In what ways can the story of War of the Worlds be considered allegorical?

 In what ways can the story of War of the Worlds be considered allegorical?

Since it was first released the ‘War of the Worlds’ story has been remade and re-imagined several times. In every incarnation there has been a different ideological fear, for example, Spielberg’s War of the Worlds has the fear of terrorist attacks. In other adaptations there are always fears of others, this has usually been in the form of aliens. When the novel was first released there was a fear of immigration in the UK, especially the capital. In the 1938 version of War of the Worlds, the paranoia of immigration was replaced by the fear of Fascism and the Nazi party. This was due to the rise of Hitler in Europe, this version put people on edge because they believed the Nazi’s were coming to destroy them. Later in the 1953 film, the tripods that featured in the original film were replaced with UFOs and flying saucers. This was down to the threat of nuclear annihilation from the USSR. This was because of the Enola Gay which was the plane that dropped the nuclear bomb on Japan. There was also the fear of “aliens” this is the world that Americans used to describe immigrants. In the 2005 version Steven Spielberg used the fear from the 9/11 attacks. He changed the location from Victorian London to modern day New York City. He used the global fear of terrorism.