The War of the Worlds: Book 1, Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

The shops close in Woking after the Martians use the Heat-Ray, but this doesn’t adequately reflect the attitude held by most people who haven’t yet seen the aliens’ fury. People seem to treat the event as an interesting topic of conversation, writes the narrator, not as a serious threat to their lives. In fact, many people in Woking don’t even know the cylinder has opened, though before he died Henderson sent a messenger to report the news to a local paper. Along with another astronomer, Ogilvy himself also sent word (before dying) that a company of soldiers should report to the pit. Still, everything within range is destroyed, and the narrator estimates roughly forty people now lie in charred heaps. Of those who died, at least three were “crushed and trampled” by fellow humans.