125 pages • 4 hours read
Ray BradburyThe Martian Chronicles
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1950A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Summary
Story Summaries & Analyses
“January 1999: Rocket Summer”
“February 1999: Ylla”
“August 1999: The Summer Night”
“August 1999: The Earth Men”
“March 2000: The Taxpayer”
“April 2000: The Third Expedition”
“June 2001: —And the Moon Be Still as Bright”
“August 2001: The Settlers”
“December 2001: The Green Morning”
“February 2002: The Locusts”
“August 2002: Night Meeting”
“October 2002: The Shore”
“February 2003: Interim”
“April 2003: The Musicians”
“June 2003: Way in the Middle Air”
“2004-2005: The Naming of Names”
“April 2005: Usher II”
“August 2005: The Old Ones”
“September 2005: The Martian”
“November 2005: The Luggage Store”
“November 2005: The Off Season”
“November 2005: The Watchers”
“December 2005: The Silent Towns”
“April 2026: The Long Years”
“August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains”
“October 2026: The Million-Year Picnic”
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
Beta“March 2000: The Taxpayer”Chapter Summaries & Analyses
“March 2000: The Taxpayer” Summary
An Ohioan named Pritchard approaches the rocket field of the Third Expedition on the day of its launch and informs the guards that as a taxpayer he has a right to go to Mars. He estimates that in two years the world will be consumed by atomic war and claims that he and thousands like him want to be on Mars when that happens. He states their aims would be to “get away from wars and censorship and statism and conscription and government control of this and that, of art and science” (40).
The guards laugh at Pritchard and mention the failure of the first two expeditions, but Pritchard is unbothered, choosing to believe the two men had found paradise on Mars and “just never bothered to come back” (40). When the members of the Third Expedition cross the field, Pritchard calls out to them, demanding to be taken along and the guards subdue him. He is placed in a police wagon and driven away. He watches the rocket launch through the back window of the car, left behind “on an ordinary Monday morning on the ordinary planet Earth” (41).
“March 2000: The Taxpayer” Analysis
Pritchard provides an early portrait of the type who will settle Mars, and an insight into their motivations. His fear of an incoming atomic war introduces the pivotal event which informs the latter part of the novel and establishes a paranoia which finds its home in many of the psychologies in the book. It also concretizes the way Mars is viewed by many on Earth: as an escape, not only from the vicissitudes of the planet but from the human constructions which dictate life on its surface. A precursor of Stendhal in “Usher II,” Pritchard maintains an anti-establishment position by his list of what future settlers will want to escape, while also providing a look at the concerns rife in 1950s America. Censorship, atomic war, and governmental control of art and science are all themes which will be followed throughout the book and help frame the most likely settler of Mars as a nonconformist.
Pritchard’s arrest depicts the realities of the space program, and the elect few allowed to utilize it, suggesting a divisiveness on Earth. As a taxpayer Pritchard is part of the body politic, part of the support system, but he is denied use and mocked. This vignette illustrates the divisions pulling the Earth apart—a fractious, war-like administration and oppressed public.
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By Ray Bradbury
