♥the martian chronicles 3/21♥

it is i, the frenchiest fry

Setting is one of the foundations of a good story, it can be a regular school or the deepest pit of hell, anything will go if you can develop it enough and intrigue a reader. In The Martian Chronicles, the story takes place in a future where Earth is desolated and mankind is forced to flee to other planets. In this case, the red planet named after the Roman god of war, Mars.

The example that I will be using (not because i'm behind hahaha) is from one of the very first stories that is featured, "Ylla." I'm not keen on the pronunciation of this word; Illa? Yeela? Ailla? This story/chapter follows an alien woman named Ylla and her husband. Ylla is having visions of shining lights of a spaceship that melts away snow and ice. Her husband thinks that the idea of travelers from "The Third Planet" is absurd and disregards her. On another night, Ylla dreams a similar dream where Nathaniel York comes down from the ship and is infatuated with her, offering to whisk her away. Yll, her husband, seems to be jealous of his wife's interest in this strange traveler and plans to thwart them, even though Ylla repeated time after time that it was merely a dream. Later that day, a ray of light comes down from the sky and Yll decides to go hunting, telling Ylla to stay in the house because a doctor is coming to see her about her visions. 2 shots ring out, it is suggested that they were from Yll and were used to eliminate Nathaniel York and his companion.

"The flame birds waited, like a bed of coals, glowing on the cool smooth sands. The whit canopy ballooned on the night wind, flapping softly, tied by a thousand green ribbons to the birds. Ylla laid herself back in the canopy and, at a word from her husband, the bired leaped, burning, toward the dark sky. The ribbons tautened, the canopy lifted. The sand slid whining under; the blue hills drifted by, leaving their home behind, the raining pillars, the caged flowers, the singing books, the whispering floor creeks. She did not look at her husband. She heard him crying out to the birds as they rose higher, like ten thousand hot sparkles, so many red-yellow fireworks in the heavens, tugging the canopy like a flower petal, burning through the wind."

The scene follows a vivid description of a canopy across a sky led by Yll's command and glowing birds. It is developed by showing that life on Mars is from from our own. The setting is important in this book because Mars is so specific and unique. When you think The Red Planet you think heat and sun, the bird things that Yll commands are fiery and fly into the air to raise the canopy.