War of the Worlds

The war of the worlds story has ben remade numerous times, each time it is remade our societies feel a sense of paranoia, fear of others and a fear of annihilation. This is because the original novel had universal themes that reflect a time when our society was facing an uncertain future. The same fears are felt in our society now and this makes us able to identify aspects of our own culture in this story. Each time war of the worlds is remade it is at a time of uncertainty and a time when people can most connect with the themes of the story.

The novel war of the worlds written in 1898 was allegorical and reflects the events happening at the time of its release. The book was originally set in Victorian London and during this time people feared mass immigration to England, they believed that this immigration would cause the destruction of their country's culture. Similar themes were shown in war of the worlds,  the fear of immigration was changed to the fear of the aliens and the fear of their culture being destroyed was reflected by the human's fear of their annihilation.

The radio adaptation made in 1938 did the same as the novel by tapping people’s fear of the Nazi party and the fear of invasions. People no longer feared immigration, instead they now feared invasion from the Nazi’s. People during this time feared the coming war and the fear of foreigners was at a high. The themes in war of the world match this fear society had, the invasion of “others” matched the fear people felt of the Nazi's. The annihilation of the humans by the aliens reflected what people believed the Nazi's would do to them if they invaded and the paranoia shown by those in the film matched the paranoia felt by people all over the world, they were paranoid about when the war would start and if it would reach them.

The film made of war of the worlds in 1953 uses the themes from the story such as fear of annihilation, fear of others, paranoia, and fear of the unknown. The society at the time was fearful of the USSR. People feared communism and though it would result in the destruction of their own way of life and culture. This fear made people paranoid especially as the threat of nuclear weapons came into the situation and people now feared the complete annihilation of their country. These fears were reflected in war of the worlds as the aliens wanted to annihilate the human race, the film changes from the original book and radio show as it is now set in America. This was because it was American’s who would connect with this fear and the themes presented in war of the worlds, as it was America that was having conflict with Russia.

The most recent adaption of war of the worlds came in 2005, this time reflecting the fear and paranoia felt in a post 9/11 society. After 9/11 people became fearful of “alien” cultures and the possibility that they could cause the destruction of their own culture. This film was again set in America as that had been the target of the 9/11 attacks and the attacks in the film have a lot in common with the events of 9/11. The themes that were present in the film that where also present in society at this time were, the fear of “others”, paranoia and the fear of annihilation. These themes in the film were shown through the alien’s annihilation of the humans, the paranoia shown by Olgivy during the basement scenes and the fear of the aliens or the “others”. These feelings were also present in society, the fear of others was present due to the new fear of other cultures different to our own, we know see them as a threat and Paranoia was shown by people being paranoid of more attacks happening in ore cities around the world.