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1938 Broadcast: War of the Worlds By H.G. Wells - American Version
My Opinion
Task: Write an informed opinion of this broadcast and its effects.
1. What you thought about the circumstances surrounding this broadcast. i.e when, how, and why it was broadcast.
2. What the effects of this broadcast were on the general public. i.e panic, response at Grover’s Mill, anxiety about WWII
3. What is your opinion of this broadcast and its historical significance.
Write each question as a paragraph, leaving a line between each. ¾ to 1 page total.
My Opinion
Task: Write an informed opinion of this broadcast and its effects.
1. What you thought about the circumstances surrounding this broadcast. i.e when, how, and why it was broadcast.
- 1938 - WWII soon to be declared
- Radio CBS - reliable source - it seemed so real with special effects, actors.
- 'Play' only stated at the beginning, so anyone tuning in after had no idea it was a play.
2. What the effects of this broadcast were on the general public. i.e panic, response at Grover’s Mill, anxiety about WWII
- People checked with their neighbours who turned on their radios and so the confusion spread.
- People went to Grover's Mill to see for themselves, police were called to control the panicked crowds, more people came, so it really looked like something was happening.
- Panic - confusion - alien invasion in an atmosphere of growing tension and anxiety with the world leading up to war.
3. What is your opinion of this broadcast and its historical significance.
- Radio only form of public mass communication, no TV or Internet to check the reliability.
- CBS had never aired a 'play' like this before, so the 'newsflashes' listeners were used to were real and true.
- People were stressed, confused and ready to believe.
- Wells knew the other programme was a music show, and that people would likely tune in at different times.
- Was this a genuine 'accident' or a clever 'hoax'?
Write each question as a paragraph, leaving a line between each. ¾ to 1 page total.
How to add in an Intro and conclusion:
Intro:
Conclusion: (very similar to intro!)
Essay Proofing and Marking:
Intro:
- Start with an interesting comment/ point about the text (radio play)
- In 2-3 sentences outline very briefly what you will talk about - your 3 main points/ paragraphs
- Finish with a sentence that links/ flows/ leads into your first body paragraph
Conclusion: (very similar to intro!)
- Outline your 3 main points you have covered
- Your overall opinion of the effect of this this radio play on the public/ whether you think it was an accident/ what you have learnt from this etc
Essay Proofing and Marking:
- Make sure your essay is a cohesive, coherent whole - that it makes sense, is connected, and is not too repetitive.
- Proofread for sense, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, capitals etc . . .
- Swap with a buddy to check.
- Mark your essay using marking criteria
War of the Worlds - H.G, Wells
You 'War of the Worlds' as an action/ apocalypse movie starring Tom Cruise. However, as with everything these days, it is simply a remake of an original Radio play that changed the world in 1938 in Britain and America.
Worldwide Panic
The War of the Worlds By H.G. Wells
The War of the Worlds (1898), by H. G. Wells, is an early science fiction novella which describes an invasion of England by aliens from Mars. It is one of the earliest and best-known depictions of an alien invasion of Earth, and has influenced many others, as well as spawning several films and a television series based on the story. When it was broadcast on the radio, it caused a public panic because it was in such a realistic style that people thought that it was a news broadcast describing current real events of a real alien invasion.
Plot summary
Set in the early 20th century, the story begins with an unnamed narrator (essentially a fictionalised version of Wells), who has been invited to an observatory in Ottershaw by a "noted astronomer" named Ogilvy. There he witnesses an explosion on the surface of the planet Mars, one of a series of such events that arouses much interest in the scientific community. A short time later, a "meteor" is seen landing on Horsell Common, near London. The narrator's home is close by, and he is among the first to discover the object is a space-going, artificial cylinder launched from Mars. The cylinder opens, disgorging the Martians: bulky tentacled creatures that begin setting up strange machinery in the cylinder's impact crater. A human representative moves towards the crater waving a white flag of truce and is incinerated by a laser-like Heat-Ray.
After the attack, the narrator takes his wife to Leatherhead to stay with relatives until the Martians are killed, but upon returning home, he sees firsthand what the Martians have been assembling: towering three-legged "fighting-machines" armed with the Heat-Ray and a chemical weapon: "the Black Smoke". The tripods smash through the army units now positioned around the crater and attack the surrounding communities. The narrator meets a retreating artilleryman, who tells him that another cylinder has landed between Woking and Leatherhead, cutting the narrator off from his wife. The two men try to escape together, but are separated during a Martian attack on Shepperton.
More cylinders land across the English countryside, and a frantic mass evacuation of London begins; among the fleeing swarms of humanity is the narrator's brother, who is thrown together with the wife and the younger sister of a man named Elphinstone; the three of them eventually gain passage on a ship, crossing the English Channel to safety. One of the tripods is destroyed in the Shepperton battle by an artillery barrage and two more are brought down in Tillingham Bay by the torpedo ram HMS Thunder Child before the vessel is sunk, but soon all organised resistance has been beaten down and the Martians hold sway over much of southern England.
The narrator becomes trapped in a half-destroyed building overlooking the crater of one of the later Martian landing sites and covertly witnesses the Martians close at hand, including their use of captured humans as a food supply through the direct transfusion of their blood. He is not alone; with him is a curate whose intellect and reason have been damaged by the trauma of the attacks and whose irrational behaviour finally causes him to be discovered and dragged away by the Martians. The narrator barely avoids the same fate, and the Martians eventually abandon their encampment. The narrator then travels into a deserted London where he discovers that the invaders have abruptly succumbed to terrestrial disease-causing microbes, to which they have no immunity. The narrator is unexpectedly reunited with his wife, and they, along with the rest of humanity, set out to face the new and expanded view of the universe which the invasion has thrust upon them.
Worldwide Panic
The War of the Worlds By H.G. Wells
The War of the Worlds (1898), by H. G. Wells, is an early science fiction novella which describes an invasion of England by aliens from Mars. It is one of the earliest and best-known depictions of an alien invasion of Earth, and has influenced many others, as well as spawning several films and a television series based on the story. When it was broadcast on the radio, it caused a public panic because it was in such a realistic style that people thought that it was a news broadcast describing current real events of a real alien invasion.
Plot summary
Set in the early 20th century, the story begins with an unnamed narrator (essentially a fictionalised version of Wells), who has been invited to an observatory in Ottershaw by a "noted astronomer" named Ogilvy. There he witnesses an explosion on the surface of the planet Mars, one of a series of such events that arouses much interest in the scientific community. A short time later, a "meteor" is seen landing on Horsell Common, near London. The narrator's home is close by, and he is among the first to discover the object is a space-going, artificial cylinder launched from Mars. The cylinder opens, disgorging the Martians: bulky tentacled creatures that begin setting up strange machinery in the cylinder's impact crater. A human representative moves towards the crater waving a white flag of truce and is incinerated by a laser-like Heat-Ray.
After the attack, the narrator takes his wife to Leatherhead to stay with relatives until the Martians are killed, but upon returning home, he sees firsthand what the Martians have been assembling: towering three-legged "fighting-machines" armed with the Heat-Ray and a chemical weapon: "the Black Smoke". The tripods smash through the army units now positioned around the crater and attack the surrounding communities. The narrator meets a retreating artilleryman, who tells him that another cylinder has landed between Woking and Leatherhead, cutting the narrator off from his wife. The two men try to escape together, but are separated during a Martian attack on Shepperton.
More cylinders land across the English countryside, and a frantic mass evacuation of London begins; among the fleeing swarms of humanity is the narrator's brother, who is thrown together with the wife and the younger sister of a man named Elphinstone; the three of them eventually gain passage on a ship, crossing the English Channel to safety. One of the tripods is destroyed in the Shepperton battle by an artillery barrage and two more are brought down in Tillingham Bay by the torpedo ram HMS Thunder Child before the vessel is sunk, but soon all organised resistance has been beaten down and the Martians hold sway over much of southern England.
The narrator becomes trapped in a half-destroyed building overlooking the crater of one of the later Martian landing sites and covertly witnesses the Martians close at hand, including their use of captured humans as a food supply through the direct transfusion of their blood. He is not alone; with him is a curate whose intellect and reason have been damaged by the trauma of the attacks and whose irrational behaviour finally causes him to be discovered and dragged away by the Martians. The narrator barely avoids the same fate, and the Martians eventually abandon their encampment. The narrator then travels into a deserted London where he discovers that the invaders have abruptly succumbed to terrestrial disease-causing microbes, to which they have no immunity. The narrator is unexpectedly reunited with his wife, and they, along with the rest of humanity, set out to face the new and expanded view of the universe which the invasion has thrust upon them.