negative outlook on what society as a whole is like, and what our future is. The way that the characters in the story treat Mars shows that they don't care very much about preserving and respecting the land. They are being disrespectful by casually using the dead bodies to play. I think that the author is predicting that if humans ever had to move to another planet, they would not treat that planet with respect. This story has a negative view on what humanity is like and could be implying that the progress of humans will not get any better.

Anonymous said...

Ray Bradbury shows the darker side of progress and survival. The humans in this situation are taking over mars in the millions and are launching so many rockets from earth that it's warming the earth in dramatic ways. Later when the boys are playing in the dead remains of the Martians who used to live there, showing how insensitive humans can be to others. The part where the firemen are coming to clean up and erase the evidence of the martians disturbed me more than the boys playing in ashes. You can take over a culture and wipe most of them from existence, but when you erase what you did and pretend to be all righteous and good, that's just inhuman. The forced nature of the move to mars and the unwillingness to fix the problems at home is similar to the white mans take over of north america from the original inhabitants. The subjective point of view in these stories makes one think for themselves about how things really are when we take over.

Anonymous said...

What I am contemplating about humanity and progress so far from the story is that it was believed to not be very successful or very hopeful. Bradbury seems to show the reader that humans are destroying the history and life or the Martians. He thinks that nobody is caring about them or how important the martians are. I think Bradbury is trying to show us that our species does not care about anything or anyone and we do not know how to show respect to things.

Anonymous said...


Humanity seems like it was careless because the people knew it was wrong to go to to the abandon buildings and mess with things, yet they were destroying things and adding things that didn’t belong like a neon sign in Mars. The parents threatened the kids not to go there and when the kids did they were punished by scalding baths and fathering beatings. The but the people took away the autumn leaves and xylophones. The parents were pipacrics

Anonymous said...

After reading page 88 I am contemplating humanity in the sense that the boys and the humans have no respect for the land that they are on and the different types of species the boys live with. I say this because the boys were making it game kicking the dead martin bodies and they were not being careful and mindful of what they were really doing. This also makes me question humanity in a way that maybe people don't put themselves into others situations. The boys didn't think about how they would feel if there dead bodies were being kicked around and people wouldn't want there bodies just to be kicked around so the boys didn't think about that. The reading of the story challenges me to consider that maybe all humans do this and they only think about themselves rather then putting themselves in the situations of others. Also in the story this shows me that the humans don't care about the nature and the history behind places and humans feel obligated to do whatever they want.

Anonymous said...

From these short stories, I am contemplating that Bradbury was describing that humanity would ruin the Martins life's. In the short story “The Musicians,” the kids were playing with the dead Martian bodies. Showing that the people did not care about other races. The progress is in a way was a reflection of the way that humanity acted historically. By killing other people because one race is being invasive or greedy. Kind of like what might have happened to the Martins after the humans came to the planet. In the “Rocket Summer,” it was describing how we, human race, had destroyed our planet with global warming. It was showing how it would turn for winter to summer in the blink of an eye, as a result of carelessness. In “The Locus” it was describing how greedy man kind is. Once the ships landed on the planet, the men would run and try to claim land for themselves, and change it so that it looked like Earth. This was explaining the “progress” of the people in the exploration of the solar system. The people had built up on the planet to invade and to be able to live there.

Anonymous said...

The short story Rocket Summer, The Locusts, And Musicians tells me that Bradbury isn't hopeful for humanity. He tells us all about how we humans were erasing and being disrespectful to Mar. No one cared about Mars. Also the kids we even being disrespectful they were playing with the dead Mars people. Dancing over them. I think Bradbury was trying to show that our humanity is selfish, we don't think about the negative enpack. We only care about ourselves. She are a selfish humanity and we need to change that.

Anonymous said...

This also shows that humanity didn't care what they were doing. They didn't show respect to the planet.

Anonymous said...

Progress in the three stories show that humans in the story don't have much humanity, because in The musicians the three young boys were playing with dead martian bodies, which in our day in age we wouldn't even go near a dead body. In the musicians it is obvious that humans didn't care about our impact on a already inhabited land, and all of the martians have died because the illnesses we brought were too much for them to handle, and they didn't seem to care at all. In Rocket summer it seems that humans have lived on Mars for a while because they knew what to do when the short winter there had ended. These three stories show that the humans don't have a lot of compassion for there new world, so I would say they are more focused on progress of turning Mars into the way Earth was rather than thinking about the martians and why they had to leave Earth in the first place, I would honestly think that they would want to care about what they are doing and what they did and do it differently. Bradbury shows the reader that he thinks humans will ruin Earth and our new world.

Anonymous said...

After reading Bradbury's stories I can conclude that younger generations don't really care about our history. For example when the boys where playing with the dead bodies it went to show how little they care about our human history. Also, Bradbury showed how much humanity is professing and evolving each and every day by writing his book in times frames which fascinated me.

Anonymous said...

In Ray Bradbury short stories they talk about humanity and progress,because in musicians the author does not give the boys,names,or personality,and in the rocket summer, they are launching a rocket to get to mars.Ray is looking poorly at at society and really I think Ray thinks in the future we will go back words in time, and go back to being mean to each other .The boys in the musician, are kicking bones, and treating them terribly, we are just being rude.In the Locus the mars town is just starting,and not many people are familiar with mars so there are some people that just do not agree with coming to mars. All the stores are a little negative,and doesn't sound good.

Anonymous said...

It makes me contemplate the morality of human beings. These stories challenge me to consider what humanity is doing with this world. These stories show how humanity will never change. How we always build the same things, how we always hurt the environment, and how we have no regard for other species.

Anonymous said...

In all three short stories humans can be showcased in a negative light. In the first text, Rocket Summer. Humans are portrayed in a negative way because they are basically destroying earth to get to mars instead of being environment friendly and taking care of both planets. In the second text, The Locusts. Humans again are showcased in a negative way because of how disrespectful they were in coming to mars with a very closed mindset and almost blocking themselves out from this new planet. In the final text The Musicians, has the greatest example of humans negative effects on Mars. The young children were playing with the martians dead body and not caring about what the boys are actually doing.

Anonymous said...

Ray Bradbury is a very visual author. He writes that they ate sandwiches, drank pop, and were kicking bones around as if it were a normal thing. The little boy’s parents said they were not aloud to go out and play in the bones, when they were the ones burning them. This says a lot about humanity and how wrongly we view things. The martians on planet mars are similar to humans on earth in the ways we act. Bradbury is trying to communicate a negative view on humanity, and does it very well.

Anonymous said...

On Bradbury's writings, the reader can imagine how people in the 1950’s think how the human race would be. Bradbury explains to the reader through his careful writing that humans are only thinking about the future rather than the .past and trying to not have the past happen again. Bradbury also exhibits how we humans and children are dancing over martians dead corpses that we have killed. After reading the three examples from Bradbury writing is that how our human race has been selfish and exceeding in our first world problems instead of helping others and changing our world and how it affects others

Anonymous said...

The children in the three stories remind me a lot of how kids morals are set today. They are rebelling against their parents requests and doing what they want despite their parents suggestions. The parents are attempting to destroy what they believe is bad for their children. It is the constant battle between parents and kids of what is the right thing to do and what is simply being rebellious. This reading made me contemplate whether my parents are right about things and I am attempting to rebel against them or I am doing what I firmly believe in despite what my parents think or say. Ray Bradbury is trying to convey that humans need to get their priorities set and care more for humanity and the world (or in this case Mars).

Anonymous said...

Based on the short stories I’ve read so far Ray Bradbury thinks of humanity as that we’re destroying anything new, and creating what we already have instead of making any sort of change. For example in “Rocket Summer” it talks about how people are excited to land on Mars, but they sort of judge it based on what they had already experienced on Earth. “The Locusts” also shows that we are taking over Mars and trying to force it took be the same as it was on Earth, instead of going along with and preserving what was already there. People are also bringing things that don’t really matter and wouldn’t be used on Mars, for example it says, “In six months a dozen small towns had been laid down upon the naked planet, filled with sizzling neon tubes and yellow electric bulbs.” With the short story “Musicians” Ray Bradbury is sort of against what humanity is doing to Mars. People are destroying Mar’s history and everything that occurred before people took it over. When he talks about how the kids were kicking around dead bodies I kind of realized that this was basically normal to them to just kick around and be disrespectful to dead bodies just because they aren’t the same as people.

Anonymous said...

In Ray Bradbury’s. “The Martian Chronicles” Bradbury’s tone towards society and their progress is very negative . In Rocket Summer the readers see that their is no progress at all. That people act as if it were Earth. In the winter housewives are seen as bears, hibernating and not coming out. That is definitely not progress. Also, in The Locust it explains how “ The Rockets set the bony meadows afire,turned rock to lava, turned wood to charcoal”. This shows how careless the people were. And not only are they not progressing, but are regressing. Finally, in The Musicians the readers see rad Bradbury is not fond of these characters at all. He explains them right away to be careless and gross. “The boys would hike far out into the Martian Country. They carried odorous paper bags into which from time to time upon the long walk they would insert their noses to inhale the rich smell of ham and mayonnaised pickles, and to listen to the liquid gurgle of the orange soda in the warm bottles” Bradbury explains them to be almost delinquent. Overall Humanity in these stories is negative and regressive in each one.

Anonymous said...

Bradbury has a negative outlook on our future as humans. In the first short story "Rocket Summer" Bradbury talks about how the pink clouds of fire and oven heat made a winter day turn into a summer day for a short period of time. The "Rocket Summer" makes me think about how the rockets can change a freezing cold winter into a hot day of summer in just a few seconds. In the next story “The Locusts” Bradbury compares the rockets to locusts “The rockets came like locusts, swarming and setting in blooms of rosy smoke.” Bradbury makes the humans in this story sound like they want to take everything from the old martians who lived there and destroy and change every part of it. In the last story “The Musicians” Bradbury talks about the young boys destroying homes and dead bodies as if it were a hobbie. “A great skull would roll to view, like a snowball; they shouted! Ribs, like spider legs, plangent as a dull harp, and then the black flakes of mortality blowing all about them in their scuffing dance; the boys pushed and heaved and fell in the leaves, in the death that had turned the dead to flakes and dryness, into a game played by boys whose stomachs gurgled with orange pop.”

Anonymous said...

What the reading considers to me that are the challenges are would be is the boys are playing with martian bones thinking that it is regular bases for them to do. That the martians mean nothing to them that they are just other creature that shouldn't be respected. By these actions that the boys gave me is this lets me think towards humanity as if someone who does have bones and a heart that they are the same as any human. No one should not be disrespected and treated like they are someone else. I think that if the boys who were playing should've done something else instead of what they were doing.

Anonymous said...


This story shows a lot of examples of what progress of humans and what humanity is.
The book gives off a negative thought on society and how our future will be like. From what we can tell, the martians that have a home on Mars, don’t show very much interest in respecting the land and keeping the history. The martians use the dead bodies to play and tend to kick around the ashes. It is possible that we would give the new planet, Mars, disrespect as well. We now have a negative view on humanity, created by the author. This may result in the belief that humanity will not improve.

Anonymous said...

In the Martian Chronicles you can see what progress humans have made over time. This short story showed the negativity of what the future will be like and that humanity will not improve over time. The martians that live there do not take care of their surroundings and play with dead bodies which is very disrespectful. This is an example of how humanity doesn’t improve over time but it gets worse.

Anonymous said...

Based on how Bradbury wrote these pages, it shows that he does not think much of humanity today. The events in the pages reflected on us as immature, disrespectful, and self-centered. By saying that the kids were being rude by stomping on the corpses etc. He gives the vibe of being non hopeful for humanity today.

Anonymous said...

In these stories, while inaccurate because obviously we are not living on mars, it relates to modern day where it shows how careless, inconsiderate and selfish people really are. Bradbury writes in a way the makes it seem that he has not faith in humanity and what it could and would become. He shows that he has no hope for humanity which makes you question humanity also and in my opinion we are careless and inconsiderate and self centered. Overall these stories show that over time humanity has not improved but it has gotten worse and worse.

Anonymous said...

In these stories progress in society seems to have changed the mind set of humanity. The children in Rocket Summer do not have or show much respect for the martians, whose planet they invaded. This however relates to present times because it symbolizes how most people look upon youth. We are seen as careless and disrespectful, however not everyone has those characteristics. These stories show that he believes that society will go downhill as time goes on.