Summary Of Invasion From Outer Space By Steven Millhauser

Steven Millhauser’s story Invasion From Outer Space takes place in a normal city. An object from space has been detected and is going to hit the town. All the citizens of the town are forming crazy expectations for the object. The story shows that expectations give life meaning.
From the beginning, the author’s style shows the strength of expectations. Sentences like “And so, when it finally happened, because it was bound to happen, we all knew it was only a matter of time, we felt in the midst of curiosity and terror a certain calm, the calm of familiarity we knew what was expected of us, at such a moment” show how the author uses long sentences to control the expectations of the reader. The author’s style takes the reader down the same path …show more content…
The expectations lead the reader to keep going through the story, but the townspeople’s lives are affected y their expectations. They “Left work immediately and hurried home”. The expectations that the townspeople have are changing the way they live. Even though the townspeople cannot know that the thing from outer space will change their lives, they take initiate the change themselves. Each of them subconsciously takes steps to see their expectations met or are escaped from. They are afraid and nervous but they still push onwards through their lives to see the resolutions of their expectations. Similarly the reader continues to read to see the resolution to their expectation as to the ending of the story. The writer creates expectations in the reader as a metaphor for expectations, The longer the expectations are suspended without resolution, the stronger they get. The closer the reader gets to a resolution the more they want …show more content…
This claim is wrong because the fear comes from the expectations. The fear is a small part of the expectations. This is shown when the townspeople are “standing motionless on the streets and sidewalks”. The people are terrified. It is true that they are afraid, even petrified by the extraterrestrial incursion. However, “in the midst of our curiosity and terror, a certain calm, the calm of familiarity, we knew what was expected of us, at such a moment.” The people’s fear originates from their perfectly horrifying expectations. They have the familiarity from the expectations, because they themselves created their expectations. Their fear coming from their expectations is the reason why they “could sense the swell of our disappointment”, when their expectations were destroyed. If they had gotten a sense of relief when the alien invasion was dust, then they would be expeirencing