war of the worlds

I think that the theme of War of the worlds is survival of the fittest. The reason I think this is because its either the humans that will live off the aliens. The aliens die though since they cant live with the bacteria that the humans can so they die. So the aliens start out as the fittest and then they start to die off and the humans become the fittest again. The three literary techniques that contribute to the theme is conflict/plot, nemesis, foreshadowing.

The literary terms that I found were conflict/plot , a struggle found in fiction[i]. I thought that this literary term fits in because the conflict is that the humans are trying to stay alive and they are trying to destroy the aliens. “forthwith flashes of actual flame, a bright glare leaping from one to another, sprang from the scattered group of men. It was as if some invisible jet impinged upon them and flashed into white flame. It was as each man were suddenly and momentarily tuned to fire.” Here the aliens have just started attacking and the men soon after start attacking.

I think that nemesis is another literary term because the good characters are rewarded and the bad characters are punished[ii]. The way that I see it the good characters are human and they are being rewarded with being able to live and not all dying out. The bad characters are the aliens they are punished by dying off.

I think that there is some foreshadowing in War of the Worlds in the beginning. Foreshadowing is the use of hints or clues to suggest what will happen later in the story[iii] When the star, which was actually the aliens, had fallen the author describes it as “He did not remember hearing any birds that morning, there was certainly no breeze stirring…” basically its like something bad is going to happen and you could tell by the mood and the surroundings.

[i] CONFLICT/PLOT." The Nellen Family Jewels. 21 Nov. 2008
[ii] Nemesis." The Nellen Family Jewels. 21 Nov. 2008 .
[iii] FORESHADOWING." The Nellen Family Jewels. 21 Nov. 2008 .