Group “A” should answer TWO of the following:
Q1: Having read 14 (or so) chapters of the book, what do you
think made A Princess of Mars a blockbuster way back in 1917? What is
the chief attraction of the book? Related to this, what aspect of the book has
been most copied in the contemporary books or movies that followed? In other
words, where do you experience déjà vu when reading the book?
Q2: In Chapter 13, Dejah Thoris tells John Carter that the
Green Martian women envy her because “[I] stand for everyone they have not, and
for all they most crave and never can attain. Let us pity them…since we are
greater than they and they know it” (78). Though John Carter deeply admires
her, are the Red Martians (as represented by her) truly better or more
‘civilized’ than the Green Martians? What makes her (and him) think so?
Q3: Though the book seems to present the Green Martians as a
debased and savage race, do they show any signs of being able to regain their
‘humanity’? Since Burroughs is obsessed with the idea of atavism, do
even these Martians have the ability to be compassionate and civil within their
ancestry? Do we see any signs of this?
Q4: For all his worldly experience in war, John Carter is
something of a dunce when it comes to making love, and even Dejah Thoris teases
him by saying, “What a child! A great warrior and yet a stumbling little child”
(78). Most action heroes in our own day are both fierce warriors and ready
lovers; so why did Burroughs make Carter so innocent in his attempts at
seduction? How does this complement his character and virtues?
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