Auditory imagery helps the fanciful story in The War of the Worlds seem more real. Symbolically, the juxtaposition of noise and silence signifies times of violence and peace. It also evokes the patterns of noise in the city. In Book 1, Chapter 7, the narrator describes the striking difference between the "frantic" city and a comparatively peaceful row of houses:
Over the Maybury arch a train, a billowing tumult of white, firelit smoke, and a long caterpillar of lighted windows, went flying south – clatter, clatter, clap, rap, and it had gone. A dim group of people talked in the gate of one of the houses in the pretty little row of gables that was called Oriental Terrace. It was all so real and so familiar. And that behind me! It was frantic, fantastic! Such things, I told myself, could not be.
The words "clatter, clatter, clap, rap" do not have special formatting or punctuation. However, they still contrast sharply with the other sentences in the passage (which are more visually descriptive). The narrator also uses alliteration to create a distinctive rhetorical effect, as he observes, "It was frantic, fantastic!" Here, "fantastic" does not mean great; it rather means beyond belief. During the first stages of the Martians' invasion, the narrator cannot fathom that something so "fantastic" could ever be real. But auditory imagery helps reinforce the "real and [...] familiar" world of industrial England.
Silence is also significant. It comes to symbolize death and the cessation of human activity. In Book 2, Chapter 4, the narrator describes the "silence, that passed into an infinity of suspense" as he hides from a Martian. Silence, the narrative implies, can signify either peace or intense fear. Most of the people in this novel seem to exist in an "infinity of suspense" as the Martian invasion uproots their worldview and existence. The narrator is no exception. But while he might remain silent in the presence of the Martians, he actively participates in the preservation of his own life and the rescue of his wife. And, most importantly, he decides to record his story for posterity, expressing his traumas and difficulties rather than remaining silent on the subject. To that end, the narrative's continual juxtaposition of sound and silence creates an associative contrast that heightens the emotional elements of the novel.
