62 pages • 2-hour read
Red Mars
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Parts 3-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 3 Summary: “The Crucible”
Mars dramatically differs from Earth, presenting challenges. Nadia is an engineer who takes great pleasure in finding solutions to the problems facing the mission. She thinks about the coldness of Mars and struggles to remember the gravity of her home planet. After recovering a bulldozer, she’s summoned back to the base to help Mata, Vlad, and Sax prepare to get the habitats online. The first day on Mars is a flurry of activity as the 100 colonists find the scattered equipment that either came with them or was sent ahead. Nadia is central to this effort because she deploys the heavy machinery that will allow them to construct a new base and a factory to make new machines and materials. Each person settles into their new role as they adjust to their new Martian schedule. They work hard, which pleases Nadia even though she’s “aching with fatigue” (131).
Nadia is instrumental to constructing a new settlement. She works to exhaustion each day, a marked change from the dull life on the Ares, where she felt useless. Nadia helps Hiroko set up a greenhouse, helps build the small nuclear reactor (ironically named Chernobyl), and communicates with Arkady’s team on Phobos as they try to overcome the moon’s lack of gravity. Nadia and Arkady are close. With so much to do, work progresses slowly. Nadia is essential in addressing all the small, unexpected problems and is an important confidant for her friend Maya. Though Nadia has little interest in human relationships, she listens to “Maya’s problems” regarding her complicated relationships with Chalmers and Boone.
Work progresses on the greenhouse and a small laboratory named for the alchemists who work inside. Avoiding Maya, Nadia visits Hiroko and talks about the “blooming” plants. She has big plans for the settlement, aware that she’s building the first human base on Mars, a construction project that history will remember as “the first human dwelling on Mars” (145). She regularly chats with Arkady, particularly about her love of jazz music.
Life on Mars operates by a different calendar. As the 100 set off on exploratory missions, Ann invites Nadia to accompany them. Nadia declines, believing that she has “too much work to do” (150). She chooses to focus on work; she wishes that everyone could ignore the arguments and disagreements that have continued from the time aboard the Ares. Ann wants to spend more time away from the base, but Vlad warns that she’ll be “fried by radiation” (156). Though reluctant, Nadia lets Maya recruit her to send Boone and Chalmers messages. During a repair job, Nadia’s hand is crushed, and she loses her little finger. She feels “maimed” and is frustrated that she can’t work. This incident makes her realize how alone she is on Mars. Her closest relationship is with Arkady, who is far away on Phobos. Instead, she’s caught up in Maya’s complex love triangle. She thinks Maya should take more responsibility for this situation and wonders if Maya is deliberately manipulating those around her. Nadia finally accepts Ann’s proposal to embark on an exploratory mission.
Ann wants to search for water near the polar ice caps of Mars. Nadia joins Ann, Simon (who is in love with Ann), Phyllis, Edvard, and George on this mission. Nadia treats the trip like a “vacation.” Traveling across land, they lay transponders to guide future automated vehicles to fetch water from the polar regions. Ann and Phyllis frequently argue about the scientific motivations of their mission. Nadia, more of an engineer than an idealist, struggles to understand their disagreements. They stop to collect samples of the Martian geology. The further north they travel, the more the terrain changes. Nadia joins Ann atop a giant sand dune and, watching the sunset, is struck by a sudden “physical response” to the sight of such alien beauty. For the first time, she realizes the profundity of her situation: She’s on Mars. As they resume their journey, the terrain seems “different” to Nadia, but she knows that it’s she that has changed rather than Mars.
In the polar region, they set up an ice mining facility. Ann wants to continue their survey of the region to the north pole, but George, Edvard, and Phyllis don’t agree. After contacting Maya, Boone, and Chalmers, Ann is granted this opportunity. She takes one vehicle north with Nadia, while the rest of the crew stays to set up the ice mining facility. At the north pole, Naida thanks Ann for inviting her on the trip. Ann responds with her fears that the proposed terraforming efforts will change Mars forever. The polar ice caps, she says, may not exist in the future. They return to the ice mining site, where George has constructed columns from ice, inspired by ancient Greece. As they travel back to the settlement, now named Underhill, Nadia grasps Ann’s implications about how they’ll change the planet. The closer they get to Underhill, the more “close-mouthed and solitary” (188) Ann seems. She tells Nadia that she wants to explore the rest of the planet before it’s too late. Nadia warns about the radiation; Ann acknowledges this threat, but she’s sad to lose the chance to study the real Mars.
Arkady visits Underhill. When Nadia gives him a “detailed tour” (197), he enthusiastically offers many suggestions for changes. He thinks the settlement should be aesthetically pleasing and distinct, as well as functional. He later shares these suggestions with the rest of Underhill, displeasing some but inspiring others. Nadia is happy to see Arkady again. His return prompts a fierce discussion of “the terraforming debate” (201). By this point, the debate has spread back to Earth. Factions have formed behind the anti-terraforming group, known as Reds, whom Ann represents, and the pro-terraforming group, known as Greens, whom Sax represents. Arkady is pro-terraforming: He sees this as the first step toward a fully self-sufficient society.
As the terraforming debate rages, Vlad works on genetically engineering a microorganism capable of surviving on Mars and on kickstarting the terraforming process. Such a plan would need approval from the United Nations Office for Martian Affairs (UNOMA). Arkady suggests that they sidestep such approvals, prompting the rage of Chalmers and Maya, who tell him to tone down his rhetoric. Ann sends messages directly to Earth, hoping to galvanize support for anti-terraforming. The other colonists feel betrayed by her actions, causing her to argue with Sax over their plans for the planet. The debate is filmed and sent back to Earth, whereupon UNOMA approves Sax’s proposal to distribute small windmills around the planet. These small windmills will help heat the planet, Sax believes, and can be distributed by a fleet of small dirigibles. Arkady volunteers to pilot one of the dirigibles and invites Nadia to join him.
Arkady and Nadia fly over Mars, dropping small windmills at regular intervals. They discuss Sax’s vision for terraforming Mars, which includes dragging a meteorite across the Martian surface to bring hydrogen and oxygen to the atmosphere. The huge mountains of Mars capture Nadia’s attention. She and Arkady begin a sexual relationship. He praises her beauty over any of the other women in the 100, telling her that she’s the “queen of Mars” (223) and that he loves her. While positioning one of the windmills, Nadia notices a compartment containing genetically modified algae. She’s furious, believing that Arkady conspired with Vlad and Sax to spread the algae across the planet without UNOMA approval. Arkady insists that he had no knowledge of the plan; he’s concerned that someone would take up revolutionary ideas without involving him. They try to determine who might be involved. Hiroko stands out as an enigma; her followers treat her like “a guru.”
As their journey continues, a dust storm begins, and navigating through it endangers their lives. Nadia has an idea: They can try to return to Underhill aboard one of the automated vehicles. As they return to the settlement, a radio broadcast announces that UNOMA approved the terraforming plan and a broader Martian colonization project. Arkady is amused, knowing that whoever put the algae in the windmills will “get away with it” (240).
Part 4 Summary: “Homesick”
Through evolution, life adapts and changes in response to environmental challenges. The genetically modified algae in the windmills undergoes this process: Some strands are successful; others perish. The various strands of algae are different colors, changing the appearance of Mars.
Michel Duval, the resident psychologist, still dreams of his home in Nice, France. He envisions himself swimming in the ocean. A telephone call interrupts his wistful reminiscence. Phyllis and Ursula want to warn him that Maya is experiencing “another fit.” Duval thinks that, as beautiful as Maya is, she’s struggling to remain sane. He attributes this to the generational sufferance of women in Russia, who resent men but need them at the same time. When Duval talks to Maya, he knows she presents herself differently to him than to anyone else in Underhill. She wouldn’t let herself be so vulnerable to anyone but him. Despite his job, he struggles to teach Maya. Her problems—or new problems—will recur soon, so he sees little point in trying to help. They walk around the rapidly changing settlement, where so much salt has been collected that it has been piled into great pyramids until Sax can think up a use for it. They pass Hiroko’s lichen farm and then visit the gardens, where spruce trees are growing. When he sees Nadia at work, Duval notes that she’s the complete opposite of her fellow Russia woman, Maya. He thinks of them as occupying two opposing sides on the scale between labile and stabile.
Maya mentions her creeping sensation that life is but “one big simulation” (254). Duval finds this an odd comment. He feels quite the opposite. Life is too real on Mars for Duval. The planet is cold and inhospitable. He desperately misses his home. Returning to the contrast between labile and stabile, Duval introduces another scale: introvert and extrovert. He has developed a theory of personality according to these tendencies. His diagram resembles the theory of the humors from ancient Greece. Duval positions each of the 100 somewhere on this four-point scale as he wanders through the Alchemists’ Quarter, where Sax and his people are working. Duval experiences time slippage, arriving in new places and forgetting how he got there. He’s at the foot of the salt pyramid but doesn’t recall how he arrived there. Climbing the pyramid, he reflects on his concerted effort to join the Mars mission. He misses France, and he misses speaking French. He communicates with difficulty with people on Earth.
Duval is in the television room. He doesn’t remember how he got there. After fantasizing about Maya, he dreams of France again. He wakes up to find himself still on Mars. He wanders blankly around Underhill, feeling like a robotic computer program rather than a human. One night, Duval awakes to the sound of strangers in his room. He sees a “black silhouetted figure” (268) before him. The man will not reveal his identity. Instead, he leads Duval to Hiroko’s farm. There, Duval sees children. He’s shocked to see children on Mars. Hiroko, he learns, developed a cultlike “landscape religion” with a number of followers among the 100. She leads them in worshipping the soil and nature. This spirituality is influenced by traditional beliefs from Japan and other places. Duval is among the naked followers. They perform a ceremony and involve Duval. He eats Martian soil and he becomes one of Hiroko’s followers. Their movement is named areophany. After the ritual, the ceremony becomes sexual. Hiroko tells Duval that she and her followers will soon leave Underhill. They’ll go to a hidden place and build a new society, something like Duval wants, Hiroko suggests. He agrees to join them.
Parts 3-4 Analysis
Vision Versus Reality in Building a New Society emerges as a theme in this section. Aboard the Ares, the Arkady-led discussions of a future Martian society were purely abstract. People bickered over what a future Martian society might look like or whether the planet should (or even could) be terraformed to accommodate human life. From Nadia’s perspective, these debates are meaningless. She’s bored on the Ares, and only when she lands and begins to construct the new habitation does she feel at all useful. Nadia’s happiness directly correlates with her sense of purpose; she needs to solve problems, especially when doing so helps other people. However, a small recognition in Nadia grows over her time on Mars: that she’s becoming an important figure in human history. This initially makes her uncomfortable, particularly given the growing realization that she and the rest of the 100 are celebrities back on Earth. Typically, Nadia’s view of her place in history links to her work. While building Underhill, she has a revelation: In the future, this will be a museum piece. Thus, her decisions are guided not just by her own perspective but also by the imagined perspective of a future Martian society that looks back on and judges her work as an important step in the colonization process. Nadia begins to look beyond her engineering creations to their effect on history. Arkady’s arrival in Underhill helps Nadia see that his utopic ambitions and her engineering solutions aren’t entirely separate. They’re part of the same discussion. Additionally, when Nadia goes on the explorative journey with Ann and watches a Martian sunset, she feels, at last, like an adventurer.
Nadia’s views allow for a neutral perspective on the terraforming debate that occupies so much of the novel. Nadia, whose preoccupations concern engineering conundrums, doesn’t side with Ann or Sax. She’s neither Red nor Green. This allows her to document the discussion as it unfurls, especially as Ann becomes increasingly pessimistic about her position. The journey with Ann to the polar regions of Mars is a symbolic journey toward understanding. Nadia, whose engineering background makes her more predisposed toward Sax’s scientific focus, realizes the complexity of Ann’s perspective. She comes to understand Ann as more than just an ideologue, a perspective that readers then share. This growing bond with Ann makes Nadia even more outraged when she discovers that she has been tricked into beginning the terraforming process by distributing windmills across Mars. She feels that Sax and his side have betrayed her and, at the same time, that she has betrayed Ann. In contrast to these individual complaints, however, the more profitable option of terraforming the planet seems almost inevitable, justifying Ann’s pessimism.
Fundamental Elements of Humanity That Complicate Colonization continues as a central theme in this section. Duval’s section of the narrative is one of the novel’s shortest. Part 4 feels detached from the debates about terraforming and Martian society because Duval himself is emotionally detached from the mission. He’s consumed by homesickness and furious with himself for ever believing that he could be happy on Mars. Duval’s misery creates an ironic situation, wherein the mission psychologist—recruited so that the 100 could communicate and resolve any psychological issues—hides his depression from everyone else. Furthermore, his patients actively annoy him. Maya occupies all his time, and he can’t motivate himself to care. Thus, the man responsible for the mental health of the rest of the 100 can’t even keep his own mental health in check. This disconnect from the mission sets up Duval as the perfect recruit for Hiroko’s cultlike community. Duval, disgusted with his life on Mars, has the option to escape into the unknown. He decides to join Hiroko, putting his homesickness behind him by finding a new home in the wilderness.
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