The Other Foot

“‘Lynch him?’ Everyone laughed. Mr. Brown slapped his knee. ‘Why, bless you, child, no! We’re going to shake his hand. Ain’t we, everyone?’”

This quote indicates the Martians’ initial attitude toward the newcomers. They expect to meet the white man on equal, friendly terms. It’s only when Willie gets involved that their attitude changes.

“‘Willie, that ain’t no Christian way to talk.’

‘I’m not feeling Christian,’ he said savagely, gripping the wheel. ‘I’m just feeling mean…You remember? Or you got a memory that’s short like the others?’”

Willie references the racial violence he and others endured on Earth, and emphasizes the importance of memory in his quest for revenge. This is sharply contrasted with the Christian value of forgiveness that Hattie will be promoting by the end of the story.

“The shoe’s on the other foot now. We’ll see who gets laws passed against him, who gets lynched, who rides the back of streetcars, who gets segregated in shows. We’ll just wait and see.”

Beyond giving the story its title, this quote summarizes the reversal of fortune central to “The Other Foot.” Those who once held power may now be subjected to it, and Willie is excited at the prospect.

“You don’t sound human, and I don’t like it.”

Hattie points out the inhumanity of Willie’s revenge quest. The general attitude of friendly tolerance toward the approaching visitor could not be more different than Willie’s hunt for guns and rope, and it contrasts sharply with the old man’s eventual plea for tolerance.

“I stopped at every house and I told them what to do, to get their guns, to get paint, to bring rope and be ready. And here we all are, the welcoming committee, to give them the key to the city. Yes, sir!”

Willie outlines how he has organized the mob, sarcastically referring to them as his “welcoming committee.” This is an allusion to the common practice of white mobs violently “greeting” Black families when they moved into previously all-white areas.

“‘You’re making a mob, Willie Johnson.’

‘That’s the idea.’

‘The same thing you always hated when you were a kid. You’re no better than some of those white men you yell about!’

‘This is the other shoe, Mayor, and the other foot,’ said Willie.”

The mayor points out the parallels between Willie’s behavior and the mob violence that killed his father. The emphasis on what Bradbury is suggesting in Willie’s hypocrisy will come back later in Willie’s reference to “white mortuaries.”

“‘Ready!’ shouted half the crowd. The other half murmured and moved like figures in a nightmare in which they wished no participation.”

This passage indicates that the crowd is not as willing to do violence as it seems on the surface. About half the participants want no part in the old man’s death but feel unable to break away from their group identity.

“‘A white man, a white man, a white man…’ The words traveled back in the expectant crowd, the children speaking in each other’s ears, whispering, butting each other, the words moving in ripples to where the crowd stopped and the streetcars stood in the windy sunlight, the smell of paint coming out their opened windows. The whispering wore itself away and it was gone.”

This passage contrasts the old man’s arrival with what waits for him on Mars. The wondering tone of the crowd is at odds with the freshly prepared signs of segregation. This sets up a conflict: Which aspect of the Martian character will win out? Here, Bradbury uses a long sentence—“The words traveled back…”—that builds tension with each clause.

“He looked down into their faces, and perhaps he saw but did not see the guns and the ropes, and perhaps he smelled the paint. No one ever asked him.”

This passage emphasizes that the old man, by chance or choice, is unaware of the danger that confronts him. It indicates that he is acting only as a messenger; even as the first visitor from Earth in 20 years, he is not important enough to ask for his perceptions of his first moments on Mars.

“So we destroyed everything and ruined everything, like the fools that we were and the fools that we are.”

This passage baldly states a popular view of human nature: that humanity ruins everything it touches. However, the thriving society of Mars suggests that self-destruction is not unavoidable.

“We deserve anything you want to do to us, but don’t shut us out. We can’t force you to act now.”

The old man appeals to the humanity of the Martians. By acknowledging the faults of the societies he represents and that the Martians hold all the power in this situation, he lays the foundation for reconciliation.

“He was remembering Earth, the green Earth and the green town where he was born and raised, and he was thinking now of that town, gone to pieces, to ruin, blown up and scattered, all of the landmarks with it, all of the supposed or certain evil scattered with it, all of the hard men gone, the stables, the ironsmiths, the curio shops, the soda founts, the gin mills, the river bridges, the lynching trees, the buckshot-covered hills, the roads, the cows, the mimosas, and his own house as well as those big-pillared houses down near the long river, those white mortuaries where the women as delicate as moths fluttered in the autumn light, distant, far away.”

Willie remembers Earth in terms of its landscape, especially the elements of that landscape altered or constructed by humans. Hills and trees become “buckshot-covered hills” and “lynching trees,” suggesting that he cannot disentangle the place he remembers from the trauma he experienced there. The passage uses a simile, comparing women to moths.

“And what happens next is up to all of us. The time for being fools is over. We got to be something else except fools. I knew that when he talked. I knew then that now the white man’s as lonely as we’ve always been. He’s got no home now, just like we didn’t have one for so long. Now everything’s even. We can start all over again, on the same level.”

Willie explains his new perspective, which is more in line with that of Hattie and the old man than with the ideas he espoused at the beginning of the story. Willie’s definition of equality no longer involves revenge or even compensation for his suffering; he now regards vengeance as foolish and finds commonality in the fact that he and the old man have both lost their original homes. In contrast to the narration’s long, winding sentences, Willie uses shorter sentences and more informal language.