The Martian Chronicles Sadness Quotes

How we cite our quotes: ("Story Name," Paragraph)

Quote #4

In the morning the brass band played a mournful dirge. From every house in the street came little solemn processions bearing long boxes, and along the sun-filled street, weeping, came the grandmas and mothers and sisters and brothers and uncles and fathers, walking to the churchyard, where there were new holes freshly dug and new tombstones installed. ("The Third Expedition," 219)

Okay, it is so weird that the Martians hold an Earth-style funeral here. It's almost as through they've pretended to be human so convincingly that they feel a little sad about losing their relatives? (And by "losing," we mean "murdering.")

Quote #5

"My God, there were bodies there. It was like walking in a pile of autumn leaves. Like sticks and pieces of burnt newspaper, that's all." ("—And the Moon Be Still as Bright," 21)

The large-scale death on Mars clearly moves some of the humans here, like Hathaway. Chillingly, you can probably connect this horror-show scene with reports of mass killings in the Nazi concentration camps—still a fresh memory when The Martian Chronicles was written.

Quote #6

"We Earth Men have a talent for ruining big, beautiful things." ("—And the Moon Be Still as Bright," 77)

Looks like we've got another pessimist on our hands. This is still the beginning of this story, so people haven't done anything bad yet (except—oops—accidentally killing all the Martians with chickenpox). Spender is simply anticipating the destruction humans will cause. But from his perspective, he's just being a realist.