“Dark They Were, And Golden-Eyed”

Written By: Ray Bradbury

2 Summary:In the short story, “Dark They Were, And Golden-Eyed” by Ray
Bradbury, a family of five travel to Mars to start a new lifestyle away from danger
on Earth. After building a house and getting settled, they start to notice weird
things like flowers changing colors, food changing tastes, cows growing a third
horn, and more. They decide to live at the villa and eventually transform into

Martians.

3 Focus Question: How can a new, completely different lifestyle and home
change a person? Earth and Mars

4 Exposition

5 Characters: We meet the Bittering family, consisting of the parents, Harry and
Cora, and their children, David, Laura, and Dan.

6 They built a small, white cottage on the Mars settlement.

Setting: They built a small, white cottage on the Mars settlement.

7 Rising Action

8 Changes to Humans and Animals:

The humans’ eyes turned gold, their skin became darker, and they grew taller
and skinnier.The cow grew a third horn.

9 Changes to Food: The taste and smell of onions and carrots were altered by
the Martian weather.

10 Changes to Plants: Roses turned green, the grass turned purple, and the
peach blossoms changed taste and color as well.

11 Trying to Escape: Harry Bittering, the father of the family, wants to escape
Mars after he learns that Earth’s rockets are broken by an atom bomb and can no
longer come to retrieve them.

12 Climax

13 The Bitterings go visit the villa and later decide to permanently live there.

14 Falling Action
15 At the end of the story, in the falling action, men come from rockets to save
the Americans on Mars. They figured they were Martians because of how much
they changed.

16 Key Elements of Science Fiction

17 Realistic and fantastic details

Grounded in science Usually set in the future Unknown inventions

18 Science is involved in this story

Science is involved in this story. It takes place in the future and on Mars. Also,
this story includes extra terrestrials (Martians)

Summary and Analysis: Dark They Were, and

Golden-eyed
Harry Bittering and his family are among the first thousand Earthmen
to move to Mars for the purpose of colonizing it. Yet Bittering feels out
of place in his new home. His uneasiness is so profound that he wants
his family to return with him to Earth. He has decided that Mars is
meant to be inhabited only by Martians. When a war on Earth destroys
all of Earth's space ships and prevents Bittering's return, he
determines that he must build a ship for himself if he is ever to return
to Earth. In addition, he has noticed subtle changes occurring on Mars:
roses turn green, his cow grows a third horn, and lawn seeds sprout
purple instead of green. Bittering wants to leave Mars before strange
things also happen to him. However, his space ship is never used, for
the Bitterings as well as the other Earthmen also begin to change.
Their color, their bone structure, their complexion, and even their
language change. In short, they become Martians. Five years later, the
war on Earth ends, and a new ship travels through space, its mission
being to save the Earthmen stranded on Mars. Much to the surprise of
the rescue team, no Earthmen are to be found — only Martians, who
have a great affinity for the English language.

Bradbury transports his readers to a fictionalized world of Mars in this

story. He employs sun, fire, and water imagery to describe the
changes that occur on Mars. Fire imagery describes the changes that
take place in the houses. The air "burns" them, warping the boards out
of shape and making them no longer Earthmen's houses. The sun burns
the Earthmen's skin almost black, and Bittering himself feels his flesh
melt in the hot and liquid air. Water completes the process of change
as Bittering lies in the Martian canal water, convinced that this water
is eating his flesh away until only his skeleton will be left. He senses
that eventually the water will continue its work, evoking a change
upon him as it metamorphoses his skeleton. Finally, all the material
trappings that are so important to Earthmen are sluffed off,
transforming the Earthmen into Martians. The regeneration is
complete. This story is similar in setting and subject matter to many of
Bradbury's stories contained in The Martian Chronicles.