How we cite our quotes: (Volume.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
I was a little depressed at first with the contagion of my wife's fears (1.10.5)
Here, the narrator is saying that he's caught a little bit of what his wife feels. "Contagion" is related to "contagious," so you can imagine someone catching an emotion in the same way that someone catches a cold. This quote raises a few questions for us. First, is "contagion" a hint about how the Martians are going to die in the end? Second, did you notice this idea come up a few times in the book? For some examples, see 1.14.14, 1.17.18, and 1.14.45. Yep, this is a big issue.
Quote #5
That was the story I got from him, bit by bit. He grew calmer telling me and trying to make me see the things he had seen. (1.11.33)
We get a lot of scenes in which fear spreads like the flu, but this is perhaps the only scene in which someone gets calmer in the company of a calm person. Why does telling his story calm the artilleryman?
Quote #6
At sight of these strange, swift, and terrible creatures the crowd near the water's edge seemed to me to be for a moment horror-struck. […] I turned with the rush of the people, but I was not too terrified for thought. (1.12.50)
Fear is often thought of as something that hurts people because it prevents them from thinking clearly. But here the narrator can still think straight. Why do you think he's able to do that?