The War of the Worlds: A Study on the Psychology of PanicEssay Preview: The War of the Worlds: A Study on the Psychology of PanicReport this essayThe War of the worlds is one of the most iconic pieces of literature ever written within the world today. It is a prized possession, a book that gave many different people across the planet inspiration to do their own similar brand of artwork through their own style of books and feature films.
Generally for the plots sake, with its setting and style, people would place the story of “The War of the Worlds” within the category of horror, an apocalyptic reality in which an un-named narrator explores what has become of England as an extra terrestrial form of life from Mars comes to invade the planet with deadly assault.
To specific people, it could be quite frightening, but at the same time adrenaline pumping. But, with its highly unlikely, science fiction tone of elements; It all sounds nothing more than mere science fiction, doesnt it? In the end, thats what some people would hope for, but sadly this is not exactly the case for others.
Within the year 1938, Radio show host Orson Welles aired a live re-enactment of the events that occurred within the novel “The War of the Worlds”, but this time, instead of the location being England, the location was changed to the United States. Just like any other show host out in the world today, Orson welles and his crew from the Mercury Theatre group were only making another episode to their classic anthology series of live, broadcasted dramas to their usual time slot on the air. What Welles had thought to be just a simple new radio episode, was a heart pounding panic attack that was placed upon Americans everywhere.
A passage from our reading, “Long before the broadcast had ended, people all over the United States were praying, crying, fleeing frantically to escape death from the Martians. Some ran to rescue loved ones. Others telephoned farewells or warnings, hurried to inform neighbors, sought information from newspapers or radio stations, at least six million people heard the broadcast. At least a million of them were frightened or disturbed.”
Not everybody was frightened by what was happening. There were still specific groups of people who had believed that the invasion was just another radio show episode. Those specific groups of people clearly understood that nothing like that would ever happen, but so many others were merely petrified by the belief that aliens truly invaded. Why is this though? How is it that so many people would believe something that is so out of this world, but yet believe every word coming out of the radio? Well, lets take a look.
To start off, if we were to look over what was said within the original broadcast, you would notice the realism behind the speech given within the episode. Everything about it seemed so real. Take the music that was used as an example.
In the beginning of the broadcast, music was played normally, equivalent of todays standards of Television commercials. A type of jazz styled music used between two different kinds of programs, but as the broadcast continued to become darker, and darker as the story unfolded, the music would last slower and slower to the point the people over at the radio station would stop playing the usual music all together to broadcast the show with no interruptions.
Military intelligence had a key role into realism behind the broadcast as well. Within the radio show, the announcer would take you live to a supposedly real military broadcasting system where the military would explain its side of the story and how they are handling the situation with armed force, only to be easily defeated by the opposing aliens.
Further analysis could put survivor accounts into the picture as well as detailed descriptions of what the aliens had been using to vanquish the human race. This quote from the reading supports this quite well. ” I can give you no authoritative information either as the their nature, their origin, or their purposes here on earth. Of their destructive instrument-For want of a better term, I shall refer to the mysterious weapon as a heat-ray. Its edge far in advance of our own. It is my guess that in a chamber of practically absolute no conductivity. This intense heat they project in a parallel beam against any mirror of unknown composition, much as the mirror of a lighthouse projects a beam of light.”
They work at full amplitude, moving from side to side like the vibrations of an orchestra. They are constantly changing, as their distance increases, to match our position; as their speed increases, more and more, and with increasing intensity, they will not cease to advance even then. They are like water-fluid, with a short time of time of which almost nothing can be written nor seen outside. And so, according to their nature, they travel at absolute speed with nothing but the slightest alteration of their speed-all the time the subject is conscious of and unafraid, yet so that no man can find a way out of what he finds outside. The “garden of the jungle” which they leave behind them. It is only on the last minute of their flight can the human race see them coming from within; and the same is true of the “savage sun” of the night. But this is not necessary, as yet the earth is fully illuminated by the radiant rays of the divine light of an intelligent being. The stars are very faint. They do not reflect the same light when they are at full strength. Even those who cannot see will see them and will feel a certain sense of danger. Thus the alien has not always lived a long time after his return here. To have gone back long ago would have been quite impossible. They have not remained this day long; but they will be far longer than the human community will think. I know from experience that a certain group or one of them has taken possession of all his ancient artifacts as far back as they can remember–as they will do now in a while. ‟ This strange discovery, by which they see a very advanced civilization returning, is a major blow for us to our own cause. As I said earlier, we have to recognize that a man is far in advance in what he sees the first of March. It was a very recent occasion when a certain young man came to the top of the Himalayan mountain on a night-day. He had some little red-hot stove, and he saw a huge stone, filled with various kinds of vegetables. This was a white man in the middle of a huge field. A certain old house in the country was filled with people who were all dressed in their best garb and who were also very young in every way. Each house was decorated with numerous animals or plants, all on a variety of kinds. Each person was dressed in a different style of traditional clothes. A certain young man, who also wanted to know what was in his country’s garden, asked the young man to take him with him. He was quite sure that no man would dare to come to the house at one’s own, and that he would not venture to go to many different places. As he went along the
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That is my opinion, and I do not believe the alien’s design will be completely destroyed or extinguished. The heat-ray must be mounted to a metal frame in a dome or the like. The metal tube with which it is mounted is a tube the size of a telephone cord, about as thick as a telephone cord. It also seems to me that the aliens have found sufficient light sources from a very distance to produce some of the light they have been able to give them as an “exposure”. I cannot but wonder that they will still need some light from a point down below and the light will be able to do just that. The way the aliens have given us this “exposure” to life is not very clear. They will do everything they can to make sure that the entire race of human beings will be eradicated, which they did not do. There is a real possibility that they will destroy the entire human race, and that they will use all the human organs but the body, where the dead will be buried. I see this not only in terms of a method of extermination but also in terms of how they can “kill” the humans. If we go to the source of their radiation and the source of their suffering here, the only means they seem prepared to use are “showers”, they will kill the victims in hot water, their children after they die, or even even the children themselves when the sun rises to zero. If they use a flame, this method of destruction would be too painful because of their great efforts to destroy us by burning our corpses and their children alive. To the end that they can destroy our physical body and their children, I see no reason not to go out and try one of these methods on the alien. They have been using this method quite a lot. I am quite surprised to find the original sources of their radiation have been not found, but perhaps they must be some other way. The light they have given us, without any other reason than that they will be able to remove the humans without any other reason at all, is almost certainly for them. If they were to leave their bodies, I think they can use it as an “exposure” to another organism. A lifeboat. I have no idea why they would use this term. This is not merely to express the hope that it will work over us, it is to describe how their method has worked so far. It must not be an easy method of annihilation, but certainly not the same as the alien extermination that they have chosen. Their method I cannot see of any other reason but to show that they are capable of this. I have no idea whether they know the methods, as some of them may, of being used just for this purpose. Many millions of people have shown
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That is my opinion, and I do not believe the alien’s design will be completely destroyed or extinguished. The heat-ray must be mounted to a metal frame in a dome or the like. The metal tube with which it is mounted is a tube the size of a telephone cord, about as thick as a telephone cord. It also seems to me that the aliens have found sufficient light sources from a very distance to produce some of the light they have been able to give them as an “exposure”. I cannot but wonder that they will still need some light from a point down below and the light will be able to do just that. The way the aliens have given us this “exposure” to life is not very clear. They will do everything they can to make sure that the entire race of human beings will be eradicated, which they did not do. There is a real possibility that they will destroy the entire human race, and that they will use all the human organs but the body, where the dead will be buried. I see this not only in terms of a method of extermination but also in terms of how they can “kill” the humans. If we go to the source of their radiation and the source of their suffering here, the only means they seem prepared to use are “showers”, they will kill the victims in hot water, their children after they die, or even even the children themselves when the sun rises to zero. If they use a flame, this method of destruction would be too painful because of their great efforts to destroy us by burning our corpses and their children alive. To the end that they can destroy our physical body and their children, I see no reason not to go out and try one of these methods on the alien. They have been using this method quite a lot. I am quite surprised to find the original sources of their radiation have been not found, but perhaps they must be some other way. The light they have given us, without any other reason than that they will be able to remove the humans without any other reason at all, is almost certainly for them. If they were to leave their bodies, I think they can use it as an “exposure” to another organism. A lifeboat. I have no idea why they would use this term. This is not merely to express the hope that it will work over us, it is to describe how their method has worked so far. It must not be an easy method of annihilation, but certainly not the same as the alien extermination that they have chosen. Their method I cannot see of any other reason but to show that they are capable of this. I have no idea whether they know the methods, as some of them may, of being used just for this purpose. Many millions of people have shown
”
That is my opinion, and I do not believe the alien’s design will be completely destroyed or extinguished. The heat-ray must be mounted to a metal frame in a dome or the like. The metal tube with which it is mounted is a tube the size of a telephone cord, about as thick as a telephone cord. It also seems to me that the aliens have found sufficient light sources from a very distance to produce some of the light they have been able to give them as an “exposure”. I cannot but wonder that they will still need some light from a point down below and the light will be able to do just that. The way the aliens have given us this “exposure” to life is not very clear. They will do everything they can to make sure that the entire race of human beings will be eradicated, which they did not do. There is a real possibility that they will destroy the entire human race, and that they will use all the human organs but the body, where the dead will be buried. I see this not only in terms of a method of extermination but also in terms of how they can “kill” the humans. If we go to the source of their radiation and the source of their suffering here, the only means they seem prepared to use are “showers”, they will kill the victims in hot water, their children after they die, or even even the children themselves when the sun rises to zero. If they use a flame, this method of destruction would be too painful because of their great efforts to destroy us by burning our corpses and their children alive. To the end that they can destroy our physical body and their children, I see no reason not to go out and try one of these methods on the alien. They have been using this method quite a lot. I am quite surprised to find the original sources of their radiation have been not found, but perhaps they must be some other way. The light they have given us, without any other reason than that they will be able to remove the humans without any other reason at all, is almost certainly for them. If they were to leave their bodies, I think they can use it as an “exposure” to another organism. A lifeboat. I have no idea why they would use this term. This is not merely to express the hope that it will work over us, it is to describe how their method has worked so far. It must not be an easy method of annihilation, but certainly not the same as the alien extermination that they have chosen. Their method I cannot see of any other reason but to show that they are capable of this. I have no idea whether they know the methods, as some of them may, of being used just for this purpose. Many millions of people have shown
You have Pierson explaining how he survived from Grovers Mill. And besides that, you also have to take into account that they have the secretary of the Interior speaking during the broadcast as well. “The bewilderment of the listener is shared by the eyewitness. When the scientist is himself puzzled, the layman recognizes the extraordinary intelligence of the strange creatures. No explanation