Summary
Book 1, Chapter 6
The narrator offers a few theories on the mechanisms behind the heat ray. He suggests that the devices might use a mirror-like object to concentrate the heat and flame, but has no way to confirm his suspicions. Regardless, the weapons use heat to destroy their targets and they are devastating.
People from neighboring towns have come to see the cylinder for themselves, and the mood is merry and playful. A few police officers vainly try to keep the three hundred people of the crowd in check.
After the delegation carrying the white flag is obliterated by the heat ray, the Martians turn the weapon on the rest of the crowd. The crowd is saved from death by a low, sandy hill, but the stampede of the panicked crowd causes the deaths of two women and one child.
Book 1, Chapter 7
The narrator flees from the Martians and their heat ray. Eventually, he collapses from exhaustion.
When he recovers, he wonders if what he saw was real. He encounters other people, but they seem to be going about their business as usual and make no mention of the Martians. He tries to ask some other people about news from the commons, but they answer him sarcastically.
At last, he arrives home to find his wife and tells her about what he has seen. He tries to reassure her and himself that the Martians are sluggish and might not be able to move very far since they evolved on a planet with much stronger gravity than earth. This obscures the fact that they can build machinery to move for them. He also muses that a single shell in the pit where the cylinder crashed could destroy them all. At the end of the chapter, upon reflection, the narrator suggests that a dodo faced with the European invasion might have thought something very similar.
Book 1, Chapter 8
Despite the facts that the Martians killed a number of people using the heat ray and news of the mysterious cylinders has spread, life continues as usual in the English countryside. Henderson's telegram arrives in London, but his publishers never follow up on it because they cannot get in contact with him (because he is dead).
There are occaisional moments of concern or excitement, but, overall, most people continue with their routines, as they have all their lives. A distant sound of hammering is heard from the pit, but the sweep of the heat ray dissuades everyone from trying to investigate further.
A delegation of the army arrives in Woking to deal with the strange intruders, and another cylinder falls nearby.
Book 1, Chapter 9
The next morning is unremarkable, and the narrator has a discussion with his neighbor in the garden. The neighbor remarks that he's curious about the Martians and wishes they weren't so unapproachable—perhaps humanity could learn something from them. However, the neighbor also brings news of a fire to the northeast, where another one of the cylinders is rumored to have fallen.
Later, the narrator encounters a group of soldiers who tell him that they have the situation under control, making jokes about how they will sneak up on the Martians. The soldiers are curious about the narrator's encounters with the aliens, and he tells them what he has seen.
He tries to find more information about the Martians, but the newspapers give little information. The narrator begins to grow somewhat excited about the prospect of the Martian invaders, comparing his emotions to his boyhood dreams of being a famous soldier.
While he and his wife are having tea at 6, there is a massive explosion and the narrator sees the trees near the local college burst into flame and a church crumble to ruin. The chimney of his own house collapses. The narrator and his wife immediately decide to leave and head to Leatherhead, where they have cousins.
The narrator rushes over to the landlord of the Spotted Dog and rents a small horse cart from him. The landlord seems startled that the narrator wishes to borrow it and is willing to pay so much to do so. The narrator and his wife pack up their valuables. On their way out, they encounter a soldier who tells them that there was something crawling around with a shield like a disk cover, and they are not sure what to make of this.
During their flight, the narrator turns around to see that the whole town is on fire. He and his wife continue on their way.
Book 1, Chapter 10
The narrator and his wife make it to Leatherhead without incident. The narrator’s wife seems anxious, and he tries to reassure her by pointing out that the Martians will be unable to move very quickly in the gravity of Earth’s atmosphere.
The narrator leaves that night to return the cart, and he finds that he’s quite excited at the prospect of confronting the invaders. As he travels through the countryside, the narrator notices that the villages he passes through are quite deserted and there’s a blood-red glow on the western horizon. The night is stormy, but the narrator notices a third falling star.
The horse is startled by a bolt of lightning and runs down an incline. The narrator fancies that the thunderclaps sound like the workings of a great machine. As he rushes down the hill, the narrator notices something moving in parallel. At first, he thinks it’s a house, but then he notices it’s moving. Finally, through a gap in the trees, he’s able to see it for what it is: a giant tripod machine unlike anything on earth. A second tripod appears out of the trees and rushes toward him. The narrator jerks the reins, breaking the horse’s neck and stopping the cart. The tripod moves past him.
When the coast is clear, the narrator continues on to his own house. He runs into another man in the dark, who flees from him with a cry of terror. He trips on something soft and is horrified to find the dead body of the landlord of the Spotted Dog. He looks as though he died after being flung against a fence. Finally, the narrator makes it to his own house, terrified by what he has seen.
Analysis
In this section, the narrator experiences psychological trauma not unlike a soldier facing the terrors of war. He is overwhelmed by horror at the destruction and dead bodies around him. Yet his inquisitive personality also reasserts itself when he takes the time to ponder the nature of the tripod devices.
Perhaps the most shocking thing about these chapters is how long it takes the populace to wake up to the threat of the Martians. In Chapter 8, the narrator notes that most people within a 5-mile range of the blast go on with their lives as though nothing had happened—because as far as they are concerned, the reports of the Martians must be a joke. It is not until it's too late that they wake up to the true threat. This suggests a surprising view of human nature: people are so attached to their daily lives that they will bury their heads in the sand rather than addressing a looming threat.
These chapters contain heavy use of simile and metaphor to convey the threat of the Martians. The narrator, for example, compares the arrival of the Martians to a poisoned needle, which strikes suddenly and does not take immediate effect, but has terrible consequences when it does. He also compares himself to a dodo: when he tells his wife that there's surely nothing to be concerned about here, he is like the flightless bird who must have watched the arrival of European ships, which would ultimately mean its extermination, with placid concern.
There is a moment of grim irony when the narrator finds the dead body of the landlord of the Spotted Dog. He had borrowed the man's cart and had left his frightened wife in Leatherhead to return it, only to find that the man is dead and no longer able to appreciate this kind gesture.
