In the adventure book John Carter of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author uses symbolism in the characters to represent a societal problem. I believe that a societal problem Edgar Rice is trying to portray in this book is racism. Many instance in this book shows a hidden type of racism.
One of the first examples of the hidden racism is when they capture the Princess of Jedak, Dejah Torris. The Martians that captured her are called the Green Martians because they are Green.The princess Dejah comes from Helium which is filled with Red Martians. Both of them are always fighting against each other. They all have different beliefs and feelings. They would do anything to destroy one another. The green men believe that they are superior and that they should enslave animals and the great white apes. the red men have opposite beliefs. They both also have different birth laws. This reminds me of the two political parties as well as racism. The Green men are kind of Republicans and how they want to be the rulers and enslave the "lesser" beings. Back in the Reconstruction Era in the United States, the Democratic Party was for slavery. But the Democrats and Republicans switched so now the democratic beliefs are republicans and the republican beliefs are in the democratic party. The Red men would be Democrats nowadays.
Another example of a hidden symbol of racism are the people on Mars that they call blacks and the white apes. The white apes are the slaves kind of that work underneath Mars. They are kind of the reason Mars has no real work like cropping and all those things. Also they treat the blacks differently than the others. I think this is a symbol for racism because of how white men used to treat African Americans. They used to treat them differently.
I think the book John Carter of Mars is filled with symbols from the author that signify Racism.
This was a very good book from an amazing trilogy. Better than the movie.
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