Comparing The Foghorn and The Sea Raiders

Ashleigh Bewick

Comparing The Foghorn and The Sea Raiders

The two short stories that I am going to be comparing are two science fiction stories that are written in different eras by different authors. H.G. Wells is an English author who wrote ‘The Sea Raiders’ in the late 1800s. Ray Bradbury, however, is an American science fiction writer of short stories and he wrote ‘The Foghorn’ in the 1960s. ‘The Foghorn’ and ‘The Sea Raiders’ are the two short stories that I am choosing to compare.

‘The Sea Raiders’ is a story about a courageous man who out of curiosity decides to make a mission out of his sighting whilst enjoying a coastal walk. Mr Fison seems to be the first person to spot this unbelievable creature but it says: “ The first human being to survive” this suggests that maybe others had also had Mr Fison’s courage but had died in the process of investigating. The story is set in a close to home place: “along the coast of Devon and Cornwall.” In the story Mr Fison is enjoying a coastal walk and he spots something unusual that at first seems to be a “cluster of birds” he decides to investigate what, infact, this was. Nobody had ever really been informed of what this was although scientists knew that something strange was lurking underneath the water.

During his first investigation he does not seem to be afraid and seems to think that the creature will be more afraid of him because “he shouted at them, with the idea of driving them off” this is perhaps the first time that Mr Fison realised that he was in danger as the monster didn’t appear to be moving. It started to move towards Mr Fison luckily for him two workmen were near by and with their help he threw stones and ran away with the two workmen to seek assistance in their mission.

I find it strange to know that Mr Fison had the courage to go back into the water in a boat this time with a larger party. There were 4 of them all going to investigate what it was that had attacked Mr Fison earlier that day. They approached the monster and the first things that they saw was the eyes. The monster then gradually came out of the water and then attacked the boat. Mr Fison saw another boat near by, he first wanted to attract it for help but when he realised there was a small child on board he changed his mind and decided whatever happened they would have to handle it on their own. The boatman ‘Hill’ was then dragged off the boat by the creature and killed. Mr Fison and the two workmen managed to reach safety. Mr Fison noticed that the other boat that they had seen had disappeared this is the end of Mr Fison’s individual story.

In the last chapter the author then goes on to describe the current situation about the creatures, about how they had appeared on Calais washed up and how none had been sighted in England or anywhere since.

‘Foghorn’ is a story that reflects the loneliness of a sea creature. It is one of a kind. Two men work on a lighthouse and one night McDunn says to the other one that there is a monster that comes once a year to visit the lighthouse. He explains that the monster thinks that the creature thinks that the lighthouse is one of him. The lighthouse has a fog horn that sounds the same as the monsters screeching. So on this lonely quiet cold night they both stand there and watch for the monster. When it arrives it’s long neck comes out of the water and starts to sound its noise almost like it is having a conversation with the lighthouse. The two men decide to switch off the foghorn to see if it still makes a noise, this makes the monster angry and it begins to charge at the lighthouse: “ its eyes filled with angry torment.” It crashes into the light house causing it to fall down. It stood there for the rest of the night making it’s noise. The next morning, just as it had done the previous years, as soon as the sun came up it swam off. The two men were discovered, they did not tell of the sighting the previous evening. I think that they felt sorry for the monster having no other one of its sort. Two years later another lighthouse was built McDunn was still there waiting for the monster to come back. The narrator isn’t quite sure if it ever did come back as is explained in the last paragraph.

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The two stories have similar settings of both being at sea, this is really as far as it goes. ‘Foghorn’ is set in the middle of sea where hardly any body goes. ‘The Sea Raiders’ is set on the shore of a sea by rocks and cliffs. In ‘The Foghorn’ the two men are in a lighthouse and this is where they view the monster from, however in ‘The Sea Raiders’ Mr Fison first spots the monsters from the shore, he then needs to take a boat into the sea to get a closer look. In ‘The Foghorn’ the lighthouse are waiting and anticipating the arrival of the monster. In ‘The Sea Raiders’ Mr Fison spots it out of chance. McDunn and the other man know what is going to be coming, Mr Fison however has no idea and chases it out of boredom.

‘The Foghorn’ is first person narrated, one of the people that viewed the monster is telling the story. This gives it a personal feeling as it tells us how he was feeling and what he was thinking at the time. In ‘The Sea Raiders’ it is written in third person. It is like he is describing what happened to Mr Fison himself, but Mr Fison has obviously given his account of what happened to the author. The first and last paragraphs are written with factual back up evidence of the monster whereas the rest of the story is an account of the day when the monster was seen. The first and last part of the story are nothing to do with Mr Fison only what the author knows, he goes on in the last paragraph about the monster: “came ashore on Calais sands” this has nothing to do with Mr Fison and as far as we know it might not have even been the same sort of animal. ‘The Sea Raiders’ has actual dates: “found early in 1896 by Mr Jennings near lands end” this gives it the feeling of being real whereas ‘The foghorn’ has no real dates except that it is late November.

The creatures in the stories are very different. In ‘The Foghorn’ the creature is one of a kind we know this because it mentions that the creature is lonely: “the millions of years waiting alone.” The monster is described as having: “a large head, dark-coloured, with immense eyes, and then a neck. And then – not a body – but more neck and more! The head rose a full forty feet above the water on a slender beautiful neck. Only then did the body, like a little island of black coral and shells and crayfish drip up from the subterranean. There was a flicker of a tail. In all, from head to tip of tail, I estimated the monster at ninety or a hundred feet.” This description is that certain man’s interpretation of this creature. McDunn says that the monster “is a dinosaur of some sort.” This could also justify the fact that the creature was: “ a million years old.” The men feel sorry for the creature because it is alone for a year at a time without another one of its kind around. The monster thinks that the lighthouse is one of him: “The foghorn blew the monster answered.” It was like the monster and the lighthouse were having a conversation. It is very isolated: “a thousand miles out, and twenty miles deep.”

The creature in ‘The Sea Raiders’ was made up of: “ seven rounded bodies distinct or connected” “And the rounded bodies were new and ghastly looking creatures in shape somewhat resembling an octopus, and with huge and very long and flexible tentacles, coiled copiously on the ground. The skin had a glistening texture, unpleasant to see, like shiny leather. The downward bend of the tentacle-surrounded mouth, the curious excrescence at the bend, the tentacles, and the large intelligent eyes, gave the creatures a grotesque suggestion of a face. They were the size of a fair sized swine about the body, and the tentacles seemed to him to be many feet in length. There were, he thinks, seven or eight at least of the creatures.” The creatures are very evil in the fact that they kill Hill and try to attack the other humans. This could, in fact be because of the fact that these humans were trying to investigate the creatures. There are many more creatures in ‘The Sea Raiders’ with comparison to ‘The Foghorn’ and whereas the creature comes to the surface merely to find another of his sort. The creatures in ‘The Sea Raiders’ seem to be trying to stop humans finding out about them. The creatures in ‘The Sea Raiders’ seemed to be seen in more then one sighting but in ‘The Foghorn’ two people only saw it as far as we know.

In ‘The Foghorn’ the creature acts dangerously towards the humans but doesn’t realise it. It thinks that the lighthouse is another creature of its kind. It comes to the surface and for a little while it is carrying out what he seems to assume is a conversation of some sort. The humans then switch off the foghorn out of curiosity and the monster gets angry at it and crashes into it causing the lighthouse to fall. The creature appears to be hurt that it has waited for so long to find something of it’s kind to be ignored by it and I think that it is expressing its emotions by turning the hurt into anger. In ‘The Sea Raiders’ I don’t think that the creatures really know what is happening. They might have thought that they were being attacked so the only way that they knew how to respond is by attacking the humans first. This scares the others away when they realise how potentially dangerous these creatures are.

The language in both differs. If we look at the formality of the stories we can see why. In ‘The Sea Raiders’ I think that H.G. Wells wants the story to appear as more of a report then a story as such. He uses specific dates to try and help us believe that the story is more realistic, and that the creature could have in fact existed. He makes it sound that he has collected all of the information from Mr Fison to produce his story. He includes information at the beginning of the story to make it more formal and realistic. When he is speaking about Mr Fison’s personal experience he uses very descriptive words to help us try to get the feeling of what Mr Fison was going through: “At that he shouted again, but this time not threatening, but a cry of dismay, and began jumping, striding, slipping, wading across the uneven expanse between him and the beach.” His use of the word slipping after he uses the words: “jumping and striding” is very effective because it makes him sound like he is struggling after two words that imply he is confidently moving. I think this helps us to imagine Mr Fison’s escape from the creatures as not being easy.

In ‘The Foghorn’ however, it is more realaxed language. Johnny is speaking for his own personal experience and so he can decide what he says. The author obviously wants to paint a picture in our mind by using descriptive words to represent the feelings of Johnny and even McDunn towards the creature. I think that his most effective line is the last one: “I sat there wishing there was something I could say.” I felt this line reflected the feelings of Johnny throughout the whole story because he knew of the lonliness of the creature and no matter what he did he couldn’t change that, every human feels it is superior to animals and creatures alike but Johnny knows that there is something here that humans can’t cure because they couldn’t give him a playmate. Ray Bradbury uses many adjectives throughout the story to give us the atmosphere. The foghorn was calling through the: “ravelling mist” it moved its way across the: “night earth.” His most effective description in the story is that of the monster: “a large head” “immense eyes.” It helps us imagine what these two men were facing.

In ‘The Sea Raiders’ there is only one main character. This is Mr Fison. It seems to me that he is a curious man. Up until he viewed the monster he seemed to be enjoying a coastal walk that was interrupted when he saw the creature appear. He decided to continue finding out what he had viewed through the fact that: “he had nothing better to do than amuse himself.” This merely implies that he had nothing else planned so he appears to be someone with a lot of time on his mind. I also think that Mr Fison wants to help the other animals that appear to be being killed by these creatures. The other three men do not really play a major part in the story except to the extent where we see what these monsters can really do by killing Hill. The other two men help us see that the creatures are not in fact scared of humans because when Mr Fison first goes to investigate them he struggles back and the three men together throw stones at the creatures but the creatures do not seem to be being affected by what they are doing.

There are two characters in ‘The Foghorn’ ‘Johnny and McDunn’ Johnny appears to be farely new to the lighthouse because he has not yet heard about the creature that McDunn viewed a year earlier which implies that he was not there that previous year. He also doesn’t appear to be as devoted to his job as McDunn is: “the next year they had built a new lighthouse, but by that time I had a job in the little town” “As for McDunn, he was master of the new lighthouse.’ This shows us that Johnny might have perhaps seen the lighthouse as maybe a temporary arrangement. McDunn however is a devoted person. It appears strange to me that in the beginning it implies that McDunn is left alone in the isolated lighthouse. When asked what he thinks about it says: “The mysteries of the sea.” And he goes on to describe the: “biggest damned snowflake ever” this shows us that McDunn is farely well educated about the ‘mysteries’ of the sea. I think McDunn’s experiences of being alone in the lighthouse help him to feel at level with the creature in the sea. The feeling of waiting for someone to come and speak to him is shown through his views about the creature. He seems to understand it more then Johnny.

The stories have very different endings. In ‘The Foghorn’ it ends with Johnny feeling confused maybe. He goes back to see if he can see the creature he is doubtful to whether he can hear the foghorn or if it is in fact the creature he saw only a year ago. I think that Johnny feels guilty towards the monster for taking that lighthouse that the monster truly believed was one of it. Johnny ends his story by merely saying: “I wish there was something I could say.” He feels sorry for the sea creature. I think that the end of his experience is very significant because it talks of the creature crashing into the lighthouse. This implies that the creature is emotionally hurt it shows the feelings that it must have been having all year round. It has an upsetting ending because I feel that the creature deserves to be happy but is tormented by the fact it is the only one left.

‘The Sea Raiders’ ends in a different way. It is the author giving us facts about what has happened since Mr Fison’s experience. He explains about the sighting in Calais. But I feel that the real story ended when Mr Fison realised that he couldn’t help Hill and in this respect it is the same as ‘The Foghorn’ because Johnny couldn’t help the creature. It ends by giving Mr Fison what he wants. To see the creatures up close, it is just a shame that in the process he sees the potential danger that they show to humans.

My personal view is that ‘The Foghorn’ is a better story. I enjoyed reading it because it almost had a hidden message behind it. I don’t think that the story was so much about the creature as I had first thought. It was more reflecting what McDunn was feeling inside. He felt lonely and when he was telling Johnny about his views on the creature I think he was trying to tell Johnny how he was feeling inside. I think that McDunn felt as lonely as the creature did. I also feel that Mcdunn wanted to be at one with this creature because it made him feel less cut off from the world. I think I prefer this story to ‘The Sea Raiders’ because that story is too formal and Mr Fison has a typical human instinct to investigate the creature and get as close as he could to the creature whereas Johnny and McDunn just viewed from a distance. I personally prefer ‘The Foghorn’ and I believe that Ray Bradbury wanted us to experience something different to the usual views that humans have about ‘out of the ordinary’ things.