62 pages • 2-hour read
Red Mars
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Symbols & Motifs
Mars
Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of death.
As the novel’s title suggests, Mars plays a pivotal role in the story. It’s not just the setting for the narrative; a version of Mars exists beyond the physical planet. From Part 2 onward, characters come to regard Mars as a symbol of opportunity. As Arkady suggests aboard the Ares, Mars is a chance to build a new society, free from the constraints and mistakes of Earth. Mars is more than just a planet; it represents the potential of the human race, a blank slate for the design of a new human society. In this sense, Mars represents the ambition and optimism of those aboard the Ares. While they may differ on their personal views of what Mars could become, they’re unified in their belief that it represents a historic opportunity for their species. Consequently, the 100 making the journey consciously treat Mars as such. They understand the symbolism of their mission and of their destination.
However, the colonists have competing visions for the planet’s future. The 100 disagree about how Martian society should function. Not everyone buys into Arkady’s vision of a social utopia, for example. For Chalmers, Mars should be a more refined version of Earth society. For Boone, Martian potential contains a more romantic, exploratory element. To the transnationals, Mars represents a profit opportunity. To many of the nations on Earth, Mars represents the chance to redress centuries of colonial exploitation. For the richer nations, Mars represents a way to vent overpopulation. These visions are in competition with one another; they can’t all succeed. As such, the competing ideas of what Mars represents has a deeper symbolism. In this instance, Mars represents the competing subjective views of individual humans: Mars is whatever people need it to be. These visions for a Martian future may clash, but the clash itself symbolizes the individuality and the disagreement among humans. The blank slate of Mars becomes the symbolic extension of these disagreements and the battleground where they play out. Given the hope surrounding the mission, the planet name (Mars) and the ship name (Ares) are somewhat ironic since they are the names of the god of war in Roman and Greek mythology, respectively.
One of the most important understandings of Mars operates in parallel to reality. Even though the 100 colonists include scientists and technicians, they can’t help but bring humanity’s love of legend and folklore with them. Rather than explicit superstitions, many of the people who visit the planet come to view Mars through a folkloric lens. Old Earth stories such as Big Man and Paul Bunyan are imported directly to Mars as a familiar way to explain the alien terrain. The presence of these familiar stories in an alien world gives the colonists comfort, as though they’re bringing a bit of their home world with them. After some time on Mars, uniquely Martian stories begin to develop. Boone is elevated into the pantheon of local legends after his assassination, for example. The story of his death is a part of a new Martian folklore that is common to the people of Mars even if they come from widely different cultures and groups. In this sense, the folkloric development of the idea of Mars symbolizes how human culture grows organically even in alien situations. Mars may mean something different to everyone, but—as they spend more time on the planet—people begin to develop a common understanding of what their presence on Mars represents.
Red Versus Green
Throughout the first half of Red Mars, the debate about whether humans have the right to terraform the planet becomes a key issue. The debate becomes a dichotomy between red (anti-terraforming) and green (pro-terraforming), between Ann and Sax, and between preserving the natural environment of Mars and making it habitable for humans. The first real debate between Ann and Sax is recorded on the Ares and broadcast back to Earth, where the public consumes it as though it’s entertainment. Separated from Mars by millions of miles, the people of Earth soon take up positions in line with Ann or Sax. The red-versus-green debate symbolizes how the media flattens the nuances of discussion. Since the debate is turned into media, the terraforming issue quickly polarizes along red-versus-green lines with little space for nuance in between.
The debate rages on as the settlement process begins. As people like Nadia focus on the practical demands of building a colony on an alien planet, the red-versus-green debate gathers steam, becoming a focal point for broader discussions about environmentalism and human responsibility. Ann believes that humans have no right to alter the planet, while Sax believes that environmental change is inevitable. Soon, every minor decision at Underhill is subsumed into this broader debate, one that has the potential to shape future Martian society. Importantly, however, the debate is never truly settled. As Nadia discovers, supporters of the green side of the argument launch a covert attempt to terraform Mars without seeking approval or permission. They simply begin to introduce genetically modified algae, hidden in Sax’s windmills. Fortunately for the greens, the terraforming process becomes law just in time to avoid any legal repercussions. The way the debate is settled in a legal sense symbolizes a broader, uncomfortable truth about the colonization process: Eventually, the most profitable option will likely triumph.
Though the greens triumph in the debate, victory doesn’t take the expected shape. Sax proposes many ways to change the environment to accommodate human presence on Mars, but his suggestions have mixed results. He distributes thousands of little windmills around the planet, scrapes an asteroid across the atmosphere, and constructs vast new labs in the sides of canyons, yet Mars remains steadfastly hostile to organic life. In effect, the Revolution brings true terraforming to Mars. Once it begins, the warring factions cast aside concerns about the environment in the name of profit. The collapsing space elevator, crashing moon, and attacks on human settlements drastically change Martian ecology as a by-product of the battle for political control of the planet. Terraforming occurs almost as an afterthought due to the sudden emergence of floods, which kill Chalmers and nearly kill many of the others. The red-versus-green debate masked many unanswered and problematic questions about Martian colonization, which all end in a destructive, deadly explosion of terraforming floods resulting from human violence. Thus, an academic debate becomes entertainment, then turns political, and is eventually settled by violence. Mars is terraformed, but not in the way anyone imagined.
Phobos
Mars is an important symbol in the novel, but the Martian moon Phobos plays an equally important symbolic role. The first discussions about Phobos take place aboard the Ares. Arkady, the loud visionary who insists on making a new society, elects to take his band of followers up to the moon as part of the mission. This is a dangerous offer, others believe, as they don’t trust Arkady or his followers. No one else wants to go to Phobos rather than Mars, however. They have a more pressing desire to do their own work on Mars. As such, Arkady gets what he wants: Phobos becomes a playground for his experiments. The way Arkady gets what he wants symbolizes the extent to which self-interest and selfishness frequently triumph over legitimate concerns. Arkady is willing to make a sacrifice by posting himself and his team on Phobos, whereas others are not. Arkady can see the symbolic potential in asserting his vision early in a smaller setting, while others struggle to establish a settlement on Mars itself.
Arkady’s vision for a Martian future begins on Phobos. Notably, this vision is bold and all-encompassing. In addition to trying to build a more equal society, Arkady tells Nadia, he has a vision for an aesthetic future for Mars. Rather than simply making the moon livable, he creates a beautiful space in which humans can live. His designs are at once alien and human, symbolizing the mission itself. When he visits Nadia on Mars, Arkady shares with her the importance of aesthetics in The Dream Versus the Reality of Building a New Society. He wants to build something beautiful rather than simply functional, to do more than just survive. Phobos becomes a symbol of Arkady’s vision of the future because it’s not only where he can wield his power but also a physical space in which he can realize his ideas without imposition. He doesn’t need to compromise, and Phobos becomes, in effect, the symbol of Arkady’s ideal world.
By the end of the book, however, a deeper meaning for Phobos emerges. While Arkady was building his vision for a future Martian society, he was also changing Phobos into a weapon. A series of rockets can be activated via transmitter that can crash the moon into the surface of Mars. This weaponized moon symbolizes Arkady’s relationship to the other early colonists. Arkady and his revolutionary ideals are hidden under the guise of the mission, a threat that lingers beneath the surface but can strike at any moment. Unfortunately for Arkady, this moment comes long after his death. He entrusts the transmitter to Nadia, who, enraged by grief and frustration, launches Phobos into Mars. This is the moon’s ultimate fate is to represent the extent to which Nadia has been driven to extremes by those around her. Phobos becomes the destructive symbol of Nadia’s grief, crashing into the planet in a final symbolic expression of the failure of Arkady’s dream of a better future.
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