Meteor by John Wyndham
About the authorThe Guardian says: His innocuously English backdrops are central to the power of his novels, implying that apocalypse could occur at any time - or, indeed, be happening in the next village at this moment. The frightening plausibility of his writing led the Times's reviewer of The Day of the Triffids to describe it as possessing "all the reality of a vividly realised nightmare." Although Wyndham was writing at the height of the cold war, his anticipation of the rise of genetic engineering means that the story remains just as relevant - and terrifying - today. Wyndham was also redefining the science fiction genre. Up until the late 1940s, sci-fi was almost exclusively set in space and involved what Wyndham himself described as "the adventures of galactic gangsters". By choosing instead to write about situations that were rational extensions of the present day, Wyndham pioneered a form of sci-fi that he labelled "logical fantasy" but which is widely known now as "speculative fiction". Wyndham was a self-declared fan of HG Wells (War of the Wolds); direct echoes of Wells' obsession with catastrophe and its aftermath appear time and again in Wyndham's oeuvre. |
Ways of Seeing
Possible Marxist perspective.
The aliens coming in having no power and ruled by the humans. The moment the aliens fight back (e.g. the dead cat, and the little bite from the aliens), the human’s power is threatened and thus retaliates with genocide. Throughout the story, the humans are taking the things away from the aliens, such as the meteor/spaceship which has essential products for the survival of their race, thus taking away their rights as a living being.
Man's arrogance and destructive nature.
An overarching idea throughout the story is the idea that ‘we fear what we don’t understand’, as well as some xenophobia towards the foreign aliens. The reactions of the family revert to a primal human instinct of fear after the aliens hurt the family examining the aliens, and their quick judgement and conviction that the aliens are threats and ‘dangerous things’ without even knowing what they are or where they are from reinforces the theme of the fear of the unknown.
Mrs Wilding says
Also consider through the point of view of the Cold War (ever present threat of total mutual destruction through nuclear war). Wyndham writes a lot about fear, paranoia and destruction. The idea that humans see everything as a threat that can only be dealt with through violence is a damning view of human nature - we are essentially destructive and ignorant and there is little hope of peace.
Also have a read of: The Chrysalids, Day of the Triffids, Chocky, The Midwitch Cuckoos, The Kraken Wakes. At the very least, have a quick look at the info at the bottom of this page to get an idea of what kind of author you are looking at.
Rough Thematic areas: attitude to outsiders, irony, change, conflict/challenge, society, appearance, arrogance, destruction, death.
Priority: medium. It's interesting and there is plenty of stuff about outsiders, conflict, society etc that can make it well worth an independent pick but it possibly doesn't work as well as other choices in terms of comparison points for a essay.
POSSIBLE ESSAY PAIRINGS WITH:
Possible Marxist perspective.
The aliens coming in having no power and ruled by the humans. The moment the aliens fight back (e.g. the dead cat, and the little bite from the aliens), the human’s power is threatened and thus retaliates with genocide. Throughout the story, the humans are taking the things away from the aliens, such as the meteor/spaceship which has essential products for the survival of their race, thus taking away their rights as a living being.
Man's arrogance and destructive nature.
An overarching idea throughout the story is the idea that ‘we fear what we don’t understand’, as well as some xenophobia towards the foreign aliens. The reactions of the family revert to a primal human instinct of fear after the aliens hurt the family examining the aliens, and their quick judgement and conviction that the aliens are threats and ‘dangerous things’ without even knowing what they are or where they are from reinforces the theme of the fear of the unknown.
Mrs Wilding says
Also consider through the point of view of the Cold War (ever present threat of total mutual destruction through nuclear war). Wyndham writes a lot about fear, paranoia and destruction. The idea that humans see everything as a threat that can only be dealt with through violence is a damning view of human nature - we are essentially destructive and ignorant and there is little hope of peace.
Also have a read of: The Chrysalids, Day of the Triffids, Chocky, The Midwitch Cuckoos, The Kraken Wakes. At the very least, have a quick look at the info at the bottom of this page to get an idea of what kind of author you are looking at.
Rough Thematic areas: attitude to outsiders, irony, change, conflict/challenge, society, appearance, arrogance, destruction, death.
Priority: medium. It's interesting and there is plenty of stuff about outsiders, conflict, society etc that can make it well worth an independent pick but it possibly doesn't work as well as other choices in terms of comparison points for a essay.
POSSIBLE ESSAY PAIRINGS WITH:
- An Englishman's Home: outsiders, arrogance, destruction, conflict, appearances, social irony
- Five-Twenty (tenuously): societal judgments, death, appearances
- Yellow Wallpaper (unbreakable cycle, conflict, power/misuse of power)
In a nutshell:
- Meteor discovered on a farm
- Alien journal tells that they are leaving their home planet for earth
- The meteor is revealed to be their space ship
- Aliens kill a cat which starts investigation
- Aliens are thought to be insects and killed with insecticide.
Techniques
’Go out into the universe, then. Go and be wise, kind, and truthful. Go in peace. Our prayers go with you.’ - Anaphora, repetition of “Go”. Combined with peaceful and friendly lexis implies the nature of the aliens to be very kind.
“We were the seed of the future, and we were responsible for taking Forta into the future. We went through the long passage, and left the Globe.” - Anaphora, repetition of “we”. The implication that these aliens are very society driven. The aliens are driven for the survival of their race and each other. In contrast to the humans who are referred to separately, showing the different perspectives.
“ sent a cloud of insect−killer over them.” This is literally mass genocide. The exodus of an entire race.
Mood is
mysterious, anxious, funny, grim
Tone is
playful, funny, ironic, morbid
Ironic in how the aliens left their planet just like humans wish to but are killed for it. Also ironic is that Graham asks "I wonder what on earth they were?"
Symbolism
1. insecticide:
it represents death and ignorance, how the intelligent race of space travelling aliens were able to be killed by such a simple contraption, used to kill the most minor and bothersome insects for us. They’re felled by a cat, insects, rats.
Extremely ironic, the idea of magnitude, size disregards intelligence, disregards for the amount of evolution the aliens have undertaken, thousands were wiped out by a spray of the pesticide, it is extremely trivialising.
The ignorance of humans- the common people didn't understand the aliens they discovered and they may have been more advanced than the humans, the genocide shows our fearful nature as they wiped them out easily with basic equipment. Almost accidentally - ironic as they may never realise what they did - they did not think of any consequences, highlights the short-sightedness of humans as they did not take into account the situation and the possibilities of the aliens
2. meteor:
-Represents the importance of size, as well as the idea that size is relative.
The idea of size is relative is in short, the way people and other life forms perceive the idea of size/largeness, greatly varies. The idea of size is always changing to the person.
-Meteors are objects/materials that are foreign to us. This meteor can be symbolic of foreign humans that go into our homeland, because their home has been made barren, therefore making the aliens refugees. The meteor is representative of the idea of xenophobia, which is massively shown in the short story.
’Go out into the universe, then. Go and be wise, kind, and truthful. Go in peace. Our prayers go with you.’ - Anaphora, repetition of “Go”. Combined with peaceful and friendly lexis implies the nature of the aliens to be very kind.
“We were the seed of the future, and we were responsible for taking Forta into the future. We went through the long passage, and left the Globe.” - Anaphora, repetition of “we”. The implication that these aliens are very society driven. The aliens are driven for the survival of their race and each other. In contrast to the humans who are referred to separately, showing the different perspectives.
“ sent a cloud of insect−killer over them.” This is literally mass genocide. The exodus of an entire race.
Mood is
mysterious, anxious, funny, grim
Tone is
playful, funny, ironic, morbid
Ironic in how the aliens left their planet just like humans wish to but are killed for it. Also ironic is that Graham asks "I wonder what on earth they were?"
Symbolism
1. insecticide:
it represents death and ignorance, how the intelligent race of space travelling aliens were able to be killed by such a simple contraption, used to kill the most minor and bothersome insects for us. They’re felled by a cat, insects, rats.
Extremely ironic, the idea of magnitude, size disregards intelligence, disregards for the amount of evolution the aliens have undertaken, thousands were wiped out by a spray of the pesticide, it is extremely trivialising.
The ignorance of humans- the common people didn't understand the aliens they discovered and they may have been more advanced than the humans, the genocide shows our fearful nature as they wiped them out easily with basic equipment. Almost accidentally - ironic as they may never realise what they did - they did not think of any consequences, highlights the short-sightedness of humans as they did not take into account the situation and the possibilities of the aliens
2. meteor:
-Represents the importance of size, as well as the idea that size is relative.
The idea of size is relative is in short, the way people and other life forms perceive the idea of size/largeness, greatly varies. The idea of size is always changing to the person.
-Meteors are objects/materials that are foreign to us. This meteor can be symbolic of foreign humans that go into our homeland, because their home has been made barren, therefore making the aliens refugees. The meteor is representative of the idea of xenophobia, which is massively shown in the short story.
Enquiry
- After reading the entire story, discuss what is ironic about the fate of Onns’s people based on the discussion had by Sally and Mr. Fontain on page 182.
- This piece really contains two separate but interconnected stories (also called a dual narrative). How does the parallel narration/dual narrative affect the story telling?
- How does Wyndham’s description of the shed from the perspective of the aliens affect the storytelling?
- A species capable of interstellar travel is felled by a cat, insects, rats and pesticide. Address the irony of this situation. What is Wyndham saying?
- Size is a very relative concept. How does Wyndham use size to emphasize his points in this story?
- Discuss the effect of Wyndham’s lack of a satisfying conclusion to the story and what the possible reasons for this may be.
- How does Wyndham’s writing convey the ignorance of the actions of the humans?
- Discuss the idea of the fear of the unknown. How does humanity react to the meteor? What eventually happens to those inhabitants? How does Wyndham convey these ideas? What is he telling us about society or human nature?
- How does Wyndham contrast the aliens and the man?
- Overall, what does this story tell us about mankind and what kind of view of the world does it give? Why and how is this powerful?
Other works of Wyndham (from The Guardian):
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