“The Illustrated Man” is an exciting journey through the mind of Ray Bradbury, as best represented and told in the form of short stories. They are poignant, powerful, and thought-provoking. They ask questions about the future, while criticizing or taking inventory of the present.

These short stories, for the most part, focus on space travel and technological innovation, from which abound ethical concerns and problems. The stuff of science fiction is not an end in and of itself for Bradbury; rather, these stories of the future, of time travel, of Martians, and of alien invasions take a look at humanity and the world at the time of Bradbury’s writing. Considering the Cold War, the space race between the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R., and much more of the culture of the mid-20th century, Bradbury’s stories are meaningful, and they continue to be meaningful today as the Western world continues to progress, as well as with the growing interest in space travel.