Masaryk University

MASARYK UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

The Development of the Portrayal of Extraterrestrials in the Invasion Science-fiction Literature over the Past Century: From H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds and Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End to Stephenie Meyer's The Host

Diploma Thesis

Brno 2014

Supervisor: Written by:

Ing. Mgr. Věra Eliášová, Ph.D. Bc. Jan Svoboda

Annotation

The diploma thesis explores the development of the portrayal of extraterrestrials in Anglo-Saxon literature over the past century, focusing especially on the depiction of this phenomenon in the science fiction invasion literature. The work is divided into two main parts: theoretical and practical. The theoretical part deals with biographies of H. G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke and Stephenie Meyer and with the plot summaries of their novels examined the thesis. The practical part consists of three sections, each analyzing the portrayal of aliens in The War of the Worlds , Childhood's End and The Host . The first section examines the invasion of the extraterrestrials in terms of colonization with the aim to link the period of the origin of the novels with the intentions and objectives of the aliens coming to the Earth. In the second section attention is drawn to the physical appearance of the aliens as well as their characteristic features that are significant for understanding this genre. The last section of the work aims at the outcomes of the different invasions presented in the novels pointing out similarities and differences the novels share, and suggesting relevant connections to the eras the novels were written in.

Anotace

Tato závěrečná diplomová práce zkoumá vývoj ztvárnění mimozemšťanů v anglické a americké literatuře za období minulého století. Práce se zaměřuje zejména na ztvárnění tohoto jevu v invazní vědecko-fantastické literatuře. Dílo je rozděleno do dvou hlavních částí; teoretické a praktické. Teoretická část se zabývá životopisy H. G. Wellse, Arthura C. Clarka a Stephenie Meyerové a shrnutím dějů jejich novel, které jsou zkoumány v této diplomové práci. Praktická část sestává ze tří celků, každý se zaměřuje na ztvárnění mimozemšťanů v románech The War of the Worlds , Childhood's End a The Host z jiného úhlu pohledu. První kapitola praktické části zkoumá invazi vetřelců ve smyslu kolonizace a spojení, mezi jejich záměry a úmysly a příchodem na Zemi, a dobou, kdy jednotlivá díla vznikla. Druhý z celků se zabývá fyzickým vzezřením mimozemšťanů a jejich charakterem se záměrem poukázat na důvody, které autoři měli při tvorbě těchto vetřelců. Poslední kapitola praktické části se věnuje výsledkům tří různých invazí popsaných ve zkoumaných dílech a poukazuje na podobnosti a rozdíly v těchto románech se záměrem je propojit s obdobími ve kterých byla díla napsána.

Bibliographical description:

SVOBODA, Jan. The Development of the Portrayal of Extraterrestrials in the Invasion Science-fiction Literature over the past Century: From H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds and Arthur C. Clark's Childhood's End to Stephenie Meyer's The Host: diploma thesis. Brno : Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, Department of English Language and Literature, 2011. 78 p. Supervisor Ing. Mgr. Věra Eliášová, Ph.D.

Klíčová slova: vědecko-fantastická literatura, invaze, mimozemšťané, kolonizace, vývoj ztvárnění mimozemšťanů v literatuře, vetřelci, vzezření mimozemšťanů

Key words: science fiction literature, invasion, extraterrestrials, colonization, development of the portrayal of extraterrestrials in literature, aliens, appearance of extraterrestrials

Prohlášení

„Prohlašuji, že jsem závěrečnou bakalářskou práci vypracoval/a samostatně, s využitím pouze citovaných literárních pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů.”

Declaration

“I declare that I have compiled this bachelor thesis by myself and that I have used only the sources listed in the bibliography.”

Brno 19 April 2014 Jan Svoboda

......

Acknowledgements

I would like to express great gratitude and thanks to the supervisor of my diploma thesis, Ing. Mgr. Věra Eliášová, PhD. who was always supportive to me and did not get scared off by the nature of my work. She has always provided me with general and specific hints and advice, without which I would not be able to complete my diploma thesis. At last, but not least, I would like to thank her for letting me work independently, accepting my last time arrangements and meetings.

Obsah

Foreword ...... 7 Introduction ...... 8 1. Biographies and plot summaries ...... 11 1. 1 Biographies of the authors ...... 11 1. 1. 1 H. G. Wells ...... 11 1. 1. 2 Arthur C. Clarke ...... 12 1. 1. 3 Stephenie Meyer ...... 13 1. 2 Plot summaries of the novels ...... 14 1. 2. 1 The War of the Worlds ...... 14 1. 2. 2 Childhood’s End ...... 16 1. 2. 3 The Host ...... 17 2. Analysis of the development of the invasion science fiction literature ...... 19 2. 1 Invasion ...... 19 2.2 The character and appearance of the alien races in Wells, Clarke and Meyer ...... 39 3. Who wins: concluding the invasions ...... 60 Conclusion ...... 73 Afterword ...... 76 Bibliography ...... 77

Foreword The night sky prompts an ultimate question; looking at the millions of stars that shine for millennia above heads of whole civilizations, people always ask if there is another life in the universe apart from the one we know on Earth. For ultimate question there used to be an ultimate answer and for the most of the history of mankind people believed that gods dwell in the sky; if only one or many varied among different cultures and periods of human development. Religions have been part of the history since the first men saw the light of day enduring even in times when science seems to move the world. However, its importance has rapidly decreased over the past couple of centuries mainly owing to the technological as well as cultural advancement modern civilization has witnessed.

Science seems to be the new religion of our time and truly it has already showed and provided the humankind with many of its wonders. Media, industry, medicine, biology and other fields have undergone marvelous changes in relatively recent time. What has been discovered over the past two hundred years can be counted as tremendous comparing to what has been revealed in centuries before. With many terminal illnesses extinct, transportation that can get people to the other side of the planet in terms of hours and with men stepping onto the surface of Moon human race finds itself indeed in the age of technology.

There is, however, still one thing that even modern day science has not been able to discover yet; the persistent ultimate question that origins in times long lost in history: "Are we alone or is there another life in the universe?". With all its powers scientists are these days working on the answer to this question. Telescopes are searching the night sky for evidence of life on distant worlds from the surface of the Earth and on its orbit there are another ones with the same task. Probes are being sent to search other planets beginning with our closest neighbor, planet Mars and even further on, behind the borders of our Solar system. Still nothing!

Suffering from the lack of knowledge on the scientists' side gives space to writers on the other side. Being offered this opportunity a great number of authors has taken the advantage of the situation and exploited their imagination presenting in their works of fiction. The fact that there is still no proof of life beyond the borders of our own world holds the door wide open for novelists who truly have not held back their minds in developing interpretations of extraterrestrials in literature of fiction.

Introduction Depicting aliens in fiction seems to be a kind of a virus spreading among the authors considering the last century since a vast amount of novels have been produced in this period. There are even specific genres in terms of presenting extraterrestrials in literature or maybe they can be called different themes. They vary from men exploring different worlds to completely alternate histories of mankind set among alien races. One of the themes or genres seems to occupy a special position concerning the interpretation of the phenomenon, and it is because the genre can exists, even without the extraterrestrials. It is the literature of invasion only enriched by alien element.

What is meant by invasion in earthly-terms is obviously one nation invading another, usually a less developed one in order to establish its rule over the conquered land and its people. However, some countries invaded others just without being superior to them in any evident aspect except their beliefs thus being on a higher level of technology or culture is not a prerequisite of the invasion ability.

The history of humankind has witnessed this happening over and over again all around the world; Romans invading most of Europe, Ottoman invasion of Europe or European colonialism and last but not least German invasion of Europe throughout the course of the second World War. All the invasions mentioned above involve whole countries in the process; however, there are invasions in the history that only concerned two nations e.g. Spanish invasion of the Aztec Empire, French invasion of Russia by Napoleon or British invasion of Tasmania. The phenomenon described above, is nothing new and from time to time this has occurred in the development of human race. Except from the different countries involved in the positions of the invading and the invaded different reasons for invasions can be detected, concerning different occasions.

The ultimate motive that has so many times driven conquerors to invade other nations is power. Power over land and its people and most of all over the country's wealth concerning money, natural resources or manpower. Oceans has been crossed and mountains climbed to reach what others had no matter what was lost in the process since only what was acquired was important for those who led the invasion.

The invasion that this thesis is going to deal with is, however, of a very different kind. As there was mentioned before there is still no proof of extraterrestrial life, and thus many authors of science fiction provided their visions of the phenomenon

becoming true in their works of art. The concept of invasion has been taken and molded for the use in science fiction literature and thus in those texts another sort of invasion can be encountered. There are still two sides involved; one invading and one invaded. One nation under attack of another one, superior and more advanced and most of all, alien. In the invasion science fiction literature it is the whole human kind facing threat from another nation, an extraterrestrial one, coming to the planet Earth in order to claim its superiority over the human race.

The main objective of this thesis is to describe the development of the invasion science fiction literature concerning the alien element. The interpretation of the phenomenon differs with different authors and periods in which the works were written; however, each reflects to some extent the time of its origin, and thus I have chosen three of the works dealing with the humankind being invaded by an alien race with the timeline of approximately fifty years between each examined work.

The first novel to be analyzed in this thesis goes back more than hundred years into the past to the 'father of science fiction' as H.G. Wells is sometimes called. There are other authors that can be counted among founders of the genre e.g. Mary Shelly and her Frankenstein (1818) or Jules Verne and his fiction works, however, only H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (1898) fits the concept of invasion science fiction literature described above. Wells was the first to flip the perspective and he put humans into the position of the invaded by making the planet Mars inhabited with an intelligent species that desires to conquer our World in order to make it their second home.

Half a century later, modern science fiction was still flourishing and one of the most influential author of this genre, A. C. Clarke, among many other novels produced his Childhood's End (1953), again as Wells, turning human race into the position of an invaded nation by a far more superior species coming from the outer space. The word invasion is common for both novels; however, its nature cannot be farther from each other, because of the intentions of the aliens.

The final text dealt with in this thesis is a combination of some elements of the two above mentioned texts, yet it is a rather different work and therefore it is, too, part of the analysis, showing the most recent development of the phenomenon in literature. It comes again more than fifty years after the previous novel, Childhood's End , from the pen of Stephenie Meyer. The Host (2008) being similar to some extent with the two

previous novels concerning the term invasion, but focuses on other topics such as the society’s approach towards the natural and social environment. Similarity to The World of the Worlds and Childhood's End, The Host reflects themes and topics typical for its time of origin.

Invasion being part of the human history and the lack of scientific knowledge has allowed the authors of science fiction to combine the two phenomena together creating works that presented humankind as a nation in the position as an inferior species. What has led them to flip the usual order of things? Usually it was people invading other people mostly when the invaders were on a higher technological and cultural level. Why in their fictional works the whole human race experience invasions from a superior species from other worlds?

This thesis attempts to find reasons for interpretations of the alien invasion upon the planet Earth in true history of our race pointing to three different periods of time of the past century. Are there particular reasons for the authors to present the invasion as they did? What did people do wrong, according to the authors, that a terrible doom from above was called upon them in these works of fiction?

Each of the chose different means of the invasion and the alien species was of a diverse kind too. What can be told by the various natures of the extraterrestrial? And does their physical appearance invented by the authors corresponds with the reasons for writing an invasion science fiction novel in the first place? Employing the power of their imaginations, the authors created three completely different alien species with different natures and physical bodies in order for them to fit the circumstances in which they fitted the invasion itself. The thesis is going to follow the motives that led them to create exactly those beings that they did.

Other important topic when analyzing the novels of this genre is determining the victor; the invading or the invaded and if or how the victory is achieved. The results of the invasions can reveal the purpose of its creation and they can give away if there is any moral that is carried within the texts for people to learn. The endings of the different invasions presented in the works dealt with varies tremendously and the analysis is going to deliver explanations of the meaning of the endings. Moreover, the purpose of each conclusion is going to be outlined concerning the interpretation of the particular novel in terms of the era it was written in.

1. Biographies and plot summaries

1. 1 Biographies of the authors

1. 1. 1 H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells was born in 1866, in Bromley, England. His parents belonged to the working class, winning the bread as shopkeepers. At his young age, Wells was of poor health and at the age of seven, he even had to stay in the bed for several months. However, he took advantage of this time and started reading excessively, which consequently became his passion. The unfortunate fate of his family well-being led him again towards literature, since he spent a lot of time in his mother’s employer’s library.

When Wells was able to start working, he joined his brothers in assisting a local draper. Because of the fact that he hated the job, he started looking for a way out, which consequently resulted in him winning a scholarship to the Normal School of Science. Among many other subjects, the school introduced Wells to the studies of biology, astronomy and physics, influencing his future writing. His first literary attempts include a short story about time travel called The Chronic of Argonauts (1888) which Wells wrote at college.

His first novel The Time Machine (1895) became a great success, dealing with issues of class conflict and evolution. In three years after his first novel, Wells published another three novels, among which was one of his most famous works, The War of The Worlds (1898) . In his novels of fiction as well as in his non-fiction works, Wells tried to some extent express his prediction of the world’s future, mainly in terms of politics, technological advance and military conflicts. In his works issues dealing with social troubles of his time can be found, too. Because of his fondness of dealing with political and social issues in his novels, Wells wanted to become a politician, but he never succeeded.

Even though Wells was publishing almost until he died on August 13, 1946, his later works never won the renown as his novels from the earlier period of his life. Until today he remains famous especially for his work in science fiction literature, but also for his essays dealing with history, social issues and politics. To his most famous science fiction novels belong works such as The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897) and Kipps (1905).

1. 1. 2 Arthur C. Clarke Arthur Charles Clarke was born on December 16, 1917, in Minehead, Somerset, England. Even though born as a son of a farmer, Clarke managed to study at King’s College, London and focused on scientific research. His working in scientific environment concerning radars and communication resulted in him turning into a science fiction writer of a great name. Not only in his works, Clarke predicted the origin of super computers, space travel and reaching the moon.

As a writer, Clarke was highly interested in depicting the evolution of human society, especially in terms of space exploration and discoveries. By projecting his novels into either distant or near future, Clarke usually questions in his works the position of humanity in the realm of the universe. One of his most famous is 2001: A space Odyssey (1968) and its sequels. Among his less known, but still important works belong his first novel Prelude to Space (1951) and Childhood’s End (1953), dealing with the fate of humanity as race.

In his work, Clarke was also interested in non-fiction reality, focusing especially on unresolved mysteries around the world. He published two of these works dealing with various unclear phenomena, namely Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World (1980) and Arthur C. Clarke's Chronicles of the Strange and Mysterious (1987).

Because many of his predictions came actually true during the course of time, Clarke is remembered not only as a significant author of the science fiction genre, but also as a great visionary of his time. At the age of ninety, Clarke died in Sri Lanka, leaving more than one hundred books behind.

1. 1. 3 Stephenie Meyer Stephenie Meyer was born on December 24, 1973, in Hartford, Connecticut. She is the second child among six others of her parents, the Morgans. Four years after her birth her parents moved to sunny Phoenix in Arizona. Being the second oldest member of such a big family meant for Meyer a lot of looking after her younger siblings. Despite all the duties she had in the family, she read much at that time, showing her fondness for literature. Among many others, her most favourite authors were Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte or Margaret Mitchell. I would like to just point out that the unusual spelling of her first name is caused by her father Stephen who took his name and added “i” and “e” and name her second daughter Stephenie.

Meyer attended Chaparral High School in Scottsdale, Arizona and she did very well in her studies. She graduated in 1992 and because of her excellent results she got National Merit Scholarship, which consequently allowed her to study English literature at Brigham Young University.

Stephenie Meyer got married with her husband Christian Meyer, whom she had been dating about a year, when she was 21 years old and still attending the university. The Meyers have three sons Gabe, Seth and Eli, which was the reason for Stephenie Meyer to stay at home caring for them after she finished her studies.

The inspiration for her books drew Meyer from a dream she had in June, 2003.

Despite the main idea for her novels might come to Meyer coincidentally in a dream, she began writing with great passion. When the first Meyer’s novel Twilight was published it achieved immediately a great success that can be compared to J. K. Rowling and her book Harry Potter . Meyer’s first novel was followed in 2006 by the second one called New Moon then third Eclipse (2007) and fourth and last in the line Breaking Dawn (2008).

In the year 2008, Meyer published her last novel. This time, she employs aliens in her writing and combines them with her talent for romances. The Host followed the Twilight Saga in its immediate success and proved, that Stephenie Meyer still maintains her position in contemporary American science fiction literature.

1. 2 Plot summaries of the novels

1. 2. 1 The War of the Worlds The Story begins with a series of unidentified phenomena in the form of light strikes observed on the planet Mars. The mystery is resolved at once, when a huge “cylinder” falls in England, making clear that the lights were only side effects of a great gun shooting projectiles on our planet. The narrator of the novel was one of two people who first saw the lights on the red planet and also is one of the first to realize that the cylinders shot on the Earth brought the inhabitants of Mars in them. He finds them rather repulsive creatures, completely unlike humans, crawling around their “cylinder” in Woking, Surrey. The true nature of the Martians is revealed, when the narrator’s fellow astronomer, Oglivy, tries to approach them in a friendly manner, only to find death by the Martian’s lethal weapon, the heat-ray.

The events in Woking causes intense military maneuvers in order to surround the Martians and prevent any further damage. In the meantime the narrator evacuates his wife to his cousin’s house, returning himself back to his house. He finds the Martians ready to deal with the army, since they managed to assemble more of their weapons, including tripod fighting-machine and “black smoke”. The Martians start to wipe out Woking without facing any obstacles, forcing the narrator to escape along with an artilleryman. The narrators intentions to rejoin with his wife is made impossible, since another “cylinder” has landed between Woking and her refuge in Leatherhead.

As the Martians advance towards London, the military manages to shoot one of the tripods down, causing the aliens to retreat for a while. An army line is made at the borders of the Capital, hoping to defend the city. The narrator is now accompanied by a curate who constantly loses his nerves. Both of the survivals are forced to hide in a ruin of a house for several days, since the pit of the Martians is nearby. The story turns to the narrator’s brother and his experience of the invasion. On his fleeing to Essex, the brother manages to save two ladies from the chaos, and they manage reach the coast in order to cross the channel to France. The three companions witness a great success of the military when a torpedo ram Thunder Child succeeds in destroying two of the tripods, giving other boats time to flee away. Book One ends with the Martians ruling over the land, with more of them coming every twenty-four hours.

Book Two opens with the narrator and the curate being witnesses of the Martians harvesting and feeding upon human beings. Both of the realizes that the aliens feed on human blood. With the coming of the fifth “cylinder” the companions are trapped in a house for couple of weeks, which gives them time to observe closely the invaders. However, only the narrator is interested in examining them, the curate on the other hand goes mad, forcing the narrator to blackout him in order to prevent the Martians from hearing him. This unfortunately proves futile and the narrator witnesses the alien’s sucking blood from a living being.

The narrator is lucky, since the extraterrestrials leave their pit, giving him chance to continue to London. On his journey he rejoins with the artilleryman for a while, only to realize that the man is at the edge of sanity, the narrator decides to go on alone. His entering London is rather desperate, since once a great and vivid city resembles only a void now. At the brink of a complete destruction of the Capital the actions of the Martians suddenly ceases and the narrator realizes that they pose threat no more. He finds them dead in their machines, incapable of surviving on the planet Earth. It is later discovered, that the cause of the Martians sudden termination is microbiological infection, to which the aliens do not have any defenses for there are no bacteria on Mars. After a couple of days recovering in London, the narrator reunites with his wife and they return to live in their house in Woking, that by a miracle remains untouched.

1. 2. 2 Childhood’s End The novel opens at the point of two major world’s nations competing in the field of space explorations. The Overlords employ no invasion onto the Earth and their actions are limited since they only intend to guide the humanity towards common prosperity and peace. Only after fifty years, when the human race is accustomed to the presence of the aliens and their prosperous rule, the Overlords reveal their physical appearance, causing a brief shock, since they resemble devils from human mythology.

In the next part of the novel, the human race is used to the physique of the aliens as well and under their wise guidance, nations reach peace and prosperity at once and an utopia is installed on the planet. Even though the Overlords possess minds much greater than human’s, they seem to be interested in psychic phenomena occurring now and then in the human history. After an event that involves an Overlord in this phenomenon, young scientist, Jan, is determined to discover the Overlord’s secret and he secretly enters one of the alien ships, taking him to their home planet.

Regardless the evolution brought by the aliens, concerning mainly unification of the society, culture is thought by some people to became stuck. Therefore a colony is established, where the main emphasis is put on reviving creativity. Goerge and Jean Greggson, members of the colony, start to observe the development of telekinetic powers among their two children. This phenomenon is explained by the Overlords, revealing that this is only the beginning, since the real purpose of their coming is to reach this “total breakthrough” among the human children in order to join the Overmind.

All the children with the powers are consequently separated to complete the evolution, leaving the adults in despair. The Overlords explain that this is only another stage of evolution and that they envy the human race, since they cannot reach it by themselves, revealing the reason for their interest in psychic phenomena. Some people commit suicide, seeing no point in continuing, some try to enjoy the rest of their lives as they can. When there are no adults left on the planet, Jan comes back from the Overlord’s planet, only to be a witness of the children joining the Overmind. He refuses to stay with the Overlords and chooses to die along with the planet that is destroyed in the process, giving account of the procedure in order to help the Overlords to discover its nature.

1. 2. 3 The Host The Earth is invaded by an alien species called the Souls. The nature of the invasion lies in the aliens possessing the bodies of human beings as parasites and destroying the minds of the people in the process. Their memories, however, remain untouched, since the parasites can make use of them in finding humans who still avoid the invasion. With this intention, an alien is inserted into a body of a young girl, Melanie, who was a member of the resistance.

In the course of time, Wanderer realizes that the mind of the girl still lives in the brain, causing her troubles with the search for the rebels. In the end, Melanie grows so strong, that sometimes she takes over and act on her own. A Seeker, that is assigned to Wanderer to help her with the search, starts to suspect her not to be completely in charge and pursues her in order to force to leave Melanie for another body, leaving the girl to die. By that time, Wanderer grows fond of Melanie and her beloved brother Jamie and boyfriend Jared and therefore she decides to flee to find them, following the map in Melanie’s memories.

In their attempt to find their beloved, Wanderer and Melanie end up in a desert, fighting for their lives. Their body is discovered by Melanie’s uncle, Jeb, and they are brought to his refuge. After they recover, they realize that Jared and Jamie are part of the community, but now that everybody thinks Melanie is completely possessed by the alien, like the majority, they hate her and want to kill her at once. Jeb suspects that Melanie might still be aware in the mind with Wanderer and through a series of actions he convinces almost everybody, including Jared, that Melanie is still alive. What is more, Wanderer proves herself a decent being, and is accepted to the community as well and in the end one of the male members of the group falls in love with her.

Even though, Wanderer is now accepted and even loved, she feels that she is taking the life of Melanie and decides to give the body back to its original owner, dying in the process. She shows the secret of the Soul’s removal to Doc, making him to promise not to tell anyone. Nobody persuades Wanderer not to do that, even her lover, Ian, and she is now prepared to sacrifice herself for Melanie, refusing to be inserted into another body, refusing to be a parasite anymore. Although Doc promised to leave her die, Wanderer wakes in a new host, realizing that she was placed in another girl’s body, that did not responded after the original Soul was removed. Everybody in the community, including Melanie, Jared, Jamie and Ian, is glad that it ended this way,

since they grew very fond of their fellow alien. Wanderer eventually accepts her new fate, since she is not a parasite anymore, because without her, the host boy would die. In the end of the novel, the group finds out, that they are not the only one holding a sympathetic alien in their centre, and that a new history begins with the Souls being their true friends.

2. Analysis of the development of the invasion science fiction literature

2. 1 Invasion There has been mentioned in the introduction that each of the analyzed novels presents a different perspective of invasion by extraterrestrials onto the Earth. What marks the differences concerning the period of time the novels were written in? In this section the works will be analyzed concerning certain aspects in the eras of their origin that might have influenced the authors' interpretation of the invasion in terms of science fiction.

The first novel to dealt with is The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. It is the oldest work analyzed in this thesis since it was written at the very end of 19th century. It comes from a pen of a British writer who, apart from his science fiction works, was renown also for other works including histories, commentaries on politics and society. His interest in politics and society might have been the case for H. G. Wells to write such a different novel as The War of the Worlds in terms of the position of the invaded and invading presented in the work.

Let us have a look at the state of society at the peak of 19th century in Britain. Apart from being a two-faced era with its sexual taboos, pretended modesty or exaggerated religiousness on one side, and with its opium dens, criminality and brothels on the other side, the Victorian Era will also be remembered as the highest time of British colonialism and imperialism. John Rieder in his account on colonialism and science fiction explains:

England’s ascendancy as an imperial power was never greater than in the three decades that ended the nineteenth century, although imperial competition was also steadily becoming stronger and more diverse. The same three decades also show a steadily increasing publication of work that retrospectively can be identified as science fiction, a trend in which there is perhaps no episode more significant than the phenomenal impact of George Chesney’s The Battle of Dorking . (125)

The Battle of Dorking is of a significant importance concerning the genre of invasion literature itself since the British Empire in this novel experiences a part of its own land under the invasion of the occupational forces of Germany.

Going back to the quotation, it can be assumed that colonial and imperial topics were part of British people's minds and thus their fragments can be found in literature of the late 19th century. However, it is also stated above that there was a competition for British Empire and even it was growing 'stronger and more diverse'. The threat of Britain being invaded is present in the work or G. Chesney who was among the first authors to put the British Empire in the position of the invaded. In his novel an unknown country, not unlike German, executes an invasion on the UK.

In the World of the Worlds Wells goes even further. In his novel the civilization is found competing over the colonies just like in the reality of Victorian Era. The reason may be that Wells was tired of the countries fighting over power and thus he invented a scenario where there was an ultimate conqueror presented. The author's tiredness about events in the world that he saw can be found in his work:

"With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter." Martians landed in Britain, which no one would expected and what is more no one would even think of more advanced life being possible in the outer space. "Yet so vain is man, and so blinded by his vanity, that no writer, up to the very end of the nineteenth century, ex- pressed any idea that intelligent life might have developed there far, or indeed at all, beyond its earthly level.” (Wells 5)

It can be assumed according to this extract from the novel that Wells considers people from his own era rather arrogant and he presented them in his work as thinking about themselves as superior, which in many cases throughout the novel he presents otherwise concerning men's inability to defend against these unearthly conquerors: "...massacred an entire battalion of the Cardigan Regiment. No details are known. Maxims have been absolutely useless against their armour; the field guns have been disabled by them. (Wells 115)". On the other hand it is obvious that these Martians were advanced not only on the technology level but they possessed "...minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic..." (Wells 5).

Wells challenged the position of the Empire in his novel not by presenting a threat by another country but he called upon something more horrible; an enemy that is unknown and far more advanced and thus difficult to fight with. An enemy that do not

struggle with conquering because of being on a similar level of development but he simply conquers since in this case he is evidently superior.

Meanwhile the Martians pose terrible danger to the people of Britain, the author seems not to forget in his work of fiction to reflect the situation of reality in the world. Fleeing from Britain’s coast, the brother of the narrator in Wells’ work remarks on one of the escaping ladies: "She had never been out of England before, she would rather die than trust herself friendless in a foreign country, and so forth. She seemed, poor woman, to imagine that the French and the Martians might prove very similar (Wells 172)." Not a very strong note coming from a lady that has witnessed her home invaded by aliens; however, considering other aspects of the author’s commenting on the present state of society earlier in his work, the quotation can be treated as one of them, too. Not only that this 'poor woman' would not feel very comfortable when finding asylum in France but also the author’s comparison of French to the Martians can give away the state of relationship that both countries shared at the end of the century.

As there was introduced above, there are hints throughout the novel that the events happening in the work of fiction reflects to some extent what was going on in reality of the time of its origin. Moreover, it suggests that the author is rather critical of the countries squabble over power and also of the humankind thinking of themselves as ultimate superiors. The novel, however, provides the reader with a less vague motives of the author for writing such a work of invasion science fiction literature.

Again in a critical tone, Wells gives an account of current events in the world, in this case one nation invading another one, less developed, comparing Martians in his novel to our own real history:

And before we judge of them too harshly we must remember what ruthless and utter destruction our own species has wrought, not only upon animals, such as the vanished bison and the dodo, but upon its inferior races. The Tasmanians, in spite of their human likeness, were entirely swept out of existence in a war of extermination waged by European immigrants, in the space of fifty years. Are we such apostles of mercy as to complain if the Martians warred in the same spirit? (Wells 7)

What are we when we conquer and invade inferior nations? Nothing but Martians to them and thus once superior people should not be surprised according to

Wells when there occurs a nation or maybe a species more advanced to the whole humankind and shows no mercy upon them in its claiming over the planet. According to Rieder, this can be seen as an analogy to what happens in Tasmania with its natives. The Martians invaded the Earth not only because they could, but also because "the indigenous, primitive other’s present is the colonizer’s own past" and "because, with their hypertrophied brains and prosthetic machines, they are a version of the human race’s own future (5)."

A proof can be found for Rieder suggests in his analysis simply by looking back into history some two thousand years when it was Britain and its people who was invaded by more advanced and superior nation, the Romans. The civilization is situated in a vicious circle where nations are taking turns on the positions of the invading and invaded. The changes are, however, of rather a slow pattern and thus they might be perceived with some difficulties. Therefore, instead of predicting the real development of the vicious circle concerning our civilization, Wells called upon an ultimate conqueror.

In The War of the Worlds Wells only extended the radius of the vicious circle by including another whole world into the scheme. Thinking about the vastness of the universe, the further development can be only imagined and it will be developed further in the thesis. For the purposes of presenting the British suddenly in the position of the inferior and thus invaded nation it was enough to implement only our neighboring planet Mars and its inhabitants.

According to Rieder the Martians invading Britain proposes 'men's own future' in terms of colonizing an inferior nation; however, the way they did so rather differs to what took place in Tasmania and its inhabitants over the course of the second half of 19th century. The initial intention of both invasions, Martian in Wells' fiction and British in reality might differ on the first sight; however, it is a question if the purpose and result were not the same.

That the genocide of the Aboriginal Tasmanians resulted from intentional social action does not necessarily mean that a high priority was ever attached to this outcome or that it was ever pursued as an end in itself. We should not conflate the importance an event has for us as observers with the importance it has for its

architects. Rather, in the history of the Aboriginal Tasmanians, the fact of genocide testifies to the unimportance of its victims. (Powell 226)

Even though that according to Powell, the British came to Tasmania not only to conquer the land, people and wealth, but primarily with the 'intention of a social action' that is bringing modern civilization to an inferior nation. The outcome, however, was of rather different scenario, because in the end, no matter how noble the intention could have been at the beginning of the colonization of the land, the Tasmanians were wiped out almost completely by the British as a "by-product of the active negation of their political and cultural existence (Powell 226)."

Wells could have been rather well aware of the fact that the colonizers in Tasmania were ready to carry out its complete rule over the land and thus he presented an invasion in his literary work of fiction that truly shows the inferior being of no importance to the superior. People were intended to be exterminated by the Martians from the beginning and not as a 'by product'. In the novel no negotiations with the aliens were made since they simply came to the planet without even trying to somehow communicate with the people that inhabit it. In this case they differ from the colonizers of Tasmania whose true intentions were covered behind a 'social action'. It can be assumed that in Wells' eyes there was no difference and what matters, was only the result. It can be speculated that this is the reason why Wells did not bother to present his Martians trying to communicate with the nation they invaded in his novel.

Despite the inferior nations were treated as unimportant in terms of carrying out the true intentions of both invasions there was a role and use for them concerning their colonizers and invaders. Powell explains: "The Tasmanians were tremendously important to their colonizers as long as they served as an obstacle to the construction of a civilized, British Tasmania. Once interned, they lost this importance (226)." Assuming that the Tasmanians resisted the colonization the British only continued justifying their actions further in order to bring civilization to an underdeveloped nation. It can be suggested that the defiance of the Native inhabitants of the land represented a sort of 'food' for the colonizers since the more they resisted the British rule the more the colonizers pressed them to yield.

The 'food' metaphor must have been evident for Wells too since in his novel it is no more a figure of speech but the author transformed it into a fact by presenting the colonizers feeding upon their victims literally:

They did not eat, much less digest. Instead, they took the fresh, living blood of other creatures, and INJECTED it into their own veins. ... Let it suffice to say, blood obtained from a still living animal, in most cases from a human being, was run directly by means of a little pipette into the recipient canal…. (Wells 200)

The importance of the inferior is rather obvious and by presenting the alien civilization feeding in this literal way upon an invaded nation seems to originated in the British invasion of Tasmania and the use of its inhabitants' resistance to justify the colonization. Wells uses the words 'still living' which further suggests that in terms of this 'feeding' it was vital for the colonizers when their victims resist and refuse the rule of the invaders.

Rather a strong connection between events that took place in the history of humankind and Wells' work of fiction suggests that he was observant to what was going on in terms of British colonization at that time and that he intentionally twisted the positions of the invaded and invading in being rather aware, in my opinion, of the vicious circle that the society of the 19th century was in. By calling upon an alien race to execute further development of humankind in terms of colonizing Wells presented an exaggerated scenario of the future in order to underline what he thought to be an inevitable outcome of the nations taking turns in colonizing and being colonized over millennia.

What is more, Wells outlined in his novel that similar scheme took place on Mars pointing out that an inferior nation being food for the colonizers was destroyed even before their coming to the Earth which suggest that not only humankind spins in the vicious circle but the same happens even in the universe.

Their undeniable preference for men as their source of nourishment is partly explained by the nature of the remains of the victims they had brought with them as provisions from Mars. These creatures, to judge from the shrivelled remains that have fallen into human hands, were bipeds with flimsy, silicious skeletons (almost like those of the silicious sponges) and feeble musculature, standing

about six feet high and having round, erect heads, and large eyes in flinty sockets. Two or three of these seem to have been brought in each cylinder, and all were killed before earth was reached. It was just as well for them, for the mere attempt to stand upright upon our planet would have broken every bone in their bodies. (Wells 201)

It can be assumed by the description of Martian's 'provision' that it was a nation that was previously invaded still on Mars. In order not to provide any difficult explanation of possible social or cultural inferiority of the 'victims' Wells introduced them physically low-graded to maintain the idea of Martians as superior. It can be only assumed according to the description given in the novel that some kind of vicious circle scenario took place on Mars concerning colonization. What is, however, more evident is that the remaining 'food' from one invasion serves as a support for another one and that the invading race continues their pursuit for nourishment not only to satisfy their needs, wishes or whatever objectives they have, but also in order to acquire more nourishment for the sake of further colonization.

In The War of the Worlds the Martians' ignorance of the people they invaded was an interpretation of the British overlooking of the inhabitants in Tasmania and their only using them as a 'food' for colonization although they claimed otherwise, having a label of those bringing civilization upon an underdeveloped nation. Some fifty years later, a work was published by another important figure of science fiction genre, Arthur C. Clarke, who in his Childhood's End presented an alien invasion that truly intended to bring civilization to humankind and what is more these extraterrestrials were not even interested either in the land and its people in terms of workforce or in the planet's wealth and natural resources. A far more developed alien race came to the Earth in order to guide people on their way to reach a higher level of civilization without any side thoughts of abusing their power for their own purposes. The reasons for them to invade the planet were even of such a noble character that they did not tell their true intentions to the inferior human race fearing that they would not understand. Can this still be called invasion and colonizing? What of colonization is left in this rather utopist scenario, and can there be found traces in the history as a background for Clarke twisting the general image of invasion?

Childhood's End was published in 1953, only about eight years after the end of the Second World War. Having witnessed the horrors of one of the most terrible

pursuits of conquest in modern history of humankind and its aftermath Clarke tries in his work to present an ultimate answer to the future development after the horrible experiences that accompanied the war. In his novel he predicts the situation between the two most significant winners that have arisen from defeating Germany. According to Clarke, the relationship between the USA and the Soviet Union would be a relationship of competitors in the race to reach the space and set foot on the Moon. In his novel he only missed the decade of this happening; however, the scenario of the Cold War was outlined in his work.

Having seen where weapon racing and competing over technological superiority led in the previous decade and its climax with atomic bombs being dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Clarke in his work caught both leading sides of this race before any could have claimed its victory, and he introduced an option that in the result immediately stopped the whole competition.

He felt no regrets as the work of a lifetime was swept away. He had labored to take men to the stars, and in the moment of success the stars—the aloof, indifferent stars—had come to him. This was the moment when history held its breath, and the present sheared asunder from the past as an iceberg splits from its frozen parent cliffs and goes sailing out to sea in lonely pride. All that the past ages had achieved was as nothing now; only one thought echoed and re-echoed through Reinhold’s brain; The human race was no longer alone. (Clarke 4)

Instead of any side winning the race and claiming its superiority Clarke presented the ultimate winner. It mattered no more in his novel who was closer in bringing human race to the stars since the stars came to them in a form of a different, alien race to which human attempts of reaching the space must have seemed futile. It can be assumed that Clarke's viewing of the future might carry an option of a rather horrific result if the racing in weaponry, rocket, space and atom technology went wrong and thus in his Childhood's End he stopped it before it peaked the level of destruction. No competition was needed any more since it was enough to look up to the sky to realize who was in the leading position.

Wells' work reflects on the period of its origin when there a superior nation emerged over an inferior with the intentions of colonizing. The Martians would use the

human race as another natural resource to satisfy their needs. This, however, does not fully take place in Clarke's novel:

When Karellen had finished, the nations of Earth knew that their days of precarious sovereignty had ended. Local, internal governments would still retain their powers, but in the wider field of international affairs the supreme decisions had passed from human hands. Arguments—protests—all were futile. (Clarke 6)

In Childhood's End’ fictional scenario, the nations were still free in terms of their own business, however, any act concerning another nation in terms of taking actions against them was unimaginable since there was one superior nation taking care over the whole humanity, the Overlords. They, however, did not intervene much and only stated that few basic requirements are to be fulfilled in order for them not to have to become involved directly into human affairs. The requirements are of a rather simple manner e.g.: “The Overlords seemed largely indifferent to forms of government, provided that they were not oppressive or corrupt. (Wells 11)”, and they altogether serve the Earth's nations to maintain peace, human rights and cooperation on common goals.

Only twice the Overlords needed to directly interfere; first it was against discrimination in South Africa's Cape Town and the second takes place when the law prohibiting animal-cruelty the leader of the aliens, Karellen, installed upon the Earth was violated at an event of bull-fighting. Whereas the later direct act of the Overlords can be understood as rather general prohibition of human cruelty upon other living beings the former, however, reflects a real situations that took place after the second World War in early 1950s in South Africa. As well as Wells, Clarke too uses the present events of his time to reflect on in his work of fiction and uses an alien race in suggesting what is going to happen or what should happen.

The major difference between the two works is that Clarke does not follow in his novel the vicious circle of the nations and species taking turns on the position of invaded and invading since even though the Overlords rule the Earth in terms of 'international affairs' they leave the people rather a free will concerning their personal as well as national life. It can be argued that there are rules and orders coming from the supervisors of Earth which disobedience results into them taking actions against their

violations; in the end, everything that is governed onto the people from up above the sky intends prosperity for humankind in every way.

It can be only assumed that the experience from the war has led Clarke to introduce the final scenario of dividing power and competing over it between Earth's nations. It might have been the fear of what the humankind would do next, and in what way the development would move the world, that let Clarke to create an imaginary one where its inhabitants were no more responsible for the course of its advancement. A reign, a kind one and mastering one was introduced in Childhood's End because perhaps the author did not believe that humanity was able to carry on peacefully any more. A proof can be found in the novel when there is an attempt made against the very ship of the Overlords to define their rule:

"Nevertheless, one major power had made the attempt. Perhaps those responsible hoped to kill two birds with one atomic missile, for their target was floating above the capital of an adjoining and unfriendly nation." ... "Not only had the bomb failed to touch it, but no one could ever decide what had happened to the missile. Moreover, Karellen took no action against those responsible, or even indicated that he had known of the attack. He ignored them contemptuously, leaving them to worry over a vengeance that never came." (Clarke 7)

The power of the Overlords being overwhelming for humanity did not prevent one nation attempting to resist it rather violently with an atomic missile and what is more this nation sort of hoped that the attempt would destroy their earthly enemies in the process too. If there were any nations in particular meant by the author of the novel is not important for the purposes of this analysis. What matters, however, is the reaction of the superior species; or more precisely, the lack of any reaction, showing that against their rule to prosperity and peace on the Earth, there is nothing that any nation could do. In order to maintain their image as peaceful guides, rather than an image of colonizers, Clarke made his Overlords to carry out but none violent counter-action against the 'major power'. Karellen explains: "It was a more effective, and more demoralizing, treatment than any punitive action could have been. The government responsible collapsed completely in mutual recrimination a few weeks later (Clarke 7)."

Clarke's determination to present the invasion peacefully continues throughout the novel and all the actions of the Overlords lead to install peace upon the Earth. The fact that the author calls upon a superior ruler in his novel suggest that he believed that humanity itself could not take care of its affairs anymore and some greater mind should replace it in order to guide it on its path towards eternal prosperity. The urge of unification of the nations after the horrors of the second World War and its aftermath are present in the novel in the acts of the Overlords and their orders upon humankind and its nations:

Doubtless you are sincere in believing as you do; I can understand your fear that the traditions and cultures of little countries will be overwhelmed when the World State arrives. But you are wrong; it is useless to cling to the past. Even before the Overlords came to Earth, the sovereign state was dying. They have merely hastened its end; no one can save it now—and no one should try. (Clarke 21)

Clarke in his novel introduces a 'World State' where all the nations of the Earth are included a work together on their development. A State with all its requisites e.g. a World Constitution that would be the final stage of humans unification among all the countries. Even though there were fears that it would destroy some minor nations and its cultures and in the novel it took time for countries to go over the Constitution Clarke by means of the General Secretary - responsible for communication with the Overlords - explains, what can be assumed as his own opinion concerning the real development of the world, that even before the arrival of the superior ruler there was already the climax of a sovereign state and that the next step was to unite into a greater entity. Clarke deliberately employs the United Nations in his novel, expressing his hopes that such an organization can help the humankind with the ultimate unification.

Analyzing the previous novel, The War of the World , an idea of vicious circles arose in terms of colonization and nation taking turns in it on different positions over the millennia. It seems that Clarke would rather believe in introducing a superior ruler in order to install a unified control over humankind in terms of the 'World State'. The alien aspect in his novel seems only to guide and 'hasten' the process that he thought inevitable. However, a kind of a circle repetition can be seen in Childhood's End , yet rather unlike what Wells' presented in his work since in the younger novel the tone is of an optimistic manner rather than of a destructive one as in Wells' fiction from the end of

19th century. Having in mind what happened in the past ten years before Clarke wrote his novel, might have influenced him in presenting a solution for humankind to stop destroying each other and on the contrary to work together on common goals. Instead of pointing out the moments in our history that would support the idea of the vicious circle of colonization examined in Wells, in Childhood's End acts in the history are underlined that introduce Clarke's beliefs in the unification among nations.

"When I was a boy, the Federation of Europe was a dream—but when I grew to manhood it had become reality. And that was before the arrival of the Overlords. Karellen is merely finishing the work we had begun.” “Europe was a cultural and geographical entity. The world is not—that is the difference.” “To the Overlords,” replied Stormgren sarcastically, “the Earth is probably a great deal smaller than Europe seemed to our fathers—and their outlook, I submit, is more mature than ours." (Clarke 5)

Even though the European Union, referred in the novel as 'Federation of Europe', had not been established yet in the time of origin of Clarke's work, he actually predicted it would happen sooner or later because traces of the creation can be followed right to the year 1951, the year when Childhood's End was actually published for the first time. First to suggest what would happen on the old continent was the first six countries - the inner Six (Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxemburg and the Netherlands) by forming the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in Paris in 1951.

Having thought what unification would take place in Europe, Clarke introduced further development of the phenomenon in his work concerning the whole World. He seems to argue that if Europe might be perceived as a 'cultural and geographical entity' from one point of view, what is the World if not the same? Considering just a bigger perspective, the perspective of a mind that stays out, though, greater and far more developed. His merging of the world's nations into the 'World State' is only a consequent development of humankind with a help from a superior nation that only 'hastened' the process. As Clarke predicted the creation of the EU in his novel by introducing the 'Federation of Europe' he tried to foresee the development of the whole world when a greater mind that is not the one of humankind or humankind's at his period of time would come to the conclusion that the same species lives on the Earth and its only future lies in working together on increasing prosperity for everybody. It can be assumed, however, that Clarke did not see the unification possible right in the

time of origin of his novel. Judging from the present state the World found itself he rather introduced someone else, with a chance of a bigger perspective, to install the merging upon the Earth. It could eventually happen, but it was needed to be done quickly, for he seems not to believe the humankind to be able to do it fast enough, and without further harms to itself.

The two novels dealt with so far in this thesis share similarities since they both predict future development of the humankind in the way that our race is going to be invaded by a superior race from outer space in order to install its rule upon the Earth. However, the purpose and process of the invasion differ tremendously for the older in terms of time can be perceived rather negative and the younger work rather positive. For both authors certain points in the history of human race served as foundations for introducing the way people would follow in their evolution.

The vicious circle presented in The War of the Worlds served the author as a sort of warning where repetitive colonization could lead concerning millennia of experience of nations taking turns on the positions of inferior and superior race referring to the most recent example of his time. The British being for Wells superiors of his time in terms of their culture and technology, the author had to find a way to expose their cruelty in order to maintain the idea of the vicious circle. He chose to call upon extraterrestrials coming from the nearest neighboring planet so he could introduce an even more superior nation, a whole species in this case, that would pose danger to the previously claiming to be on the top, which in conclusion demonstrates and supports the idea of the circular development of nations positions when colonizing and being colonized in the history of humankind.

Circularity seemed vital for the fictional world presented in Childhood's End as well and Clarke, too, searches the reality in order to predict the future of mankind from its past. In his case, however, the scenario is in the form of a counsel and guidance rather than a warning. According to the amount of effort Clarke puts in presenting his aliens as human guides, it can be assumed that it might have been the experience of the WW2 that led the author search for the evidence of unification as a solution and future development of humankind. Even though he finds some in the origins of the EU and predicted its creation in the future it was rather too slow for him and thus an alien race came to help to install and fasten the establishment of the 'World State' that would work together among all the nations on the Earth in order to reach common prosperity.

Is there a continuum among the genre of the science fiction invasion literature that occurs in modern day's works? Is it still meant as a warning by the authors of what could happen with civilization as in Wells' work or does it rather follow the tone of advice introduced in Clarke's novel? By analyzing a third and most recent novel of this genre the above mentioned questions will be answered in order to examine what the invasion becomes these days in science fiction literature, what purpose does it serve and if the author still searches for evidence of circularity in the reality in order to predict the future of mankind.

The latest of the novels examined in this thesis is to some extent a combination of the previous ones. Stephenie Meyer, the author of The Host , introduces a scenario where the Earth is invaded by an alien species from the outer space in an attempt and with the intention to bring peace to the planet. In this manner it may resemble to Clarke's Overlords and their guidance towards common prosperity of the humankind since peace is a strong connotation for Meyer's aliens too. However, the means the extraterrestrials called the Souls use, are more similar to the way Wells' Martians behaved towards humans. Although not that literally offensive to their bodies, yet very similar. The Souls, too, use humans as a source for colonization of the planet by not necessarily killing them in terms of destroying their bodies but by possessing their minds and thus their bodies at the same time as parasites do, only with the aim to be in charge of them.

It can be assumed that Meyer too, does not believe humanity to be able to continue itself towards its prosperity and thus she calls upon an alien race to ensure humans survival and unification among the whole species, however, not in the way one can expect it. The invasion carried out by the Souls in Meyer's novel is not an invasion upon people but literally an invasion of the people. The extraterrestrials live inside human bodies as their rulers and thus rulers over the world at the same time. The Souls living like this in the bodies of their 'hosts' have in the case of humankind rather a rightful excuse according to the description that the main alien character, Wanderer, gives on human history. She excuses their coming to the planet Earth in a rather, for humankind, unfavorable manner:

And the humans were brutish and ungovernable. They had killed one another so frequently that murder had been an accepted part of life. The various tortures they’d devised over the few millennia they’d lasted had been too much for me; I

hadn’t been able to bear even the dry official overviews. Wars had raged over the face of nearly every continent. Sanctioned murder, ordered and viciously effective. Those who lived in peaceful nations had looked the other way as members of their own species starved on their doorstep. There was no equality to the distribution of the planet’s bounteous resources. Most vile yet, their offspring—the next generation, which my kind nearly worshipped for their promise—had all too often been victims of heinous crimes. And not just at the hands of strangers, but at the hands of the caretakers they were entrusted to. (Meyer 36)

The quotation above summarize in a few lines the state of the world the aliens has come to and even though there is not any reference made in the novel pointing out to particular events in the reality, it can be, however, assumed that the author referrers generally to the present state of society in the way she perceives it, which considering the topics Wanderer mentions in her giving the account on humans, is not very far from reality since war, murder, various levels of ignorance and torture can be found at every stage throughout the modern history. The quotation serve not merely to state what were humans like to the eyes of the aliens considering their constant pursuit towards peace but also to justify their coming to the Earth in order to install the peace onto the planet since according to Wanderer the Souls are strongly oriented on the well-being:

"But we were not wasteful. We did make whatever we took better, more peaceful and beautiful." ... " Even the huge sphere of the planet had been put into jeopardy through their careless and greedy mistakes. No one could compare what had been and what was now and not admit that Earth was a better place thanks to us. (Meyer 36)

On the contrary with Childhood's End where in the centre of the prosperity stood the people and the aliens introduced rules in their favor, the Souls rather give their preference to the survival of the planet itself. Human beings are taken in the novel alongside with the planet and its wealth simply as another resource that the Earth offers. It can be again assumed that the fact that humans are deprived of their deciding over their own affairs expresses to some extent the authors disbelief of the capability of the humankind to rule over itself. The nature of the Souls is to invade other worlds making them 'better, more peaceful', which however, does not apply to its inhabitants who are literally invaded too and transformed into vessels through which extraterrestrial bring

peace to the planet making their needs, wishes and future unimportant. The survival of humanity is then limited only to providing the invaders physical home of the human body. What matters, apart from the survival of the invaders, is the survival of the planet and by taking over the aliens ensure its continuation.

A new reason for the aliens to come and take over humankind can be found in The Host that was missing in both previously analyzed novels. In the past couple of decades along with advancements in technology, industry, medicine and other fields of human interest, environmental studies made a great progress in examining effects that people have to their surroundings and the debates have never been more lively on the account if, how and in what pace people damage the planet. Various laws, restrictions and limits have been applied in order to prevent people from destroying the environments of the Earth, however, Meyer's introducing an superior race to take care of the protection of the planet suggests that the process in her eyes is rather slow and ineffective and only by putting humans aside and letting somebody more advanced to preserve Earth's wealth and resources is the possibility to save it.

To support the justification of the Souls coming to the Earth to take the rule over it from humans Meyer invents a scenario of an alien race searches for planets among the universe in order to settle literally in their inhabitants and take care about the planet when it is needed. Therefore every world capable of sustaining life is valuable for them since without their host bodies they could not survive. Having invaded only about a dozen worlds in the novel, presents a limitation and thus it seems to them that letting human race to destroy theirs is a terrible waste and so Meyer created her aliens on the contrary: "We made our worlds better places; that was absolutely essential or we did not deserve them (Meyer 36)."

Returning once again to the idea of the vicious circle of colonization introduced when analyzing The War of the Worlds it seems that Meyer elaborated the idea even further with an alien race that travels throughout the universe in order to invade other species. In this the above stated hypotheses that her novel is to some extent a combination of both previously analyzed novels proves itself since the Souls as well as the Martians came to the Earth in order to install their rule upon humankind and people themselves were more or less literally taken as food for the colonization. Being said above that the Souls invading the Earth and its inhabitants in The Host differs from the Martians feeding upon human beings in The War of the Worlds in the sense that the

Souls do not literally consume the bodies of their hosts, there can be found an example in the novel where colonizers literally feed upon the inferior nation which remarkable resembles the scenario presented in Wells work. It does not concern the Souls and their actions but another world in the universe they invaded and colonized:

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but…” The white-haired man paused, struggling to word his question. “I’m not sure I understand. The Fire-Tasters actually…ingest the smoke from burning the Walking Flowers? Like food?" ... He tried to suppress the horror in his tone. "But it's Barbaric!" ... “When Fire World was discovered, it was at first thought that the dominant species, the Fire-Tasters, were the only intelligent life-forms present. The Fire-Tasters did not consider the Walking Flowers to be their equals—a cultural prejudice—so it was a while, even after the first wave of settling, before the souls realized they were murdering intelligent creatures. (Meyer 44)

It can be assumed that Meyer again refers to the idea that the vicious circle of colonization is common throughout the various civilizations in the universe, and that the turn taking on the positions of the colonizing and the colonized is not limited only to the humankind on the Earth but is universal whenever there is an inferior and superior race. What is more, she introduces a rather a similar concept concerning the food metaphor analyzed earlier in The War of the Worlds and that is the literal feeding of the superior race upon the inferior. The 'Fire-Tasters' in their doing are similar to the Martians and their 'victims' they brought with them from Mars. However, the central alien race in The Host is rather different in terms of their approach towards this 'feeding' and towards their hosts since according to the reaction of one of the Soul, they consider it rather cruel because in their eyes it was 'murdering intelligent creatures', which for the Martians and the Fire-Tasters is not an obstacle.

It rises a controversy because it can be argued that what is their possessing of the host body and mind if not a murder? This question will be dealt with further in the thesis in the chapter devoted to the character of the aliens, and so for the purposes of this section it is enough to say that, in this manner the youngest and the oldest novel dealt with in this thesis share common ideas on the fate of the Earth and humankind with it. To some extent the purpose of both invasions is similar, too, since both extraterrestrial races came to capture the Earth showing that its inhabitants' minds and

opinions were of no importance to them and what matters was their own survival in taking over the planet.

Yet higher ignorance can be found with the Martians since not only they came to destroy the inhabitants of the Earth but they intended to destroy the planet in the way they can live on it, as they live on Mars by means of terraforming 1. The 'red weed' they brought from their original home started to taking over Earth's plants in order transform its surface into a Mars-like one. The difference lies in the fact that destruction of one planet's original fauna or flora is not in the nature of the Souls who only take over its intelligent species to live in them like parasites. On the contrary with the Martians, concerning the planet itself, the Souls use their human hosts to preserve and protect environments they capture in the spirit of: "We did make whatever we took better, more peaceful and beautiful."

According to what was mentioned above, the Souls resemble more the Overlords introduced in Clarke's Childhood's End bringing peace to the planet and to some extent to humankind as a species but not as a civilization. In Meyer's novel the planet is situated in the centre of preserving and protection and humankind is used only as a tool to reach this goal, even though, the people themselves do not know about that since they are inhabited and literally controlled by the aliens dwelling in their very bodies. Assuming that the alien races and their approach towards the planet and humankind are to some extent the authors' perceiving their future development it can be said that Clarke believes that with guidance and help from a superior nation people and their world can prosper, however, in the case of the fictional world of the Earth under the rule of the Souls humankind is completely crossed out of the notional equation expressing that Meyer does not see the future of the planet in hands of its original inhabitants and what is more striking she suggests an idea that the human race by not deserving the planet does not deserve itself as such. Once again she referrers to the reality via Wanderer who finds an old newspaper:

“Man Burns Three-Year-Old Daughter to Death,” the headline screamed at me, accompanied by a picture of an angelic blond child. This wasn’t the front page. The horror detailed here was not so hideous as to rate priority coverage. Beneath this was the face of a man wanted for the murders of his wife and two children

1 terraform - to alter a different environment (planet) in order to resemble the conditions in the original environment (planet) in terms of atmosphere, geology and ecology 36

two years before the print date; the story was about a possible sighting of the man in Mexico. Two people killed and three injured in a drunk-driving accident. A fraud and murder investigation into the alleged suicide of a prominent local banker. A suppressed confession setting an admitted child molester free. House pets found slaughtered in a trash bin. (Meyer 78)

These horrible actions recorded in the newspaper presents Meyer referring to the current state of the human civilization, and that if the situation is to continue in this way, it is unsustainable in terms of people taking care of themselves and of the planet Earth. It can be assumed that she thinks that the way people behave towards each other and towards their environment simply deprives them consequently of the right to maintain their way of life, and in conclusion of the life itself, along with the right to inhabit the planet itself. By including references like the one above, Meyer continues to justify the aliens coming since her Wanderer explains: "Can you see how we thought we might be able to do better, though? How we could have supposed that maybe you didn’t deserve all the excellent things of this world (79)?"

In the history of the genre, invasion has served the authors of science fiction invasion literature to communicate their perception of the future development of humankind and the planet Earth with searching for support and patterns in the history of our race. It was discovered by examining the novels that each coming of the aliens to the Earth in the works of fiction, was to some extent influenced by important events that took place in the time of origin of the particular novels. The first two novels and their authors reflected particular events they perceived as significant in their periods of time, and according to them, Wells and Clarke, introduced their ideas of what the future for the humankind might look like. In the War of the Worlds it was Britain's treating the inhabitants of Tasmania that was reflected in the novel by the means of the vicious circle of colonization. Wells interpreted the future of humankind simply as taking the position of the inferior after being in the position of the superior, which only follows the natural order of things.

The aliens in Childhood's End guide people on their way towards common prosperity and peace among all countries on the planet, expressing the author's idea that the future of the humankind lies in the unification of the Earth's nations, referring to the aftermath of the second World War and to the initial formation of the European Union that took place right in the era the book was published in. For Clarke it was the

humankind that stood in the centre; however, unable to work together on common goals that would ensure its well-being, and thus he invited a much developed race from the outer space to help people to reach it. If Wells' novel can be perceived as a warning for humanity, where endless colonization could lead, then Clarke's work rather flows in the manner of advice and counsel for people and presents what needs to be done in order to be united among the nations.

Meyer introduces in her novel a scenario that to some extent combines the ideas from the previous two novels since she works with the phenomenon of the vicious circle of colonization as well. Her Souls travel the universe in order to invade other worlds and its inhabitants; however, bringing peace to the planet, is in the center of their intention, which on the other side resemble the approach of the Overlords. Both of the extraterrestrial races are oriented on peace; however, in the case of the Souls, it is peace of the planet as such, with the ignorance of its former inhabitants. On the contrary, the intentions of Overlords cover both the planet and the human race.

Meyer again looks in the history to find support for the Souls taking over the humankind and the planet, and it is reflected in the rather unfavorable accounts on humanity before the arrival of the invaders, that she gives via the main alien character of her work. The Host can be perceived as a warning coming from the author that if the humanity would behave in the way it does until the present day, the Earth and our way of life might be taken from us by a superior race coming from up above and claiming and justifying that people do not deserve the planet, its wealth and resources, and what is more, that humans do not deserve even their minds and bodies.

2.2 The character and appearance of the alien races in Wells, Clarke and Meyer

The previous chapter analyzed invasions and intentions of the alien races who executed the colonial process upon the Earth and its inhabitants in terms of reflecting to some extent the different periods of their origin and particular or general events that took place around the time the novels were written in. It has been suggested that each novel mirrors in certain aspects the social and historical state of civilization of its time, and that it was intentionally introduced by the authors in order to point out important topics that moved the world. As there was mentioned earlier in the thesis, authors of science fiction literature with focus on alien races have the advantage of the lack of any scientific background, concerning extraterrestrials since throughout the history there have been only speculations about what would beings from the outer space be like in terms of either their physical appearance or their character.

Each author introduced in their novel a rather different portrayal of the extraterrestrials, which suggests that each species to be dealt with in this chapter, possesses diverse features concerning their character and appearance in order to serve the best each author's purpose in reflecting on the spirit of their period of time. Having only their imagination as a limit when creating the alien species, it will be examined to what extent the extraterrestrials are arbitrary in terms of their features, and what aspects are intentionally introduced by the authors. In simpler terms one of the main topics of this section is, why the aliens look like and behave the way they do in the novels.

As it has been revealed earlier in this thesis, the earliest novel analyzed shares some similarities with both later novels concerning the invasion as such. It is the objective of this chapter to examine if the similarities, alternatively the differences, continue in the interpretation of the alien races themselves, and what purposes do they serve for the authors among the analyzed works. All the three extraterrestrial species are presented as superior and advanced to the human race. Therefore this section of the thesis is going to explore what features were given to them by the authors to make them standing on a higher level of civilization in terms of what the authors believed were the features vital for a superior race in order to outshine humanity considering their periods of time.

Apart from colonization, imperialism and the struggle for power among nations there was another very important phenomenon holding its position in the late Victorian

society. Natural sciences became at that time prominent academic disciplines and a great amount of different studies and thesis were published during the era. Among other publications, there was one that stood above them all, and for its significance is remembered until today. The impact of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859) on the society was great, especially because of the fact that firstly it was considered a controversial work and only gradually it was accepted by the public as a valid fact.

Darwin-Wallace concept of natural selection, Darwin had given the life sciences a fundamental theory and in the process had created a clear intellectual link to the earth sciences. The theory would not be complete (on his terms at least) until he had added a volume, The Descent of Man , because he had strategically not burdened On the Origin by entering into the even more dangerous territory of human origins. But even that most sensitive subject had been at the back of the minds of many scholars for years, if not generations. … Darwin himself trod familiar ground when he first decided, in the spring of 1837, to investigate “transformism.” What we call evolution had long since been mooted by others. What Darwin brought to the subject was a deep grounding in practical natural history. … The final ingredient that Darwin brought to the study of transmutation of species was a particular mindset— an acute intelligence, a dogged perseverance, and the ability to synthesize information and ideas from a wide range of subjects. (Thomson 242)

On the Origin of Species followed by The Descent of Man were highly important works at their times because both presented ideas and concepts well enough, to be eventually accepted by the general, as well as professional public. Even though initially Darwin’s work was considered at least controversial, it grew into being one of the most influential discoveries not only for the nineteenth century, but also for the following one in terms of natural and earth sciences. Until these days scientists all around the world base their research on Darwin’s work and refer to him as “variously a dashing, daring explorer and a recluse, a competitive, driven scholar and a loving, gentle family man, a student of minutiae and a grand theorist, a revolutionary and the founder of an orthodoxy (Thomson 244).”

The War of the Worlds being written at the very end of the nineteenth century shows that for the author the concepts of natural selection and transmutation of the

species presented in the significant work of Charles Darwin were not only known, but also accepted. It can be observed in Wells’ novel that he drew on the at-that-time modern ideas of evolution of species, including our own, when introducing his portrayal of the extraterrestrials, the Martians.

It has been mentioned earlier in the thesis that the authors of science fiction literature, and especially those who present their ideas about alien races, have only their imaginations as limits, because of the lack of any scientific evidence on this phenomenon. In Wells a concept of an alien race can be encountered that, on the contrary, is not fully devised. Even though there obviously was not and still is not any fact proving the existence of extraterrestrial life, especially on Mars, Wells decided to take the concepts of evolution and the natural selection into account, when creating his Martians. Throughout the novel, various references are made to the above mentioned ideas, taking place mainly in the passages, where the Martians are described.

There is many a true word written in jest, and here in the Martians we have beyond dispute the actual accomplishment of such a suppression of the animal side of the organism by the intelligence. To me it is quite credible that the Martians may be descended from beings not unlike ourselves, by a gradual development of brain and hands (the latter giving rise to the two bunches of delicate tentacles at last) at the expense of the rest of the body. Without the body the brain would, of course, become a mere selfish intelligence, without any of the emotional substratum of the human being. (Wells 203 - 204)

The narrator in The World of the Worlds describes the alien species in terms of the evolution taking place on another planet, pondering about the possibility that the Martians might have been similar to what people look like on the Earth. The difference is, that they have more time to evolve in a higher species than humans, and thus come to our planet as superior. And therefore, what makes them superior is their higher state of evolution in terms of their better developed bodies and organs. The above mentioned features of the Martians can be taken as evidence that Darwin’s ideas were very strong and that even in science fiction literature occurred references and concepts based on his revolutionary discoveries.

The idea of natural selection is presented in The War of the Worlds in the passages devoted to the description of beings that the Martians have brought together

with them from Mars to the Earth. Earlier in the thesis the creatures were dealt with in terms of the food metaphor. However, if they are observed from a different point of view, it suggests that Wells was aware of Darwin’s concepts and that he even took the idea of evolution and transferred it onto another planet, introducing two different species and their development on an alien world. By the means of the natural selection the Martians were on their original planet the superior species using the other, underdeveloped one, only as a nourishment and bringing this concept of hierarchy to a new world, the Earth.

Because no communication between humans and the aliens takes place in the novel, only little can be deduced about their minds in terms of evolution. However, examining the last quotation it seems that the evolution stroke both; the body and the mind. Moreover, with the development of more efficient body, the mind becomes in the case of the Martians a “mere selfish intelligence”, having put all possible emotions aside long time ago. Natural sciences proving once again to be one of the most debated topic of the end of Victorian Era, when Wells gives account, through the narrator, on where the emotions originate, and why therefore the Martians posses so little, if any at all.

The physiological advantages of the practice of injection are undeniable, if one thinks of the tremendous waste of human time and energy occasioned by eating and the digestive process. Our bodies are half made up of glands and tubes and organs, occupied in turning heterogeneous food into blood. The digestive processes and their reaction upon the nervous system sap our strength and colour our minds. Men go happy or miserable as they have healthy or unhealthy livers, or sound gastric glands. But the Martians were lifted above all these organic fluctuations of mood and emotion. (Wells 200)

It can be assumed that the evolution of mind and body goes hand in hand with both species. The Martians, however, had reached a higher level of it and got themselves rid of everything that was unnecessary for their successful improvement. The evolution focused further in their case on what was thought the most important: brains and hands - brains for having the advantage of greater intelligence and hands for various skillful operations since they developed in a sort of tentacles.

The process of evolution that took place on Mars can be simplified in the way that the simpler the body and its structure is, the cleverer the being. In the course of it, however, the creature loses ‘emotions and other side effects’ in order to focus only on its intelligence and gaining the most of energy to strengthen the mind.

Wells’ interpretation of evolution in his novel is manifested throughout the work in the behavior of the Martians. Even thought there is hardly any communication between the two species, the whole invasion from the point of view of the aliens, is emotionless. They come to the Earth with a clear objective to turn it into their new home, regardless of what the original inhabitants think of it, and even without an attempt to reason with them in the first place. The ground for their behavior is that they feel nothing and carry on with the original motive, no matter what. The invasion itself is carried out flawlessly with timing, means and strategy which correspond with the Martians possessing strong enough minds to take almost everything into account and cope with all human attempts to resist.

The superiority of the aliens as those who invade was presented in the novel throughout their physical and intelligence state of evolution they were able to reach and thus they were able to start spreading even onto a new world without facing greater obstacles. Their intelligence without emotions also helped them to reach something equally important. Technology of the aliens also plays important role in the novel in terms of its superiority over human technology of the end of the nineteenth century.

Futile attempts of people to beat the Martians in the novel presents at what state their technology was compared to what the humanity had available. Technology represents another area of evolution that serves the alien race to hold the superior position in the invasion scheme, which suggests that evolution process that occurs first on the bodily level and continues on the mental level results eventually in the level of technology a race possesses. Concerning the technology of the extraterrestrials in The War of the Worlds it can be again observed that the author refers to the ideas of evolution, but also to Darwin’s idea of transmutation of species, in this case, however, from the technological point of view.

And of their appliances, perhaps nothing is more wonderful to a man than the curious fact that what is the dominant feature of almost all human devices in mechanism is absent—the WHEEL is absent; among all the things they brought

to earth there is no trace or suggestion of their use of wheels. One would have at least expected it in locomotion. And in this connection it is curious to remark that even on this earth Nature has never hit upon the wheel, or has preferred other expedients to its development. (Wells 207)

The narrator of the novel is rather amazed by the fact that one of the humans’ fundamental piece of technology is missing in the alien species’ repertoire of devices. On one hand it is a real surprise not to find the wheel among all the technology that was brought upon the Earth by the aliens. The narrator’s experience of only one course of evolution in terms of technology does not leave much space for thinking about it without the basic concept such as wheel: “One would have at least expected it in locomotion.”, he says. On the other hand, closer to the evolution in terms of nature, he realizes that even Nature does not have much use for the wheel and that it is only a device created by mankind.

From another point of view the Martians having no use for the wheel as well is only their evolution taking on another way that the development of the human race. And as for the aliens in the novel, their evolving in a different way in terms of technology is not for bad, but on the contrary, for good, because they managed to reach the high level above humanity without something so fundamental as a wheel. It can be assumed from the quotation that the more a species copies the Nature and follows its evolution even in terms of technological progress, the advanced and more successful it gets, proving again that the author of the novel thought the evolution to be of great significance.

In the first chapter of the analysis part it was suggested that the invasion itself and the intentions of the alien invaders in The War of the Worlds are to some extent reflections of some of the most important topics of the time period the novel was written in. It has been discovered in this chapter that the appearance and character of the aliens are connected in a certain way to the most debated topics of the late Victorian Era, too, pointing out that the ideas and concept of evolution, natural selection and transmutation of species Darwin introduced in the middle of the nineteenth century were important for the public audience, but also that at the time Wells wrote his novel accepted as facts strong enough for him to transfer them even onto another world.

In the following part the attention will be drawn to the novel Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke focusing again on the portrayal of the extraterrestrial, especially

their appearance and character. What did Clarke relied on when introducing his alien species, the Overlords? Does his creations reflect, too, any particular period of time and issues that were important in it or are these extraterrestrials completely arbitrary, truly only an imagination of the author’s mind?

Comparing with the previously analyzed extraterrestrials, the Martians, the aliens in Childhood’s End share some features that are common for both fictional species. The Overlords, as well as the Martians, are far more developed than the human race, especially concerning intelligence. Their minds allowed them to come to the Earth technologically advanced, which in conclusion allowed them to execute the invasion without facing any greater resistance from humans who were from this point of view underdeveloped. “Yet though they wore no clothing, it was in the other artificial additions to their bodily resources that their great superiority over man lay. We men, with our bicycles and road-skates, our Lilienthal soaring-machines, our guns and sticks and so forth, are just in the beginning of the evolution that the Martians have worked out (Wells 206).” As there has been already examined in the thesis, evolution of the Martians is a significant concept in Wells’ work in terms of introducing them as a superior to the human race. References to evolution bringing intelligence that in turn brings technology can be encountered throughout the whole novel.

This is one of the common features in both works, since “The challenge presented by the science of the Overlords was too great. For the moment, at least, Man had lost heart and had turned to other fields of activity. There was no point in developing rockets when the Overlords had infinitely superior means of propulsion, based on principles of which they had never given any hint (Clarke 47).” The Overlords are marked as advanced and superior because of their highly developed technology; however, it is not their most significant quality presented in the novel. The nature of their invasion onto the Earth seems to be to establish an utopia in the world and install peace among the competing countries, as there has been suggested in the first chapter of the thesis, therefore their coming lack any violence and the power of the mind is used instead. As guides of the humankind towards common prosperity, the Overlords employ their intelligence, supported with knowledge from various areas of science, including social sciences such as psychology and sociology.

As the natures and objectives of the invasions in The War of the Worlds and Childhood’s End differ entirely, the same seems to apply to the character and

presentation of the alien species who comes to the Earth. Advanced technology, domination and hardly any communication with the humankind introduced in Wells’ novel is replaced in Clarke’s work with the Overlords having their minds as the main weapon against the human race, however, more likely for the human race, since their intentions are fundamentally different from the Martians’.

Assuming that Wells’ aliens are devised particularly in order to introduce further development of the colonization process in a larger perspective, and its moving in the vicious circle, as it was suggested earlier in this work, the character of the Overlords corresponds with Clarke’s concept of unification among the nations in the world. The aliens coming to the Earth in the middle of the twentieth century, bringing with them cessation of the free political life of the people on the planet.

In historical situation, the antiethical and antipolitical tendencies of these texts must be understood as, at least in large part, a refusal to join in the manichaean Cold War anti-Communism that had so impoverished intellectual culture in America and (to a smaller degree) in Britain by largely monopolizing the discourses of ethics and politics. In this context, Asimov and Clarke achieve genuine utopian force by projecting potential futures of freedom and positive human fulfilment— the benign world state at the end of I, Robot; the epoch- making triumph of the psychohistorians at work in the Second Foundation; the godlike powers of Clarke’s Overmind or of his Star Child— in ways that cannot be made to cohere with (even though they do not directly challenge) Cold War dogma. (Freedman 93 - 94)

The action of the Overlords in the novel lead to the unification of the world’s nations and one general politics of the planet. Clarke being a witness of what people and their politics had done and had been doing in the world, especially the second World War and its aftermath, introduced in his novel the aliens as counsellors with ultimate powers over the human race, because it seems that he did not believe in humankind’s ability to reign over itself anymore.

In the immediate post-war era, Toynbee's lecture on "The Unification of the World" must have seemed to Clarke like a ray of hope in a world that had only narrowly missed destruction. Like many of his generation, Clarke was concerned

about the destructive power that technology had unleashed during World War II. (Kilgore 116)

It can be assumed that in Clarke’s eyes the end of the War only led to another type of war, the Cold one, again including the world’s most powerful nations in a competition and race, in almost all areas of human interests at that time, such as politics, technology or military. All of these competing areas are taken away in the novel, suggesting that it presented the final solution for the author to install “freedom and positive human fulfilment” upon the planet and its inhabitants. Taking into account the events of the Second World War and the state the society found itself after it concerning especially the ongoing Cold War, Clarke introduces his aliens equipped with something he calls in his novel the ‘real power’, which does not rely that much on showing power via the ability of destruction, since the results of it were still more than visible at that time, but performed by the Overlords, it relies rather on the ability to use power in a “correct” way. Karellen, the leader of the aliens, explains:

“All political problems,” Karellen had once told Stormgren, “can be solved by the correct application of power.” “That sounds a rather cynical remark,” Stormgren had replied doubtfully. “It’s a little too much like ‘Might is Right’. In our own past, the use of power has been notably unsuccessful in solving anything.” “The operative word is correct. You have never possessed real power, or the knowledge necessary to apply it. As in all problems, there are efficient and inefficient approaches. Suppose, for example, that one of your nations, led by some fanatical ruler, tried to revolt against me. The highly inefficient answer to such a threat would be some billions of horsepower in the shape of atomic bombs. If I used enough bombs, the solution would be complete and final. It would also, as I remarked, be inefficient—even if it possessed no other defects.” “And the efficient solution?” “That requires about as much power as a small radio transmitter-and rather similar skills to operate. For it’s the application of the power, not its amount, that matters. How long do you think Hitler’s career as dictator of Germany would have lasted, if wherever he went a voice was talking quietly in his ear? Or if a steady musical note, loud enough to drown all other sounds and to prevent sleep, filled his brain night and day? Nothing brutal, you appreciate. Yet, in the final analysis, just as irresistible as a tritium bomb.” (Clarke 34)

A direct reference to the wrong use of power is made in the quotation above, in the words of Stormgren, the General Secretary and it might be only assumed that he is pointing to the recent events of the Second World War, being the closest example of misused power to the author of the novel. To this reference the leader of the aliens opposes that “they never possessed the real power” and consequently supporting the idea that intelligence is at least of the same significance when using power, and that the previous failure of the humankind concerning power resides in its lack of “necessary knowledge to apply it”, too. The character and behaviour of the Overlords in the novel suggest that the author devised them according to his own beliefs, concerning the current development of the society at his era. In the quotation above, the emphasis is put on the balance between the efficiency of the use of power and brutality of such actions. In the conclusion the alien leader remarks that power can be achieved without the use of “bombs”, representing power from the humans point of view, but it can be reached with intelligence and knowledge. In an attempt to destroy the aliens in the first weeks of their arrival, a nation launched a missile aimed at one of Karellen’s ships. The attempt was futile and remained physically unpunished from the aliens side. Karellen “ignored them contemptuously, leaving them to worry over a vengeance that never came. It was a more effective, and more demoralizing, treatment than any punitive action could have been. The government responsible collapsed completely in mutual recrimination a few weeks later (Clarke 7).”

Going back to what Freedman mentioned in his analysis of Clarke’s work, it can be assumed that one of the possibility he saw for human development and its freedom from war, competition and other struggles in the future, might be people handing over their insufficient power to someone who possesses the real power, along with the knowledge to use it. It seems that from Clarke’s point of view the Cold War and the hype around it was an example of another wrong turn in the development of the twentieth century society that had already witnessed two world wars. Governing of the Overlords over the human race suggests that for Clarke there was nobody worthy on the Earth who would fit this complicated task, and that somebody standing higher on the intelligence ladder was needed, to be in charge of such a mission.

The Overlords were introduced by the author of the thesis in order to serve the needs of the society that, according to what was suggested above, found itself, in Clarke’s eyes, in a rather dismal state. The following pages will focus on the whole

concept of the aliens in the novel, since their intentions, objectives and reasons for their coming were examined above in the thesis. In the section of this chapter that explored the creation of the Martians it was suggested that Wells called upon the principles of evolution when introducing his aliens, allowing him to base their appearance and character on a scientific exploration, taking place on the Earth, which he only transferred further onto another world, Mars. Darwin’s ideas of evolution gave him the structure to fit his creations into, and Wells took advantage of it since there was not much knowledge about extraterrestrial life at that time, so at least he could hold on to the discoveries concerning life on the Earth.

The idea of taking a greater concept into account when creating a fictional life seems to be beneficial among science fiction writers since, as it will suggested further, Clarke too, used a similar strategy with his aliens. The reasons for such a technique can only be guessed; however, designing a completely new beings along with their background out of the blue, can be highly demanding, and that might be one of the motives for the authors to found their aliens on a concept that already exists.

In the interpretation of the extraterrestrials coming to the Earth in Childhood’s End , there are hints that suggest Clarke’s employing exactly the strategy described above. A variation of a larger and already existing concept accommodated according to the authors needs is expanded in the novel. Although the novel seems to be purely scientific and at the same time fictional on the first sight, with all its remarks on technology, space travelling and even an alien species coming from a distant part of the universe, on the second sight, there seems to be many analogies in the novel with another book. The Bible seems to provide Clarke with inspiration concerning the creation of his aliens.

Even though the Overlords are the most advanced and superior aliens in the novel, there is, however, an entity that exceed them in every way, the Overmind. On its bidding, the Overlords come to the Earth to restore peace and install the utopia onto the planet and its inhabitants. Although the Overmind is not an alien species as are the Overlords and the Martians, it is the most strangest among them all, and the most powerful at the same time. It guides the Overlords and gives them orders, what to do with humankind at what time. The nature of the Overmind is not revealed until the last pages of the novel, and when it enters the narrative, it still remains a mystery. David N. Sammuelson explains:

The Overmind clearly parallels the Oversoul, the Great Spirit, and various formulations of God, while the children's metamorphosis neatly ties in with mystical beliefs in Nirvana, "cosmic consciousness", and "becoming as little children to enter the Kingdom of God". It is therefore fitting that the Overmind be known only vaguely and indirectly, and the confidence of any individual in isolation that he will come to understand this being rings as hollow as the boasts of Milton's Satan. (Science Fiction Studies)

It is not stated, in the novel, much about the nature of the Overmind and about its intentions; however its power can be deduced from the fact that a species so advanced and superior to humans, follow its command without hesitation, although even the Overlords only have theories and guesses concerning the Overmind’s motives. The leader of the aliens, Karellen, says: “We believe—it is only a theory—that the Overmind is trying to grow, to extend its powers and its awareness of the universe (Clarke 95).” If not God, the Overmind is in the novel presented as a god-like being possessing great control over mind and leaving “the tyranny of matter behind (Samuelson, Science Fiction Studies).” It consists of mere consciousness, absorbing the minds of ready and intelligent beings all over the universe. In this manner the Overmind resembles the God once more in terms of heaven and election. These phenomena will be examined more deeply in the last part of the thesis that focuses on the various conclusions of the analysed novels.

Following the concept of the most powerful and at the same time the most alien entity in the novel being similar to the God, Clarke continues with the Overlords themselves, in introducing them as creatures resembling other figures from the Christian tradition. J.H. Rosny in his analysis states: “They have wings, horns, and tails, and part of the plot centres around their being mistaken for devils. In the end the Overlords themselves explain the mystery: long ago they visited Earth; they were spotted by early humans, who in their fear associated horns and a tail with their most terrible superstitions (60).”

The resemblance of the Overlords topped with the concept of the Overmind presented in the novel seems to point to Christianity in terms of both the omnipotent entity looking for “awareness” and the alien race physically similar to the common portrayal of devils. It is interesting that Clarke in his work created his aliens being in some ways similar to characters from the Christian tradition, and at the same time

reveals an explanation stating that what people thought were devils, and what consequently was inserted in mythology, resulting in being a part of one of the most influential religion, was simply a historical misinterpretation of the Overlords checking- up visit on the order of the Overmind.

The relationship between the two is of a master and a servant, God and his angels, but according to Samuelson: “All they can really know, when the Overmind summons them, is that they are to serve as "midwives" at another "birth", and they go like angels at God's bidding, but "fallen angels" unable to share in the deity's glory (Science Fiction Studies).” In the Christian tradition some interpretations refer to angels that sinned as to the fallen angels since the God rejects them from the Heaven. It can be interpreted that in Childhood’s End the Overmind presents the Heaven and the God at the same time, which consequently corresponds with the concept of the God in Christian tradition. The Overlords are cast out from the Heaven, fulfilling the Overmind’s bidding with the hope, as fallen angels, to be accepted and given the same fate they are helping to achieve for not only humankind, but many other intelligent species throughout the universe.

Even though the model of the interaction and the characters of the extraterrestrials resemble to some extent the concepts found in Christianity, concerning especially the figure of the God and his emissaries, it is hard to assume that Clarke’s main intention in the novel is to take the Bible and transform it into a modern narration. The aliens resembling in appearance to some of the characters of the Christian traditions do not follow these characters in their behaviour.

The fact that the Overlords look like devils or fallen angels with their horns, tails and wings and represent humanity’s “most terrible superstitions” usually connected to evil, contradicts with their actions and intentions with the human race as it was examined earlier in the thesis. The author’s taking well-known beings with strongly rooted characteristic features as a model for his aliens might suggest that he tries to question in his work the concepts of good and evil, since the extraterrestrials are in the work introduced possessing different natures that are significantly detached from their original concepts.

In conclusion, according to Spencer,, in his analysis of the work: “it would be erroneous to suggest that the novel is a Christian allegory or that despair is the definitive

emotion that Clarke wants to generate at the end of the novel. But given the care that Clarke has taken to depict both the Overlords and the Overmind as demonic, it is valid to suggest that he wants some lingering doubts about their altruism at the end of the novel (qtd. in Berman 70).” Clarke’s introducing the “lingering doubts” in his novel might be the result of the “Cold-War dogma” being a major theme at his era. By taking usual concepts from the history and twisting them in his novel in terms of their characteristic features, Clarke might have reacted to the “monopolizing of the discourses of ethics and politics”, showing that what was believed to be good and evil might not be valid anymore in the society, especially concerning the situation the world found itself after the second World War, only to throw itself in another type of global conflict, the Cold War.

Even though it was suggested above that the appearance and the characters of the Overlords and their master, the Overmind, contradict their models in Christianity, since they possess different features. Towards the end of the novel it is revealed more about their natures and intentions, which become more ambiguous and questionable in terms of common prosperity and peace on the planet and its inhabitants, that was as it was thought from the beginning, were their only motives. In the third chapter the impact of the Overlords and Overmind’s actions will be examined into depth, showing that more than one interpretation of their coming to the Earth is possible, and that it really depends on different points of view.

It has been revealed so far that both aliens species, the Martians in The War of the Worlds and the Overlords in Childhoods End, are designed by the authors respective to their needs in terms of referring to the most debated and significant topics of their eras. As it was suggested, in both cases the alien species are not completely arbitrary, and it seems that they do not originate entirely only in their author’s mind, but are to some extent reflections to the eras the authors lived in.

Wells took advantage of Darwinism being a rather new, however, significant topic at his time and put his Martians on the evolutionary throne above the humankind in order to show where evolution might lead, together with technology, in terms of the aliens being the highly developed, selfish, invaders. Even though Clarke also employs evolution in his work as it will be discovered later on in the thesis, in terms of his aliens, he endows them with great intelligence that is presented as most visible a feature in the novel concerning the Overlords and their guidance of the human race. In his work an

overwhelming entity is introduced, the Overmind, who together with the Overlords resemble to some extent the concepts in Christian tradition, the God and his angels.

In the last part of this chapter the thesis focuses on Stephenie Meyer’s The Host examining to what extent her aliens correspond with her tendency to refer to modern day topics as it was suggested in the first chapter. Attention will also be drawn to the phenomenon examined at the previous novels, namely the authors’ inclinations to introduce their aliens with similarities to certain bigger and already existing concepts and accommodating them according their needs and intentions. The aliens in the three examined novels will also be compared together in order to explore whether they share some features.

In the first chapter of the thesis it was discovered that the Souls, the aliens Meyer introduces in her novel, are a species that travel through the universe in order to invade other worlds including their inhabitants in terms of literally invading their bodies to control them, ceasing all the mental activity and becoming new minds for the beings. This phenomenon was presented in the novel as their way of life, since the Soul repeat the process with all the species whose planets they invade. Focussing now only on the invasion of the Earth, that is the most important for this part of the analysis, there was a certain justification for their actions, concerning the human bodies as means of their own survival. It has already been suggested that the aliens in The Host come to save the planet that the humankind is destroying, and that survival of the habitable world is what matters.

Apart from the fact that the Souls invade the bodies of people and at the same time suppress the original minds into non-existence, the extraterrestrials presented in the novel represent an ideal species to inhabit the planet. They are intelligent, technologically advanced, but on the contrary to the Martians, they are emotional to some extent and compassionate, too. Their objective is to live in peace with the planet and among each other, they do not lie or fight. It has been suggested in the first chapter that the references to the modern day society in the novel are rather negative in order to show the author’s disagreement with the state the world, and therefore Meyer justifies the Souls ruling the Worlds instead of the human race.

Even thought the aliens are presented as the invaders in the novel, it can be assumed that they possess the character features of ideal humans and thus they deserve

the planet and even the bodies of the people as means and vessels for the better minds. As well as the Overlords in Childhood’s End , the Souls employ the power of the mind rather than the power of destruction when invading the planet, which in the case of The Host is supported with the fact that the author designed her extraterrestrials as a feeble and fragile creatures in terms of their physical appearance.

The main alien character, Wanderer, remarks to their own small bodies in the novel: “He knew what I was. He knew I was just a tiny creature fused into the back of Melanie’s brain. A worm, as Kyle had said (Meyer 287).” ... “Jeb, we are relatively tiny creatures, utterly dependent on unwilling hosts. We wouldn’t have lasted very long if we didn’t have some defences (Meyer 317).” The absence of a developed body suggest that for the author the mind is more important, since the bodies can be acquired also in a different way, as introduced on the example of the Souls. The human race possessing the bodies before the invasion, and according to the aliens not using them properly for common peace and prosperity of both the planet and the people, can be assumed as another example of the idea that the human race actually do not deserve the gifts they were given in the form of capable bodies and a habitable world to live in.

According to what was revealed above, in Meyer’s work intelligence and its use is important, and because of the fact that the world, in her eyes, finds itself in a dismal state, somebody else was needed to come to fix it, representing an ideal human, possessing even the right body, being, however, from a different planet. It can be assumed that by the interplay between the mind and the body presented in the novel, Meyer expresses her vision of the future of the planet in terms of the human mind’s need of undergoing a significant change in order to survive along with their home planet.

Meyer is not the first author who employs parasite-like aliens in science fiction invasion literature. Similar concepts can be found in the literary history of the genre, e. g. The Body Snatchers (1955) by Jack Finney or The Puppet Masters (1951) by Robert A. Heinlein. These novels share common features in terms of extraterrestrials invading the planet and taking bodies of human beings hostage, in order to live either inside them or instead of them. These novels were filmed multiple times with many adaptations. The concept of parasites invading bodies and conquering the universe appears also on the television as a successful series called Stargate, named after the original movie released in 1994. In her interpretation of the phenomenon, however, Meyer stresses the character

of the aliens concerning their characteristic features being the ideal ones the humankind needs to possess, which is in the contrary to what other authors did in their works.

A certain tendency can be observed towards a sympathetic portrayal of the aliens in The Host through the main alien character in the novel, the Wanderer, who is inserted into a body of young woman, Melanie. After realizing that Melanie is not that silent as she should be in her mind, Wanderer, is, according to the rules of the Souls, supposed to leave the body and the mind of Melanie, leaving her die as an unsuitable host for her kind. Her refusal to do so results in her being on a flight from her kin to the hands of the enemy, the human kind, who still manages to escape the invasion. With the effort of two minds sharing one body, Melanie and Wanderer, happen to find Melanie’s family surviving in a desert far from the big cities of the aliens. The group that finds Melanie’s body, almost dead in the desert, immediately recognize her being possessed by a Soul. However, instead of killing her at once, since she is one of the aliens now, they take her to their refuge in order to examine the nature of her state, for none of their family has ever returned back before.

It is now the opposite, because it is Wanderer who finds herself surrounded by members of a different species, the humans, facing their hatred towards the Souls and their invasion of the planet. Everybody in the group of refugees was ready to kill the alien being along with Melanie’s surviving mind, like they did many times before, when they have found a body possessed by a Soul. However, this did not take place in the novel, although the arrival of Wanderer into the community of human beings was dangerous in the beginning. “There wasn’t anything to see here, nothing but anger and hatred on strangers’ faces, or the anger and hatred on Jared’s face (Meyer 96).” It was suggested above that the Souls were given by the author of the novel the features of an ideal human being, which is manifested the most by the character of Wanderer, since she is, along with Melanie, the central figure of the story.

Throughout her whole stay with the group of human survivors, Wanderer struggles with the acceptance of the community being seen as a parasite in the body of beloved Melanie. Even though she has never given them a reason for not trusting her, she is still only an alien to them, trapped in a body of their former friend, Melanie. However, a series of actions takes place, that eventually led the people to trust her. Wanderer’s behavior was of the nature that usually appeared only with humans and the group started to realize, that this certain alien was more human than they think before.

“But what if it were you?” Ian asked in little more than a whisper. “What if you were stuffed in a human body and let loose on this planet, only to find yourself lost among your own kind? What if you were such a good… person that you tried to save the life you’d taken, that you almost died trying to get her back to her family? What if you then found yourself surrounded by violent aliens who hated you and hurt you and tried to murder you, over and over again?” His voice faltered momentarily. “What if you just kept doing whatever you could to save and heal these people despite that? Wouldn’t you deserve a life, too? Wouldn’t you have earned that much?” (Meyer 285)

The authors tendency to portray Wanderer as a human being and therefore likable to other people in the novel, prompts the idea that according to Meyer it does not matter if somebody is of alien origin, as long as their action can be considered human, which in case of Wanderer was more than true. Even though according to Misha Tadd in her account on parasites, these creatures are “generally thought to be undesirable, parasites represent an imbalanced relationship where one entity lives off another; worms are associated with decay, primitivity, and lowliness, antithetical to human values of progress and nobility”, the author even twists the point of view and refer to human beings as aliens concerning Wanderer’s point of view in order to show and stress her actions being more of an ideal human nature. The more time the alien spends with the group of people the less they think of her as alien and the more she becomes part of the human community regardless of her origin. (qtd. in Gardenour 12)

Wanderer receives an ultimate acceptance to the group of human beings when one of the male characters in the novel started to have feelings for her. It seems like love and emotions are strongly connected only with humans in the novel and the fact that the alien was suddenly part of the concept has pushed her even closer to humanity. Even Wanderer herself could not believe the course things has taken for her and she argues with the male character: “You couldn’t care about me. If you could hold me in your hand, me, you would be disgusted. You would throw me to the ground and grind me under your foot.” However, his response states clearly that Wanderer is wrong: “That’s not true at all,” he disagreed. “It’s not the face, but the expressions on it. It’s not the voice, but what you say. It’s not how you look in that body, but the things you do with it. You are beautiful (Meyer 290).”

The interplay between the alien and the humans in the group can be understood as a polemic on what it means to be human. It can be assumed that Wanderer’s moving to the more human territory with every action she performs is the author suggesting that one’s mind is what matters when defining what it takes to be human and that features such as sacrifice for others, compassion and the ability to love are among the most visible human features.

Towards the end of the novel, Wanderer, accomplishes all the above mentioned and is allowed to stay with the group of the humans. However, she suddenly does not want to, even when she realizes her feelings for one of the men: “No, Ian!” I took his face between my hands—his skin felt hard, strained tight over the bones. “No. I—I love you, too. Me, the little silver worm in the back of her head. But my body doesn’t love you. It can’t love you. I can never love you in this body, Ian. It pulls me in two. It’s unbearable (Meyer 441).” The reason corresponds with her becoming more human, the ideal one, since Wanderer is ready to sacrifice herself for Melanie in order to do the right thing and give her the body and her life back.

The intentions of the author when introducing the central alien, Wanderer, suggest that to be a human, depends more on one’s actions and behavior and not only on the fact, that somebody was born a member of a certian species. The whole character of Wanderer is portrayed in order to point out this phenomenon, since she was born alien, but in the end she lives like a human. To contemplate about what it means to be a human and what it means to be an alien, Meyer deliberately introduced her aliens as parasites living inside the bodies of humans. Misha Tadd explains:

Cognizant of their curious figurative potency, J. Z. Smith once identified them as the exemplary “other,” an extreme counterpoint to what we deem familiar and good, and concluded that a discussion of this other is inevitably a discussion of the self. Symbolic use of parasites as “the other” appears cross-culturally as well, but each incarnation speaks to a society’s own social prejudices and insecurities. (qtd. in Gardenour 10)

The central alien character in The Host is truly considered the “other” in the novel, which is especially visible from the moment she entered the group of surviving humans. They were scared and angry and almost killed her, since according to the quotation above she was a “complete counterpoint to what humans consider good and

familiar”. In the course of time the aliens spends with the humans in their refugee camp, the human features in Wanderer are emphasized and even exaggerated to the ideal in order to make them more visible. Considering the fact that it is an alien being, who possess the right human characteristics, it can be assumed that Meyer devised Wanderer in order to be sympathetic to other humans by what she does and how she behaves, regardless of her origin or appearance, showing that the right perspective on humanity lies in the mind of an individual and on the perception of one’s self. Portraying the alien more as a human towards the end of the novel, and at the same time the humans getting closer to Wanderer, suggests the authors intention to twist the usual order of things in order to question what is considered “good and familiar”.

Concerning the comparison between the three analyzed novels there some similar features to be found among them concerning the portrayal and the intentions of the introduced aliens. In terms of appearance, all three alien species evince a certain degree of repulsion in their physical looks. In case of the Martians, the influence onto the author can be traced back to the ideas of Darwinism, since they were introduced by Wells as another evolutionary step in comparison to the human race, which at the same time caused their minds to develop enormously inducing their lack of emotions and becoming “mere selfish intelligence” with the ultimate intention to invade and colonize the Earth along with its inhabitants. Wells took the concept of evolution and transmutation of the species in order to exaggerate possible development of the colonization process taking place in his era. His Martians also make no attempt to communicate with the humans, showing clearly their superior position and supporting the idea that evolution led them to become selfish creatures. This fact again suggest a warning tone in Wells’ work referring to the contemporary issues of his time.

On the contrary, the repulsive appearance of the alien races in Childhood’s End and The Host are similar in the authors’ intention to twist the perception of the extraterrestrials in terms of pointing out the difference between physical appearance connected with something evil and bad, and behavior and actions of the aliens that led towards greater prosperity and peace. The situation after the second World War and its aftermath resulting into the Cold War might have been the reasons for the author to employ such creatures, whose intentions in contrast with their physical appearance could be questioned in order to discover what was good and what was evil. The power of the mind is strongly stressed in the nature of the Overlords, who in the appearance

resemble devils and fallen angels, and consequently the Overmind being similar to the God. As it was mentioned earlier in the thesis, the true nature of their coming to the planet and the connection concerning their look and their action will be examined and revealed in the last chapter, pointing out a certain ambiguity in the interpretation of the phenomena mentioned above.

A similar concept can be found in Meyer’s work, although she chooses parasites instead of figures from a religious tradition, to twist commonly accepted values. The Souls are too, considered repulsive, however the main contrast is their ability to get closer to human nature by showing characteristic human features such as love, compassion and the ability to sacrifice. These qualities are shown frequently and are exaggerated in order to question what it takes to be human, since they are most visible in the central alien character who reassesses herself in terms of where she actually belongs.

It has also been revealed in this chapter that all three authors to some extent refer to greater, already existing concepts, when introducing their interpretation of the extraterrestrials. In case of Wells it is Darwin concept of evolution and transmutation of species that influenced the creation of his Martians. Not only was it one of the most influential thoughts of his time, but it also served his purpose to present the development to the colonization process and its moving in the vicious circle.

In case of Clarke’s aliens, Christianity seems to be the inspiration for his Overlords resembling devils and the Overmind not unlike the God figure. Giving these alien characters different features than they possess in the original concept in order to question and doubt what was commonly accepted seems to be the reason why he employed such religious models.

Meyer, on the contrary, searches for inspiration on the scientific level, since her Souls resemble parasites. The portrayal of extraterrestrials as parasitic beings living off human hosts have already been introduced many times in the literature and pop culture; however, Meyer portrays them in a rather sympathetic way closing to the human territory in order to explore what it takes to be human and what it means to be alien. Her interplay between humans and the central alien, Wanderer, focuses on rediscovering “the self” in both species and, as in the Clarke’s, on questioning the commonly accepted values of society.

3. Who wins: concluding the invasions

In the previous chapters the reasons for the invasion in the novels were examined in terms of the intentions of the extraterrestrials as well as in terms of the authors’ inspiration from the most debated topics of their times. It is revealed above that the scenes depicted in the analyzed works are to a certain extent connected to the current situations of the society of the particular eras the authors lived in, and it has been suggested that their novels can be taken as a reaction or a literary manifest to the most significant issues influencing their writing at the particular periods of time. In simpler words, the first section of the analysis has revealed the answers to the questions why and how the aliens came to the Earth and invaded the human race.

The second chapter deals with the question Who? actually came to the Earth and the nature of the aliens themselves was examined in order to understand better the interplay between the extraterrestrials and the humans. It has been discovered that the aliens in all three novels are not arbitrary, but on the contrary, they are devised by the authors to serve the best their purposes in terms of connecting their works to the affairs taking place at their periods of time. All three authors have chosen to refer to an already existing concept when creating their alien beings; however, each was inspired in a different area of human interests, presenting a variety of diverse concepts.

In the concluding chapter, the thesis focuses on the outcome of the three invasions, dealing especially with the question: Who wins? In all three examined works there is an invasion taking place, therefore this last section’s main intention is to discover if there is an ultimate winner and what consequences in the novels can be found in terms of the results of the invasions.

The process that led to the outcomes of the different invasions in the works will be itself analyzed and the revelation will be again connected to the eras of origin of the novels concerning references to different affairs, important at those times. Because of the fact that the works of all three authors belong to the science fiction genre, in the conclusion of the novels, as well as in the introductions, predictions of the fate of humanity can be found in terms of the authors beliefs and hopes. It will be examined if the conclusions suggest a positive or negative outcome of the invasions executed upon

the human race, and to what extent the results can be explained in terms of the authors’ perspectives of society.

In the first novel examined in this thesis, there were two issues referred the most by the author; colonization and evolution. Even though the former affair was at the end of the nineteenth century very significant a topic for the society and Wells introduced the vicious circle based on this concept, he used the latter to present the outcome of his invasion of the Martians on the planet. In the colonization process, as it was revealed in the first chapter, the invaders are usually superior to the invaded. With Wells’ Martians it is exactly the case, since they possess better minds and their intelligence allowed them to develop technologically in a way, that the humankind do not stand a chance against. However, it is rather the opposite in the conclusion of the novel, for it is the humankind who survives and the whole invasion of the developed aliens comes to nothing, leaving the extraterrestrials dead on the planet Earth.

The way it is possible for the human race to survive such an invasion originate in the scientific concept of the aliens, presented by the author. To say “survive” seems more appropriate than “win” in this context, since the humankind does practically nothing, or at least nothing intentional, to prevent the invasion or to defeat the invaders. Wells continues to develop the concept of evolution, applying even beyond the earthly borders. It has been mentioned many times before, that his Martians took a different path of their development, quicker or more successful in comparison with humans. In the description of the extraterrestrials earlier in the thesis, one aspect of their difference was intentionally left out:

Micro-organisms, which cause so much disease and pain on earth, have either never appeared upon Mars or Martian sanitary science eliminated them ages ago. A hundred diseases, all the fevers and contagions of human life, consumption, cancers, tumours and such morbidities, never enter the scheme of their life. (Wells 204)

This particular difference between the two species fighting over the planet Earth proves rather fatal for the Martians in the end. It can be only guessed that the Martians never faced the threat from any bacteria or their intelligence allowed them to develop such medical care that erased the “morbidities” from their equation. In both cases, however, it is evolution that is significant, showing once again that Darwin’s concepts

of natural selection and transmutation of species were the inspiration for the author of the novel. Neither of the species wins in the end, because the Martians die on the planet and concerning the humankind, it merely survives.

But there are no bacteria in Mars, and directly these invaders arrived, directly they drank and fed, our microscopic allies began to work their overthrow. Already when I watched them they were irrevocably doomed, dying and rotting even as they went to and fro. It was inevitable. By the toll of a billion deaths man has bought his birthright of the earth, and it is his against all comers; it would still be his were the Martians ten times as mighty as they are. For neither do men live nor die in vain. (Wells 274)

In the end it is the Nature that has it its way, and only because of the evolution on the planet Earth that prepared the humankind to endure illnesses and overcome the obstacles of the Nature, they were given the “birthright of the earth” back. It is the process of natural selection that prevents the Martians from taking over the planet, which suggests that Wells relies rather on the power of the Nature, than on the abilities of the people on one hand, or on the Martians on the other. Moreover, it can be assumed that the author in this way refers again to the concept of colonization and particular events described in the first chapter of this thesis, in terms of that the Nature being still the strongest and most significant element, standing above even the powers the highly developed Martians possess.

In the whole process of colonization from the side of the Martians, and evolution being in effect from the side of the Nature, human beings are to great extent left by the author intentionally helpless. All the attempts to destroy the Martians or even at least fight them back remain helpless, which suggest the authors intention to do so in order to show the humankind as a whole on the position of the invaded. The only help that came is not of their doing, but something mightier secures their survival.

These germs of disease have taken toll of humanity since the beginning of things—taken toll of our prehuman ancestors since life began here. But by virtue of this natural selection of our kind we have developed resisting power; to no germs do we succumb without a struggle, and to many— those that cause putrefaction in dead matter, for instance —our living frames are altogether immune. (Wells 273)

Not only the quotation above refers to the concept of natural selection being effective concerning the fail of the Martians, but also the main character of the novel praises the evolution process for taking “toll of our prehuman ancestors”, which suggest that the whole concept of evolution is being referred to by the author. And once again the human actions were of no importance concerning their survival of the invasion, since the only thing that allows them to endure the Martian’s strike, is the virtue of the Nature.

The human species is left to survive in the novel, because it has been paying the “toll since life began here”, however the human society as such, plays in the conclusion of the novel no role. It can be assumed that the author leaves the human race to live, but makes sure it is not because of its own ability as a society. It suggests that his hopes for the humankind dwells rather in following the Nature’s patterns than in the survival of the humankind, depending on its own abilities or intelligence, and consequently it also suggests that the invaders are no exception when it comes to evolutionary mill in the form of the natural selection, a phenomenon that stretches from the low to the highly developed species or nations, and does not differentiate between them.

Going back once more to the “food” metaphor examined in the opening section of this work, it can be assumed that the nutrition taken from the human beings, is in the end the stumbling block for the Martians. Their need for human blood as nourishment interpreted as their resources for the colonization caused their ultimate fail and death on the planet. Taking this hypothesis back to reality, it suggests that a certain warning from the author’s side is present in the novel concerning the invaders and their need for the “food”.

The effort Wells put in introducing his aliens and their approach towards invasion of the planet in terms of referring to the examples of colonization taking place at the end of the nineteenth century suggests that he did not agree with the actions and from the way the Martians are defeated in Wells’ work, it can be assumed that he sought to point out what results colonization can bring for the technologically and intellectually superior race, regardless of the level of their development, meaning that any species or nation can be eventually restrained by those they originally aimed for.

The outcome of the second invasion examined in this thesis cannot be farther from the one described above. Even though the Overlords share some common features with the Martians concerning especially their superiority in terms of greater intelligence and highly developed technology, their actions on the planet and with the humankind are fundamentally of a different character. It has already been suggested that Clarke aims in his novel to introduce the concept of a unified world that is guided by the alien race towards the commonly desirable result, peace and prosperity of the human race.

Childhood’s End shares with The War of the Worlds one common feature and that is the authors’ interest in evolution. It is the Nature who executes the evolution in Wells’ work upon both species and the whole process is described from the scientific point of view. Clarke, on the other hand, focuses in his novel on the evolution of humankind in terms of the development of the human society rather than their physique and scientific intelligence.

Clarke's anti-imperial rhetoric is at odds with his assumption that "conquest and empire" are necessary for human evolution and civilization. Indeed, his progressive history defends the possibility of imperial benevolence on the grounds that it readies subject peoples for self-government and equality with "advanced" cultures, an advance that presumably they could not have achieved if left to their own devices. (Kilgore 118)

The controversy described in the quotation above concerning Clarke’s tendency to zigzag between colonization and progress is manifested in his Childhood’s End . The humanity finds itself in a rather dismal state with the competition between the nation taking place in the novel, especially concerning the space travel. The world is far from common prosperity and peace and in this moment Clarke calls upon the alien race of the Overlords to come to the planet and intervene. Their coming to the Earth is introduced in the novel in terms of guidance and help for the people to achieve more, concerning their evolution towards being better human beings and better society.

With the arrival of the Overlords, nations knew that they need no longer fear each other, and they guessed—even before the experiment was made—that their existing weapons were certainly impotent against a civilization that could bridge the stars. So at once the greatest single obstacle to the happiness of mankind had

been removed. The Overlords seemed largely indifferent to forms of government, provided that they were not oppressive or corrupt. (Clarke 11)

The element of competition resulting to war is eliminated in the novel by the mere presence of the superior aliens, which supports the idea that the author believed in imperialism to the extent that the installation of such a rule over one nation or species serves in the end the evolution of the society. A parallel can be seen between the reality of Clarke’s time and the situation in his novel concerning especially the fears that remained from the second World war and the emerging of the Cold War in terms of the technological advance of the human race and its possible use in a military conflict.

From the authors point of view, a guide was needed, and therefore he presented the Overlords, who not only guide the humankind and watch over it, but also present such a technological advancement that cannot be levelled by humans. War being out of the question, with the Overlords observing closely the affairs on the planet, people were left to govern over themselves on the understanding that it is towards common good, security and prosperity of the society.

The growth in prosperity of the human race under the supervision of the Overlords inevitably leads in the installation of utopia on the planet. This new concept of society, where everybody strives for common good and there is no reason to fight for the people, is a significant result of the Overlords coming to the Earth that the humanity “could not have achieved if left to their own devices”. In the first chapter of the thesis it was suggested that the author appeals for unification to the humankind and therefore he presented and invading race to execute this integration of Earth’s nations into the world state. After the evolution of humankind is kick-started by the aliens, the development of the society takes a quick course and in a relatively short period of time after the arrival of the extraterrestrials, humanity is restored and lives peacefully on the planet.

Even though the utopia on the planet is a result desired by the majority, the drawbacks of such a formation start to make themselves visible. The evolution of the society suddenly ceases and the humanity finds itself stuck on one place. There is nowhere else to go or nothing else to explore, since the alien guides hold the door to the universe close shut. In order to re-start the evolutionary process for the humanity once again, new colonies are being established on the planet, reassessing the position of people on the planet. At this point in the novel, true intentions of the Overlords are

presented to the humankind, introducing the evolution in much greater perspective, than anybody on the planet could have foreseen. The Overmind finally comes to play its part, revealing that it has been it all the time, staying even hierarchically above the Overlords and governing them towards the human evolution.

Similarly to the Wells’ taking the evolution of species beyond the Earth’s border from the scientific point of view, Clarke introduces in his work the evolution of the humankind in terms of social point of view, bringing the unification on the level of the whole universe. Going back to the Kilgore’s idea of the superior alien race “readying the subject people towards equality with advanced cultures”, in the end of the novel it is made obvious, that the Overlords were readying the human race to join the omnipresent, most advanced entity, the Overmind, on its voyage through the universe.

We believe—it is only a theory—that the Overmind is trying to grow, to extend its powers and its awareness of the universe. By now it must be the sum of many races, and long ago it left the tyranny of matter behind. It is conscious of intelligence, everywhere. When it knew that you were almost ready, it sent us here to do its bidding, to prepare you for the transformation that is now at hand. (Clarke 95)

The Overlords actions that resulted in installing utopia on the Earth are only an intermediate stage in the whole process of evolution that the humankind is about to undergo. The Overmind is, in the end of the novel, finally satisfied with the development of the human race, and therefore considers them ready to be absorbed into its consciousness, presenting the execution of the ultimate evolutionary stage of the humanity. The conclusion that the Overmind prepares for the inhabitants of the planet is not unlike the election described in the Christian tradition, pointing once again to the resemblance between the God and the omnipresent entity in Childhood’s End . The whole concept can be interpreted as rather a positive one, considering that a god-like being sends its servants in order to prepare the human race for its coming, and when the people are ready enough, it takes them along with it on the journey to “extend the awareness of the universe”. However, there are certain aspects of the aliens in the novel, that prevent solely positive interpretation of the outcome of the invasion of the Overlords and their master, the Overmind.

Even though the Overmind chooses the humankind as a next species fitting its requirements to become a part of the great mind, only children evince such powers worthy for the god-like entity. The adults are doomed to extinction, along with the planet, since in the process of becoming the part of the universal consciousness, the children will destroy both, and what is more, all the physical matter of their bodies will be consumed by the process, too. The ending of humanity can be perceived as a great achievement in the sense, because a part of the human race survives in the form of millions of its most developed minds, as an element of the greatest entity, the Overmind. However, as Spencer in his account of Clarke’s work remarks:

The Overmind appears to be omnipotent and transcendent, but it is not God in the Christian sense. Eugen Tanzy describes the Overmind in all of its glory, but also with attention to its limitations: although the Overmind is eternal and transcendent, Tanzy is careful to point out that it is a product of this universe and has its limits. The Overmind is god-like, but it is not God. (qtd. in Berman 70)

The ultimate winner of the invasion is from the beginning the Overmind, although its intentions and mere existence is revealed only towards the closing of the work. It is left to doubt in the novel, whether it is good for the humankind to ascend to the higher level of existence or if the whole process was only a selfish action from the side of the Overmind in order to expand and acquire another developed enough civilization, or at least the most evolved individuals to be worthy of it.

In the second chapter of the thesis it was mentioned that Clarke devised his aliens based on commonly accepted concept of what is considered good and evil in order to question the routines taking place at his point of time, concerning mainly the post-war situation and the raging Cold War. The true power of his creation manifests itself at the end of his work for the interpretation of the Overmind’s intentions and objectives, along with the action of its servants, depends entirely on one’s perspective. The conclusion can be accepted as the evolution and unification of the maximum level, expressing the author’s hopes for humanity to survive in the end, regardless the form of it, or according to Spencer: “it is possible that the Overmind and its minions, the Overlords, are demonic after all (70)”, representing the authors belief that the Overmind, only a “product of universe” not the universe (God) itself, does not bring the salvation for humankind since it only follows its own purposes and intentions.

The conclusions of the novels examined on the previous pages of the thesis introduce a final ending, either for the aliens or for humanity as it is known. In The Host , hope and transformation of the humankind is the most visible result of the invasion, concerning both, the invaders and the invaded. It has been revealed in the second chapter of this work that focuses on the character and appearance of the aliens that Stephenie Meyer introduces her extraterrestrials, the Souls, as parasitic beings, living off the human hosts. Following the concept to the end of her novel, there appears to be a phenomenon happening that is too, taken from the scientific area called parasitology.

The major part of The Host deals with the relationship between the central alien character, Wanderer, and a human girl, Melanie. They share the human’s body, since Wanderer is a parasitic creature, inserted in the brain of the human being. The struggle begins, when Melanie starts to resist and fights back within her own mind. According to Tadd in her essay The Power of Parasites , there are two reasons for introducing parasites in literature:

As paradigmatic “others” across cultures and time, worms and parasites solicit two main responses that may be called oppositional and complementary . The oppositional view presents worms and parasites as radically opposed to the self: the worm is corrupting and evil, an image of chaos and destruction, and something to revile, expel and destroy. In contrast, the latter perspective portrays worms as complementary to humans, and parasites as complementary to their hosts. They are valuable, transformative creatures necessary for survival or the perpetuation of the cycle of life and death. (qtd. in Gardenour 15)

Both of the “responses” mentioned in the quotation are present in the Meyer’s novel in the sense that the former is the starting position, when Wanderer is inserted in Melanie’s body and the fight over the control of it begins. In Melanie’s accounts on the invader, the above mentioned approach is clearly manifested: “You murder an entire species and then pat yourselves on the back. My hands balled up into fists. I could have you disposed of, I reminded her. Go ahead. Make my murder official (Meyer 36).” On the other hand, the latter “response” appears towards the conclusion of the novel resulting in a firm relationship between the human and the alien, that is based on true friendship and love. The bond between the two grows into such an intensity, that even when Wanderer decides to leave the body, returning it back to Melanie, she does not

want her to sacrifice her alien friend: “She seemed to finally accept my decision. Not accept, she disagreed. I just can’t see any way to stop you. And I can feel how close it is. I’m scared, too. Isn’t that funny? I’m absolutely terrified (Meyer 450).” The fact that Melanie feels afraid of not having the alien inside her body anymore, supports the idea that “parasites are in the end complementary to humans in terms of their transformation and life cycle”.

There is also a significant parallel between the development of the relationship between Melanie and her alien friend and the approach of the whole group of humans towards Wanderer. As it was revealed earlier in the thesis, at the beginning of Wanderer’s stay with the community, she faces only anger and hatred. However, in the conclusion of the novel, she not only “wins the right to live“, but she wins their sympathies: “No, Mel assured me. And they’ll miss you—of course they will. All the best people here will feel your loss (Meyer 450)”. The fact that the alien wins over Melanie, as well as the humans in the community of refugees, suggest that her possessing ideal human features as it was described earlier, makes them to accept her regardless the fact that she is originally not a human being, showing once again Meyer’s intentions to appreciate one’s mind and behavior, overcoming deeply rooted prejudices.

Going back to Tadd’s interpretation of parasites as “transformative creatures”, this phenomenon occurs in the novel in terms of the humans changing their perspective on Wanderer and even start consider things from her point of view. After she realizes that although they like her now, the humans still proceed with unsuccessful attempts to separate the souls from human beings, resulting in the deaths of both, she makes a dramatic scene, fleeing into distant parts of the refuge.

“Why are they so kind to her?” I whispered. “She killed Wes.” “Well, that’s your fault.” I stared up at him, surprised to see the slight curve of his mouth; he was teasing me.“Mine?”His small smile wavered. “They didn’t want to feel like monsters. Not again. They’re trying to make up for before, only a little too late—and with the wrong soul. I didn’t realize that would… hurt your feelings. I would have thought you’d like it better that way.” “I do.” I didn’t want them to hurt anyone. “It’s always better to be kind. I just…” I took a deep breath. (Meyer 398)

After catching another human with an inserted Soul, their behavior changes significantly, because they do not want to be the “monsters” anymore in the eyes of Wanderer. The humans starting to consider her point of view results in the end in them behaving again more like humans. In this sense, the transformatory purpose of the aliens is the most visible. It can be assumed, that this particular result is deliberately introduced by the author of the novel, in order to show that people need the aliens to remind them what makes them human, and that the need is so desperate that it must have come in the form of an invasion of such reminders.

All the terror and evil unleashed by the humans in the novel before the arrival of the aliens suggest that Meyer views the society in a rather dismal state, and therefore she calls upon the Souls to bring the people to humanity once again. The interpretation of parasitology can further explain the author’s employment of the parasitic species for the task. Tadd presents a theory examining the purpose of the parasites:

A new field of research presumes that human bodies have evolved in concert with manifold parasites, and that in ultra-sanitized conditions, people no longer house the proper array of their little companions. This theory asserts that the human immune system expects to find parasites, but when its expectations are unmet, confusion ensues. (qtd. in Gardenour 20)

Interpreting Meyer’s novel through the lens of the quotation above, it suggest that all the bad the humanity has done, is the result of diversion from the natural order of things in terms of “hosting the proper array of parasites” that would keep the on the right track of humanity. Murder, torture, war and other atrocities the humankind performs are in the quotation referred as “confusion” due to the fact that the humankind started to live in “ultra-sanitized conditions”, making them obscure and detached from the right, human territory.

Only the coming of the aliens put them back on the right trail, suggesting that from Meyer’s point of view, this is exactly what the humankind needs to deserve their right to live on the planet, but also to deserve their own bodies capable of taking the proper care of it. “It’s… extraordinary to meet you, Wanderer. And here I thought I was one of a kind.” “Not even close,” I said, thinking of Sunny back in the caves. Perhaps we were none of us as rare as we thought. He raised an eyebrow at my answer, intrigued. “Is that so?” he said. “Well, maybe there’s some hope for this planet, after all

(Meyer 473)” To show her belief is strong, Meyer in the very conclusion of her novel introduces another group of human survivors with a friendly Soul in their centre. The group of people must have undergone rather a similar transformation in terms of their approach to the aliens so that they can accept one of them in their ranks as well as Wanderer’s group. The fact that this phenomenon is extended on other people in the novel, undergoing the significant change back to the more human territory, presents once again Meyer’s faith that “there’s some hope for this planet, after all”.

To conclude the final chapter of this work it is vital to remark that all three authors of the examined novels employed in the endings of their the concept of evolution, yet each of them from a very different point of view. Wells preferred to introduce the phenomenon solely in terms of the Nature being the strongest element, defeating the superior invaders and letting the humankind survive, showing what destructive results can the colonization process bring in the relation to the most debated issues of Wells’ time.

In Clarke’s interpretation of the evolution process, he introduces rather the development of the society, which according to his point of view was needed the most referring to the state the society found itself in the post-war period, concerning mainly its switching to another conflict, the Cold War. The fact that he presents his Overlords as guides of the humankind on the path towards their evolution leading to prosperity and peace, suggests that he did not believe in the ability of people to reach it on their own.

The need of unification is in his novel is brought to the maximum level by the god-like, universal and omnipresent entity, the Overmind, who in the end embraces the humanity’s best samples into its consciousness. Clarke introduces the most ambiguous conclusion of all three novels in order to question what is evil and what is good, and to do so he also employs a twisted commonly accepted concept found in the Christian tradition.

Meyer too, covers the idea of evolution and development into the conclusion of her novel, though again, from a different perspective. She focuses in The Host to present the humankind unworthy of their planet and even their bodies and she introduces the way the human race needs to take in order to deserve their right to live once again. She presents the process of rediscovering of what it takes to be human through the lens of

parasitology, emphasizing that only because of the invasion and the interaction with these alien being, the people are able to realize the moral values of humanity. Starting with an individual human who is directly bonded with the extraterrestrial, possessing the ideal human features, she continues with the transformation of the whole group of people, elaborating her idea into a bigger frame, expressing in the end her beliefs and hope for people.

In this manner, hope is also a concept that connects all three novels, especially concerning the belief that the good prevails and the evil will be defeated. Respectfully to the different periods of time the three author’s lived or live in, their hopes and beliefs are manifested in different ways in their works. Wells considers the colonization evil and thus he destroys the Martians by the means of the Nature, hoping that regardless of the state of development and the intentions and actions of the invaders, evolution always finds the way to deal with unbalanced progress of one nation or species towards another.

Clarke, on the contrary, expresses in his novel hope that the strike from above in the form of a superior aliens will bring the beginning of unification among the world’s nations, since from his point of view, it is the most desirable aim for humanity. His beliefs extend ever further concerning the merging of the human race with an universal god-like entity on the consciousness level. However, Clarke is aware of some of the drawbacks of such unification and therefore a certain room for doubts is left in his work, prompting the question whether it is for good or not.

The most visible hope for humankind as a society and individual is to be found in the last examined novel in this chapter, The Host . Meyer calls upon an invasion of parasitic aliens who possess the ideal human features, hoping that the humankind facing them will find once again their lost track towards being better people, deserving to live on the planet and even in their bodies. In the end of the novel, Meyer seems to express a growing amount of hope for the human race, since the transformation that seemed to be only a spark in the darkness, starts to expand among others, too.

Conclusion

The intention of this thesis was to examine three different novels of the same genre from three different points of view. All three works belong to the invasion science fiction literature; however, origin in different periods of time. The overall attempt of this work was to connect the issues dealt with in the novels to specific affairs taking place at the certain eras of the authors, concerning mainly their motives when presenting their interpretation of the nature of the invasions, character and appearance of the extraterrestrials and the conclusions of the conflicts.

It has been revealed in the opening chapter of this thesis that each of the authors introduces their invasion of the aliens in order to refer to certain issues and affairs taking place at their points of time. Wells’ work can be interpreted as a certain warning for the humankind in terms of where the vicious circle of colonization can lead, referring particularly to the British treating the inhabitants of the invaded Tasmania and the colonization activities in India and Africa.

The aliens in Clarke’s work, on the contrary, lead the humankind towards unification. It has been suggested that the author calls upon them in his novel, since he does not believe, the human ability to reach the goal of common prosperity by themselves, considering especially the atrocities of the second World War and its aftermath resulting into the Cold War in his era.

Meyer’s aliens share some features with both previously described extraterrestrial species. In terms of the vicious circle of colonization they resemble the Martians, but in their intentions they tend more to the Overlords in Clarke’s work. Meyer uses the combination to justify their coming to the Earth and invading both, the planet and the bodies of the people. Less specific than in the previous novels, Meyer refers to current issues of her time, concerning especially the dismal state of environment and society, suggesting that because of the way human beings treat the Nature and even each other, they do not deserve either.

Concerning the appearance and character of the extraterrestrials dealt with in the second chapter of the thesis, a common feature has been discovered, connecting the novels across the time. Suffering the lack of any scientific knowledge concerning an extraterrestrial life, all three authors searched for inspiration in bigger, already existing

concepts in human history and science. The intentions of Clarke and Meyer in doings so similar to each other, since both introduced their aliens based on two repulsive concepts carrying rather a negative notions. The parasitic Souls and devilish looking Overlords were devised in order to twist the ideas of what is commonly accepted good and evil.

Clarke introduces his aliens not unlike God and devils from the Christian tradition, leaving deliberately enough space for questioning their true intentions, referring to the raging Cold War and the installation of new powers after the second World War. Meyer, on the contrary, endows her aliens with human character features in order to present the sympathetic for the people in her novel, making them ponder about the true meaning of being human.

Wells’ in his The War of the Worlds introduces his aliens based on the knowledge of Darwinism and his concepts of natural selection, showing where the development of a species can lead in terms of his Martians lacking the sense of emotions and being “mere selfish intelligences” following only their intentions of colonization, regardless the invaded.

In the last chapter of this work the conclusion of the novels were examined. The main attention was drawn to the authors fears and beliefs manifested in the form of the endings of their works. Wells’ once again employs nature in the process, suggesting that the Nature is the ultimate winner, and that the invaders do not stand a chance against it. He puts emphasis on the survival of the human species, rather than on the survival of the human society and it can be interpreted as a critique and a warning to some extent of the society of his time, concerning especially the British colonization.

Clarke’s beliefs in unification among the world’s nations is represented in the conclusion of his novel by the maximum level of integration performed by the Overmind. The desperate need of the people for prosperity and peace is answered by the coming of the Overlords as guides towards these aims. Utopia is not the final outcome and the future of the humankind lies in being ascended to the next level of being, becoming a part of a universal consciousness. It is the final stage of the human evolution; however, Clarke is cautious and leaves the ending of his novel ambiguous in order to question whether it is for good or not.

Meyer’s ending of The Host expresses, on the contrary, rather clearly that she believes in the humankind to find their way back to humanity. Their rediscovering of

the right track and of “the self” is caused by the encounter with the aliens who possess the ideal human features such as love, compassion and the ability to sacrifice. She employs the transformatory power of the parasitic Souls in order the human race changes and deserve once again the right to live on the planet and inhabit their bodies.

Afterword The question if the humankind is alone or not in the universe remains unanswered. It is not the purpose of this thesis to deal with such a prodigious task after all. The quest of searching for evidence of any extraterrestrial life needs to be left to the most erudite scientists who spend their lives attempting to prove or disprove such a phenomena. Some of the researchers are sure that the universe flourishes with life and some of them predict nothing without a proof. Even though that many would want to know the answer, there is a group of people who benefit from the lack of the knowledge.

Authors of science fiction do not mind the missing information in terms of the existence of an alien life. On the contrary, they exploit the situation in their literary works in the way that they devise their alien beings according to their own needs and intentions. The advantage of the non-existing concept of extraterrestrials enables the authors to introduce the aliens as good or evil, as completely other than humans or possessing ideal human features, repulsive or likable.

It is possible that devising an entirely new beings was such a demanding task for the authors, that they ended up basing their aliens on already existing concepts known from the human history. More likely, however, it seems that assimilating the fictional creations to various significant phenomena in the particular eras of their origin, serves the authors for reflecting on ongoing issues of their times. Invasion, war, unification, evolution, relationship, environment, religion, otherness...

The authors can make their aliens to perform in each area mentioned above since no borders have been given yet. It can be only guessed, what effect would it have on the literary authors, if scientist come up with evidence of extraterrestrial life. According to what the thesis has revealed, it might only enhance their imaginations, because aliens has proven themselves great means of mirroring current issues and affairs in the hands of science fiction writers. Having the proof or not might not matter for the authors since they can always devise their own ones and accommodate them to their purposes.

Bibliography

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