FREE ESSAY ON HOMO SUPERIOR?

HOMO SUPERIOR?

War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
Homo-Superior?
War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells is a fiction story written about war and mankind's coming
of age. It is also a philosophical novel with many deep meanings underlying the shallow
looking one-hundred-eighty-eight page book. 
The subject of this novel is Science Fiction and there are not many that can even compete
with Wells in terms of how superior his word descriptions are. He simply does wonders
with the imagination of the reader. 
Obviously the whole book is about the struggle mankind faces, but it is not always with
aliens, they are actually more of a good way to represent what Wells really believed. He
believed man is dominant, yet should remember how big the universe is and that the
possibility of life far more intelligent than ours is very great.
The narrator, who is also the main character tells War of the Worlds in first person. He
describes everything from the man's denial, to the invasion, the battles, and the
aftermath. In the beginning he discusses the possibility of other life forms existing.
When the aliens invade they do not communicate, just organize and destroy all resistance
and population centers. The author journeys along all of England fleeing the invaders and
always being updated from various people about the news. The climax comes when he walks
into a town to find all the aliens dead from bacteria, and the denouement is when he
finds his wife. 
The movie "Independence Day" is the best way to describe this story to someone who has
never read the book before. The two are strikingly similar. In both the aliens invade
without warning and destroy everything with their superior technology. People know about
the aliens before they arrive ahead of time in each story, but do nothing because of
denial and public hysteria. The study and autopsy of aliens are described in the two.
There are differences though. There are no heroes in the book, but in the movie there
are. Our technology is useless in the book and in the movie it wins it for us. In a sense
the endings are the same because a computer virus is what causes the aliens' shields to
go down in the movie and biological viruses kill the aliens in the book. Still when I
think about it, "Independence Day" is the best way to modernize the story.
Pre World War One England is the setting for the story. It fits nicely, for if the humans
were more advanced; the alien technology would not have smashed them, and actually might
have been smashed by technology from that of even World War Two days. In this case the
setting is perfect on account of the humans having a small sense of hope in their
machinery, but not enough technology to really compete. 
Characters are not a big part of this book. The main one, who never reveals his name, is
the only one who in fact does not always go with the craziness of the public. He does
have his moments of running away screaming and hiding, but he learns more about himself,
mankind, and the aliens than anyone else in the book. He has loved ones in England and
hates the aliens for what they do to his home, yet he understands what the aliens are
trying to do. First person is a good way to write this kind of book because the reader
knows exactly what a regular Joe would be thinking at a time like this. Another reason
Wells is such a great author. 
Other characters are the aliens, who seem to be ugly heads that talk with their minds.
The physical characteristics they possess are far different from humans and they never
communicate with the humans.
The last character worthy of note is the artillery man the main character meets towards
the end of the book. The two seem to agree on the way things will work out, and both
would rather live than die fighting. They play many games together, eat and talk and even
spend the night out in the English countryside together. 
Without this man, the book does not exist and there is no story. If the book were a
laboratory he would be the scientist that keeps everything going.
My favorite part of the book is the beginning when some of the town's people decide to
get brave and wave a flag at the aliens. How dumb can you be? Everyone knows what is
going to happen to him or her before it even happens! It shows the predictability of the
humans and the writer.
Herbert George Wells was a writer at heart and at an early age would read books in the
library of a house that his mother would housekeep for. When his father's business failed
he was basically sold (apprenticed) to another part of England. This causes him to create
his first work known as KIPPS. The character goes through what he went through and he has
very pessimistic views on the upper class society. His next opportunity to write came to
him as a teacher. He had many lovers and affairs throughout his life that must have given
rise to all his hostile points in his books. 
As an author, I have much respect for him. As a person, I don't think we would get along
too well together. His outlook on life is too narrow for me. I loved his book and how
short and strident the sentences were. He views are just too sour for me. The whole time
he bad mouths humans and makes a mockery out of our race. I know we do stupid things, but
we have created so much and have so much to live for I find it hard to agree with him on
many things. If I were to talk to him, I would not focus on philosophy so as not to argue
with him. It would be out of respect for him as an author and his book. He does have a
few bright spot; however, the dark ones far exceed the bright ones.
War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells is written to teach man of his arrogance and also how bad
arrogance can be. Although the fact of where we came from is still disputed to this day,
and will be for a while, one thing is clear. Humans are the dominant species on this
planet. The only competition we have is from ourselves. 
The author is trying to tell the reader that the vision of man should not be so small as
to think we are superior beings. We only have ourselves to compare to. In the beginning
the narrator, who is also the main character (though we never know his name), tells the
reader how when the aliens landed and put up their little satellite, the humans tried to
respond intelligently. They went about this very unintelligently however and ended up
getting roasted for it. If I were the aliens I would be laughing my ass off at the stupid
humans. Waving a flag at a thirty-yard distance is seen as an invasion of territory and a
possible threat…what were the humans thinking?
Another arrogant comment that happened was right before the humans get roasted, one of
the narrator's neighbors says, "What Ugly Brutes!" While he may have been right, look
where it got him. Besides, the aliens must have thought the same thing about us. We were
primitive in both our society and our technology. We were unorganized and talked using
audible sounds.
The amazing thing was that the aliens functioned as one, and always were coordinated and
organized. When the main character described what the beings looked like, the reader
would assuredly be disgusted like the main character was. Yet the main character backed
the author's point of human arrogance very well when he said that these features such as
a lack of a digestive system were advantages. Because of this the aliens never died of
old age or grew tired. They were able to be productive twenty-four hours a day, seven
days a week. Their bodies we for perfect for their purpose: destroying humans. 
Wells makes a superb point when he lets the reader know just how close the threat came
from. Earth's nearest planet! All this time we were going about thinking how great we
were and that we were the only ones around and then boom! The aliens swoop out of nowhere
and destroy everything with their pinky fingers! Wells was probably trying to teach
humility amongst other things to the reader as just seen here. This problem was right
under our noses in terms of how close we were and how easy it was for the aliens to
invade. Sure, a few people observed lights and things of that sort coming from the areas
around Mars, but these were labeled meteors or space rocks. No way could another
intelligent form of life, much less one superior to humans, be responsible for this. So
while people knew about this, they did nothing. And as the phenomenon grew closer to
Earth, more people found out about it, but no one ever thought of extra terrestrials
invading. 
The last important point Wells makes is that humans were stupid in the way that they
acted. There was no strategy to anything, because…well we didn't really know what
to do. The only strategy that the British had ever needed at this time was the one that
the aliens were using. The far superior technology, armor, weaponry and location were
what advantages the English always had in the past, so they knew no other way. Of course
the artillery bombardments, tanks and automatic weaponry had crushed all before, why not
now? Still, after all the failed attempts and lives lost in vain, the humans fought on.
There were even suicide missions, which brings about the only admirable quality of us in
the book. Our drive to live. Throughout the story soldiers talk of how they would rather
die fighting than be enslaved to a master race of walking octopuses. That trait is very
human indeed, yet to some it seems crazy. 
Maybe it is, but not to Wells. He wrote of the stupidity and courage of men. He did a
great job of doing both. This book is really a classic because so many people know about
it and still read it today, and it is over a hundred years old! It reminds me of how the
U.S is today. Sure we are the greatest nation on the planet, however we still need to be
reminded that we do not control everyone. We should be more humble and that is how the
author felt as well. All the time I see on the news how people rebel and complain about
stuff. When it comes down to it they don't do jack! They just want to bitch about how the
system cheats them. There were characters in the book like this in the novel too. 
The most significant thing to me in the whole book, and I'm sure it is to most readers
too, is the fact that germs killed the aliens. Not some secret weapon, or a hero, but the
every day cold. This really humbles man. In the end there is hope. The hope that man
finally understands that he is not so great and how lucky he can be. Hope that we will
learn from our mistakes and take them to heart so that if this happens again, we will be
ready. So the one question remains, and I leave it up to you…are we Homo-Superior?