In the novel The War of the Worlds, H. Wells uses dual narration to express the story from two different points of view. Wells shows the reader what a heroic narrator and a non-heroic narrator would do when faced with the same situation. The non-heroic narrator does what most people would do if aliens attacked earth. The heroic narrator used to show people what a person that is not trying to hide from the aliens would be exposed to. Overall, Wells successfully uses split narration to appeal to a wider audience of readers.
Wells uses the main narrator to express the story through a non-heroic person's eyes if Martians attacked earth. He uses the non-heroic narrator as his main narrator because the majority of people in this situation would flee and not let anything get in the way of saving their own life. "I turned and, running madly, made for the first group of trees, perhaps a hundred yards away; but slantingly and stumbling, for I could not avert my face from these things" (pg.18). This quote convinces the reader that the narrator would not have gone out of his way to save anyone except himself. Wells also shows that the majority of the time, the narrator always feels unsafe in any situation. If the narrator finds a safe place to hide, he will stay there as long as possible till he feels that it is safe to go somewhere else. "With a queer feeling of impersonal interest I turned my desk chair to the window, sat down, and stared at the blackened country, and particularly at the three gigantic black things that were going to and fro in the glare about the sand pits" (pg.46). At all times the narrator wants to know where the aliens are. Even when the narrator has a companion with him to keep him company, he will go to any extent to keep himself safe. "With one last touch of humanity I turned the blade back and struck him with the butt" (pg.125). This quote shows that the narrator would kill his own kind to keep himself alive.