# VI: The Work of Fifteen Days explained — The War of the Worlds

> Chapter companion for The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells.

## What happens

Emerging from the pit, the narrator finds the landscape transformed by red weed and flood, and experiences a profound sense of dethronement as he realizes humanity is no longer master. He scavenges for food, observes the rapid spread and decay of the red weed, and wanders through desolate ruins, encountering only skeletons and silence, which leads him to believe he may be the last man alive.

## Themes in this chapter

### Human Vulnerability and Vanity

The narrator's realization of dethronement and his feeling of being an animal under the Martian heel underscores human fragility and the collapse of human dominance.

### Evolution and Natural Selection

The red weed's rise and fall due to bacterial disease illustrates natural selection, as terrestrial plants have resistance but the alien weed succumbs.

### Resilience and Renewal

Despite the desolation, the narrator persists in scavenging for food and moving forward, hinting at a will to survive.

## Character check-ins

### The Narrator

Emerges from the pit, scavenges for food, and wanders through the transformed landscape, feeling dethroned and isolated.

### The Martians

Implied to have caused the devastation; the narrator believes they have moved on to destroy other cities.

## Key lines

> I felt as a rabbit might feel returning to his burrow and suddenly confronted by the work of a dozen busy navvies digging the foundations of a house.

I felt like a rabbit coming home to find its burrow being dug up by workers.

_The narrator compares his shock and displacement to that of a small animal confronted by human construction._

> a sense of dethronement, a persuasion that I was no longer a master, but an animal among the animals, under the Martian heel.

I felt dethroned, convinced I was no longer a master but just another animal beneath the Martians.

_The narrator articulates his loss of human supremacy and his new status as prey._

> In the end the red weed succumbed almost as quickly as it had spread. A cankering disease, due, it is believed, to the action of certain bacteria, presently seized upon it.

The red weed died off nearly as fast as it grew, attacked by a bacterial disease.

_The rapid decay of the alien weed is attributed to bacterial infection, highlighting natural selection._

> For a time I believed that mankind had been swept out of existence, and that I stood there alone, the last man left alive.

For a while I thought all of humanity was gone and I was the last person alive.

_The narrator's isolation and despair lead him to believe he is the sole survivor._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_war_of_the_worlds_se/chapters/vi-the-work-of-fifteen-days
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_war_of_the_worlds_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_war_of_the_worlds_se/chapters