How we cite our quotes: (Volume.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Practically he had already sunk to the level of an animal. (2.3.11)
We've discussed before how the arrival of the Martians puts people in the place of animals. That is, rather than people hunting animals, we now have Martians hunting people. This passage is related (it's about people becoming animals), but slightly different, since the Martians aren't present. Also, while we think this is an interesting example of human exile, we should keep in mind that the narrator might be a little biased about the curate.
Quote #8
I had expected to see Sheen in ruins – I found about me the landscape, weird and lurid, of another planet. (2.6.1)
Once again, we see how the Martians are making the Earth unearthly, leading the narrator to feel as if he were exiled to some place new and foreign. What makes this sense of exile worse, of course, is that this is happening without the narrator actually leaving. As he says here, he's still in Sheen, but he doesn't recognize it.
Quote #9
Strangest in this, that so soon as dawn had come, I, who had talked with God, crept out of the house like a rat leaving its hiding place – a creature scarcely larger, an inferior animal, a thing that for any passing whim of our masters might be hunted and killed. Perhaps they also prayed confidently to God. Surely, if we have learned nothing else, this war has taught us pity – pity for those witless souls that suffer our dominion. (2.7.3)
Again, we're in the realm of the metaphorical. The narrator used to believe that humans have a special relationship with God – after all, in the Book of Genesis, God gives "dominion" over the Earth to humans. But the coming of the Martians makes him reconsider. Does God not particularly care about humans vs. any other living beings?