Humanity In Ray Bradbury's 'Silent Towns'

In addition to the inability to accept other cultures and racism, another consequence of human hubris is a detrimental superiority complex that prevents humans from getting to the things that they want or need because of the belief that they are too good. That dangerous superiority complex can be seen in the short story “Silent Towns” in which Walter Gripp, the main character of the short story, finds himself alone in his town on Mars. At first, he relishes in his newfound independence and the lack of rules but eventually, he begins to yearn for human company. One day, Gripp receives a phone call that he misses and as a result, he dials almost every number until a woman picks up. Introducing herself as Genevieve Selsor, Walter begins to fantasize
Therefore, he refuses to pick up the phone, eliminating all other possibilities of human connection due to his pride. Another example of man believing that he is too good for something can be found in the short story, “ The Off Season”. Bradbury uses the story to reprimand man for believing that he is too good or superior. In this particular story, Sam Parkhill, one of the crew members from the fourth expedition, has opened a hot dog stand on Mars. After a Martian approaches Parkhill and his wife and draws a bronze tube, Parkhill is immediately uneasy and “an instant later he had yanked his own gun from his hip holster and fired into the mist, the robe, the blue mask. The mask sustained itself a moment. then, like a small circus tent pulling up its stakes and dropping soft fold on fold, the silks rustled, the mask descended, the silver claws tinkled on the stone path, the mask lay on a small huddle of silent white bones and material” (Bradbury 135). Parkhill’s impulsive decision to shoot resulted in the death of Martian that, as it turned out, was actually simply trying to deliver a message to