Mr_Shank

First off, I am so sorry for not being able to post this sooner, but if you would be able to post on this later that would be terrific. Now to get to what I am actually going to be discussing. I personally find it interesting how H.G. Wells decided to give us a certain amount of information about the main characters inner workings, but not simple information. This idea can be summarized in this quote, “Had I been alone, I think I should have taken my chance and struck across country. But the artilleryman dissuaded me: “It’s no kindness to the right sort of wife,” he said, “to make her a widow”; and in the end I agreed to go with him, under cover of the woods, northward as far as Street Cobham before I parted with him.” This was said by the main character to the artilleryman right before the incident at Weybridge. I thought that this quote was significant because it brought back the idea that the main character had said before, the idea that everyone wants to be heroic in a time of need. This ties into what I’m saying now because if H.G. Wells can divulge such deep emotional information about the main character, why can’t he tell us his name? Is it because he thought that a name would make this story to real? Or maybe he just couldn’t find a name that would do him justice? You tell me.

Colin Easter

At the end of the first page, H. G. Wells makes what seems to be a sarcastic comment.  ”The planet Mars, I scarcely need to remind the reader, revolves about the sun at a mean distance of 140,000,000 miles, and the light and heat it receives from the sun is barely half of that received by this world.”  This is after a serious sounding opening.  I chose this quote because it was interesting that he put in a sarcastic comment after the previously mentioned opening.  Is he trying to give the novel an unserious tone?  Perhaps he is trying to ridicule scientists because of their almost meaningless statements?  He might just be trying to say that the novel is non-fiction, but why would he do it in this manner?