Wind and Mist Symbol Analysis

From the beginning of the story, wind and mist are representative of the uncanny and the unknown on Mars. When he first disembarks onto the planet, Harry Bittering is immediately struck by the wind sweeping across the plains, reflecting that “the wind blew as if to flake away their identities. At any moment the Martian air might draw his soul from him, as marrow comes from a white bone.” Later, when connection with Earth has been severed by nuclear war, Harry is overcome by fear of the change that is embodied by the wind now that “Earth people” have been “left to the strangeness of Mars, the cinnamon dusts and wine airs.” He tries by any means available to escape back to Earth, worrying that “if we stay here, we’ll all change. The air. Don’t you smell it? Something in the air. A Martian virus, maybe; some seed, or a pollen.” Ultimately, the wind is representative of the Martian environment as a whole, something pervasive and inescapable that spreads gradual change.

The wind also symbolizes the effect that time has on history, slowly wearing away the civilization of former inhabitants until all that is left is empty buildings and sand. One of the Bittering children remarks, “I hear the wind. The sand hits my window. I get scared. And I see those towns way up in the mountains where the Martians lived a long time ago.” The wind brings not just change but slow annihilation, grinding down even huge cities to dust. In this respect, the wind has both generative and destructive capacities, symbolizing both life and death, but most of all change.