Write a summary of The Fighting Begins by H G Wells
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The War of the Worlds: Book 1, Chapter 9
Summary & Analysis
Order, Subordination, and Hierarchy Theme Icon The Other and The Unknown Theme Icon News and The Dissemination of Information Theme Icon Evolution and Survival Theme Icon Themes Key
SummaryAnalysis
In the morning, the narrator speaks to the milkman, who laughs and says, “This lot’ll cost the insurance people a pretty penny before everything’s settled.” He goes on to inform the narrator that the woods are still on fire. When he leaves, the narrator walks toward Horsell Common, and on his way comes across a group of soldiers who ask him what the Martians look like. Despite their eager talk about “shelling” the aliens, it’s clear they know nothing about the situation. Later, the narrator fetches a newspaper, but is disappointed to learn nothing new. In the afternoon, gunfire can be heard coming from the Common.
Within the space of a single evening, the narrator goes from calmly drinking tea to frantically running through burning streets in order to escape. In this way, Wells allows the strange everyday habits of England’s social order to sit alongside the harrowing new reality of the Martian invasion. But even amidst such chaos and danger, elements of normal order prevail, as is the case when the narrator pays the innkeeper to borrow his horse and dogcart, thereby upholding the dictates of society and its commitment to capital gain even in highly unusual circumstances that may very well render money useless.