Theme
Fear of the Other
The anxiety and hostility directed at what is foreign or unknown, and how a society constructs and treats its outsiders.
Fear of the Other in fiction: 7 works
The utterly alien Martians embody an unknowable Other against which humanity is powerless.
The vanishing Martians and human colonists mirror colonial encounters with the Other.
The imitators embody the dread of an infiltrating, indistinguishable Other.
The xenomorph embodies an utterly alien, unknowable threat.
The creature is an unknowable invader that could be anyone, breeding total paranoia.
Stranded aliens confined to a slum stand in for the outsider a society segregates and fears.
The intelligent spider civilization forces humanity to reckon with a truly alien mind.