The Manifest Destiny/Martian Chronicles Parallel

When reading Manifest Destiny by Anders Stephanson, it is impossible to not make connections with Bradbury's Martian Chronicles. The American expansion to the West and then onward to Latin America and various Pacific islands allows an almost natural progression to the expansion into space. All too often in history, we see the use of excuses such as, "it's the natural way of things," or "it's our nation's duty." These are issues that are addressed in detail in Stephanson's historical review of the role that "destiny" has played in America's history. Expanding his ideas to match up with frequent themes in science fiction is not all that challenging when one sees how frequently parallels are made between alien species and indigenous peoples, such as the Native Americans. This comparison was painfully clear in reading Speaker for the Dead; the piggies were a "primitive," nature-driven society that had a completely opposing culture to the "civilized" humans. And while the humans did not act as violently towards the piggies as they did in real life towards the Native Americans, they had the same feelings of fear and uncertainty, as evidenced by the eventual turn to a military stance ("When it comes to war, human is human and alien is alien. All that ramen business goes up in smoke when we're talking about survival." p313). There are constant parallels in science fiction of the historical boundary between civilized and uncivilized peoples (if they are even considered people to begin with).

The Martian Chronicles also parallels quite nicely with Manifest Destiny in that both excursions, the American push westward and outward as well as the fictional American push Mars-ward, began with the desire to discover and pioneer new lands, but ended with the desire to profit and expand capitalism. There are multiple passages in Bradbury's novel that talk about the first people to come to Mars after the successful expedition. These people were described as hardened individuals who were looking for a challenge and, in most cases, a solitary place to live. This matches up with the historical view of the Western pioneers who "tamed" the wilderness and led lives of adventure (if all the classic Western films are to be believed). However, in Chronicles as well as in reality, these pioneers were soon joined by profiteers and supporters of the expansion of what they saw as "real civilization." Bradbury illustrates this exceptionally well in his description of the new invasion: "They came on parties and vacations, on little shopping trips for trinkets and photographs and the 'atmosphere'...they came with stars and badges and rules and regulations, bringing some of the red tape that had crawled across Earth like an alien weed, and letting it grow on Mars wherever it could take root" (103). In America's history the same process occurred, illustrated (literally) by the painting on the cover of Stephanson's book; it shows the movement of society (symbolically shown by the light in the east) and with it comes trains and books and telegraph poles, all signs of "real" progress (the painting is described in more depth on page 66). In all, Manifest Destiny presents the background for the Mars expansion presented in The Martian Chronicles.