The War of the Worlds displays little compassion for the masses who flee London after the Martian invasion. The presence of the Martians is traumatic for the entire population, but the narrator rarely shows sympathy for those around him. In Book 1, Chapter 6, he compares them to sheep using a simile:
‘They’re coming!’ a woman shrieked, and incontinently everyone was turning and pushing at those behind, in order to clear their way to Woking again. They must have bolted as blindly as a flock of sheep.
In literature and poetry, sheep usually symbolize meekness. In the Bible, the lamb represents Christ as a pure, gentle, suffering yet triumphant figure. Revelations alone refers to Christ 27 times as "Lamb" or "Lamb of God." This aligns with the metaphor of the shepherd, God, the leader of humanity. However, the "blind[ness]" with which the London masses "incontinently" bolt has a far more negative connotation. Perhaps, in this apparently godless universe, people feel abandoned by their shepherd (God). The subtle religious undertones of this comparison are important to note given the presence of other biblical allusions in the story.
The sheep simile in The War of the Worlds could also be a reference to the idea that in times of crisis many people revert to primal instinct. In this scene, people "bolted" out of fear. Animal references dehumanize these people, who are being crushed, trampled, shot, and stabbed. Readers do not get details about the individuals but rather a sweeping description of the whole group. Throughout the story, the narrator tends to compare people to animals; in Book 2, Chapter 6, he compares himself to a rabbit who discovers that his burrow has been destroyed by humans. These similes have a humbling effect, as they help the story disprove the hubris and vanity of humanity's tendency to think of itself as the most intelligent group in the universe. What The War of the World seems to show is that people are—in times of crisis—simply animals.
