Throughout the story there is one narrator but at one point the narrator is changed to the narrator’s brother. The reason for this is that at one point the Martians are attacking somewhere else in another area and the original narrator could not reach there so the brother narrates instead. H.G Wells chose not to continue with his own narrative techniques as I think he wanted the readers to hear about other peoples views and opinions and their account of what was going on so that it was not just him narrating throughout the whole of the story otherwise this might of made it quite boring.
Quite early on in the novel we find out that the narrator is from middle class background because of the company he keeps,
“I might not have heard of the eruption at all had I not met Ogilvy, the astronomer at otter Shaw.”
A large amount of the novel consists of the mixing of science fact and science fiction, which in the end bonds together and makes the reader feel as if it all together is a fact. This story is filled with suspense this is one of the things that makes the readers read on.
“The planet mars, I scarcely need to remind the reader revolves about the sun at a mean distance of 140,000,000 miles”
This is giving the reader fact to try to get them interested and to make their mind believe that there is a possibility of life on mars.
“And the light and heat that it receives from the sun is barely half of that received by this world” the narrator only gives reasons why there has to be life on mars which creates a convincing and realistic atmosphere for the reader. All of the main information and fact are used in the first couple of chapters; this is the main part as this determines if the reader will read on or not.
The use of language throughout the novel is very complex in some part yet simple in others for example when giving facts on something.
Whenever Wells describes something or someone and even his own feelings, you will find that he goes into depth, one of the most things that he uses is similes.
“They were scrutinized and studies, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.” This tells the reader about how the narrator likes to describes things and how his mind is working. You would have noticed now that the narrator is recalling this from the past tense, which tells us that he has survived the trauma of the attack of the Martians.
The first build up of suspense that we come across in this novel is when the narrator is coming home with his wife and he talks to us about all the normal things that were going on such as the sound of the rail way track the brightness of the traffic lights and the lights in peoples houses turning off to go to sleep.
“There were lights in the upper windows of the houses as the people went to bed, from the railway station in the distance came the sound shunting trains, ringing and rumbling, softened almost into melody by the distance. My wife pointed out to the brightness of the red, green and yellow signal lights, hanging in a framework against the sky. It seemed so safe and tranquil.” It was these last six words that gets the readers mind into gear and gets them thinking about what happens next and also makes them curious and they don’t know what to expect. It also says that although all the jets of gas are erupting on mars everything is the same and peaceful on earth. The reader thinks everything is fine but when the word ‘seemed’ is used it tells us that it is not actually ‘safe and tranquil’ it just looks like it is.
In the second paragraph H.G Wells tries to avoid making the narrator a perfect observer,
“The planet mars, I scarcely need to remind the reader.” This here is saying that this is a simple fact and that the narrator doesn’t really need to remind us about them.
In chapter 3:On Horsell Common H.G Wells makes the events seem very realistic by using many different kinds of methods. He thought of it as an ordinary situation as if it would of to happen today, if it were to happen you would see people crowded around the object and children messing around and also newspapers putting in enormous headlines such as ‘Message From Mars’ so he got all of this and put it in the book and also he describes the things intensely. He also adds how he felt when he was asked to go and see Lord Hilton, ‘ I was very glad to do as he asked, as so become one of the privileged spectators within the contemplated enclosure.’ This is what any average person would feel, so it makes it very realistic.
The point when the Martians are first seen the narrator is shown unheroic, he is shown running away just like the other spectators and is shows what he is feeling at the time and also what he thinks of the Martians. He describes them as a Gorgon, a Definition of a Gorgon would be like something ugly, beast-like or even like an oger in other word something that is not very nice. Wells might of compared the Martians to one, as that’s what he thought it was and that was what he was trying to get through to us that it was not a nice creature. This is what makes H.G Wells novel very gripping and successful is that he can get his thoughts and feelings about stuff out to us in an imaginative way. H.G wells comes across many other techniques in this book one of which is that no matter how significant the relation to the story the thing is he will still go into depth to describe it and tell us each thing about it this is what makes it realistic and engages us into the novel even further. Wells gives immense description of where he is he tries to use as much of the 5 senses he can in his descriptive writing from what he can see to what he can smell, he does this so that we have not a vague but in depth knowledge of what the place around looks like while he is recalling the attack of the Martians so that we alongside reading the novel can too imagine what it would look like. H.G Wells decided to make the narrator middle class as he too is middle class and so that would mean he could get across what he thought easily and clearly this will also mean that he can relate events to the readers experience which is a technique that makes the book gripping and very successful.
I have finally come to a conclusion to which I came across by evaluating the techniques used by H.G Wells. H.G Wells has included science fact and science fiction, in depth description, suspense and related events to reader’s experiences which makes this a successful and gripping book to read that once you pick it up you cant put it down. The description used in here is intense and realistic. Because of the scientific details use some of which were fiction and some, which were non-fiction that is what put the whole novel together, bringing readers closer to the story and feeling involved. At the end of the book I was pleased that I had picked it up and would advise it to anybody it was an absolutely interesting read and to conclude I think that ‘War Of The Worlds’ is a gripping and successful story.
