The Illustrated Man

Captain Hart and his lieutenant, Martin, have landed their rocket ship outside an alien town, but the locals have not come out to visit them. A cynical man, Hart is tired and angry. He flicks his cigarette into a meadow; Martin stamps it out. Hart can’t understand how their efforts in getting here could go unnoticed and wonders: “Why do we do it, Martin? This space travel, I mean. Always on the go. Always searching. Our insides always tight, never any rest” (61). Martin suggests that perhaps they are looking for peace. Hart agrees, and both decide they might be seeking for something good beyond their “evil planet” (63). Hart sends Martin to the town to investigate.

Martin returns in a daze. The villagers, he says, are disinterested in their rocket because the day before, an unnamed man had arrived. The townspeople had been waiting for this man for a long time. Hart immediately suspects rival rocket captains Ashley or Burton, but Martin insists it was neither; this is a man known by different names on every planet, a man who “healed the sick and comforted the poor” and “fought hypocrisy and dirty politics” (66).

In town, Hart blusters through a conversation with the mayor, which is translated by electronic equipment. He does not believe this mysterious visitor healed the mayor’s son and others, since the mayor can offer him no tangible proof. Martin defends the townspeople’s experiences as genuine and pushes back against Hart’s condescending attitude and “scientific method” (70). Hart is convinced this was all a capitalistic ploy by Burton: “You should know Earthmen by now,” he insists. “They’ll do anything—blaspheme, lie, cheat, steal, kill, to get their ends” (70).

Back at the ship, Martin sulks. If Burton was behind all this, he wants to kill him. Two rockets land—Ashley’s and Burton’s—and an injured man from Burton’s ship claims both men were killed in a cosmic storm. Hart realizes his mistake and the truth of the man’s identity. After hearing hours of firsthand accounts from the villagers, he threatens and shoots the mayor, trying to get information on the man’s whereabouts. The mayor pities him as he rushes away to his rocket, determined to track the man down; Hart “will never find him that way” (75). Martin decides to stay on the planet. In their last conversation, he asks Hart what he wants from the man. Hart says he wants a little peace and quiet. Martin asks if Hart has ever simply tried, but Hart does not understand.

At the edge of the meadow, Martin meet the mayor, who takes Martin to meet the man, who was in the city all along.