The Martian Chronicles

According to the legend of Prometheus, fire is the very first technology humanity masters. Bradbury ties this earliest technology to the most powerful technology in the collection—rockets—in the very first vignette, and the symbol of the rocket and the fire motif complement each other throughout the work. Fire is both positive, fueling the rockets which bring an intellectual summer to Earth in “The Rocket Summer,” and negative, as it consumes the last marker of human achievement, having ravaged the Earth in “There Will Come Soft Rains.” Yet it is most significantly used as a source for purging the past for hope of renewal. Both Stendhal in “Usher II” and William Thomas in “The Million-Year Picnic” use fire to forge a positive future.

Rockets are tied to this same cycle of destruction and renewal while adding the aspect of human intention. They introduce a broadening of hope and human migration, freeing oppressed people and establishing a new frontier. But they are also blunt instruments of technology, and serve the destructive nature of humans, bringing the settlers who would ultimately wipe out the Martians, and carrying the nuclear weapons which will devastate the Earth. In “The Million-Year Picnic,” the cycle of renewal/destruction seems complete when William Thomas destroys his rocket with fire so that he might wipe away all the mistakes Earth made.