Summary
Book 2, Chapter 6
Though there are no tripods in sight, the landscape is weird and alien. Much has been destroyed, and the red weed has overgrown everything. The narrator briefly ponders the fact that humanity has been toppled from its place at the top of the hierarchy, and then he steals some vegetables from a garden.
Though the red weed is plentiful right after the invasion, the narrator notes that it died off shortly thereafter because it could not survive in the atmosphere of Earth. The narrator walks for a long time but finds neither people nor Martians.
Book 2, Chapter 7
The narrator finds more food and a comfortable bed. He is haunted by the curate's death and the role he played in it, but he reasons that the man had gone mad and he had done everything he could to preserve the curate's life. The narrator also thinks about his wife and hopes that she did not suffer the same terrible fate. He feels like an animal, which gives him greater sympathy for animals.
He suddenly encounters a man with a sword. The man threatens him, but the narrator tells him that he just wants to find his wife in Leatherhead. Shockingly, the man recognizes him based on this statement, and the narrator realizes that he has encountered the artilleryman once again.
The artilleryman brings the narrator back to his base and discusses his plans for the future of humanity. Resistance to the Martians is futile, and human culture as the two men have known it is gone forever. The artilleryman muses that perhaps the Martians will try to breed humans. The artilleryman has a plan for this, however: he will seek strong and "clean-minded" men and women to join his underground civilization. He accepts that the rest of humanity will perish.
The artilleryman shows the narrator the tunnel he has been digging to host this marvelous new society, and the narrator is disappointed to see that it's rather shallow and pitiful. He realizes that the artilleryman is mostly an undisciplined dreamer, mocking other survivors for drinking and relaxing when he himself is doing the same thing; the narrator leaves him in London.
Book 2, Chapter 8
The narrator walks through the ruins of London, which are filled with the ash from the Black Smoke and dead bodies. It is empty of people, and a haunting "ulla ulla" noise echoes through the city.
The narrator decides to walk up to a Martian tripod, no longer caring for his life. However, he is shocked to see that the Martian is dead. As it turns out, like the red weed, the Martians had no resistance to the microbes of earth and died from simple bacteria.
He looks out at the deserted city of London and thinks about the work of rebuilding. He also thinks about his wife, who, he is sure, must be dead by now.
Book 2, Chapter 9
The narrator is in a fog for the next three days and is taken in by a kind group of people. When he emerges from this fugue, he learns that the rest of the world has heard of the Martian invasion and their subsequent death from bacteria, and a number of supplies have been sent to England.
Unfortunately, the narrator learns from the people caring for him that Leatherhead was destroyed by a Martian; he gives up all hope of finding his wife.
The narrator decides to go back to his house in Woking. On the way, he sees people rebuilding the tracks destroyed by the Martians, and this gives him hope for humanity. When he arrives at his house in Woking, he is shocked to discover his wife there. She faints from the shock.
Book 2, Chapter 10
The narrator muses on the lessons learned from the Martian invasion. The Martians taught them a great deal about science, though humanity has not been able to figure out the mechanisms behind the Black Smoke or the heat ray. One Martian body was recovered from autopsy, and science is learning a great deal about this species. More significantly, humanity has learned that they are not alone in the universe: there are other intelligent beings in the universe, and some of them are malicious towards humanity. He notes that there is some evidence that the Martians have gone to Venus, and he ponders the fact that humans could potentially do the same thing after the sun cools.
The narrator still sometimes has visions of the Martian invasion, even six years afterward. Still, he is glad to be able to hold his wife's hand after they each thought the other was dead.
Analysis
On the surface, the curate and the artilleryman seem as opposite as can be, having diametrically opposed reactions to the Martian invasion. The curate submits utterly to the Martians, even abandoning his shelter to run to them. The artilleryman, on the other hand, tries to find methods to resist them, but he ultimately exists in a world of fantasy and daydreams. This opposition suggests that both resistance and submission are ultimately useless in the face of the Martian onslaught; only the narrator and his brother, who are intelligent and cunning, are able to survive.
The Martians are said to have flying machines, which puts fear into the hearts of humans. Machines capable of flight were not yet a reality at the time that Wells was writing this book, so the idea of an aerial attack belonged to the same realm of science fiction as heat rays or Martians. An aerial attack would have been nearly impossible to defend from at the time, and so it represented a horrible possibility.
The death of the Martians at the hands of bacteria is perhaps one of the most famous events in science fiction history. The idea that tiny microbes could defeat an enemy that had brought all of humanity to its knees is deliciously ironic, and also has some basis in tragic human history. The Native Americans were devastated by the smallpox brought by colonial invaders from Europe since they had no natural immunity to these illnesses. In this fiction, humanity is saved by similar deadly microbes.
The last few chapters show the world beginning to rebuild. Humanity is working together in unprecedented peace, and England (which seems to have suffered most at the hands of the Martian invasion) is receiving assistance from all around the world. However, this newfound peace might be short-lived, since the narrator notes that the Martians seemed to have settled on Venus and also muses that this planet might offer a habitable home for humanity after the sun cools. The narrator seems to be setting up humanity for another confrontation with the Martians—one in which humans come armed with Martian technology and fight the Martians on their own planet.
At the ending of the novel, the narrator seems to be suffering from PTSD. Even six years later, he has continual flashbacks of the events of the Martian invasion, which involve witnessing unfathomable death and destruction. He also remembers how he thought his wife was dead, though he is now grateful to hold her hand.
