Bradbury transports his readers to a fictionalized world of Mars in this story. He employs sun, fire, and water imagery to describe the changes that occur on Mars. Fire imagery describes the changes that take place in the houses. The air “burns” them, warping the boards out of shape and making them no longer Earthmen’s houses. The sun burns the Earthmen’s skin almost black, and Bittering himself feels his flesh melt in the hot and liquid air. Water completes the process of change as Bittering lies in the Martian canal water, convinced that this water is eating his flesh away until only his skeleton will be left. He senses that eventually the water will continue its work, evoking a change upon him as it metamorphoses his skeleton. Finally, all the material trappings that are so important to Earthmen are sluffed off, transforming the Earthmen into Martians. The regeneration is complete. This story is similar in setting and subject matter to many of Bradbury’s stories contained in The Martian Chronicles.