While there are several main themes portrayed in this sci-fi short story, perhaps the most central is the idea that humans can be so naive that we even fool ourselves, yet this isn’t always a bad thing. Mrs. Bellows has allowed herself to be naively taken in by any number of scam artists in her spiritual quests to find meaning in her life. And each time that she was presented with evidence that they were frauds who simply took people’s money, she mentally made excuses for them: “The world had roughed them up and locked them away because they knew too much, that was all.”
In her latest endeavor to find God, in which she has given her entire life savings and flown to Mars with a charismatic man promising to send them directly to God in a rocket, Mrs. Bellowes finally starts to hear her inner voice of doubt. She notes that the Restorium where she and the other ninety-nine elderly ladies await their heavenly lift-off from Mars is actually rather shabby. She also sees with sudden clarity that the only people recruited by Mr. Thirkell are elderly ladies just like herself. Deep down, she understands the implication of that—they are all nearing the ends of their lives and have little time left to find something truly meaningful. They are desperate and gullible. But Mrs. Bellowes doesn’t yet quite acknowledge this thought. When she instinctively sees through Mr. Thurkell’s cheesy, theatrical airs as he enters the stage on the expected lift-off day, she squelches her thoughts: “But with the same savage rationalization that had greeted all other disappointments in her rickety life, she bit at the suspicion and whispered, ‘This time it's real.’”
Yet when the ladies discover the truth, that although there is a rocket, it isn’t fit for flight and Thirkell is a con artist, the ladies merely shift their naivety in a different direction. Mrs. Bellowes makes a grand speech: "’Yes . . . we were fools . . . But you can't blame us, for we're old, and it was a lovely, good and fine idea . . . Oh, we didn't really fool ourselves that we could get nearer to Him physically. It was the gentle, mad dream of old people, the kind of thing you hold onto for a few minutes a day, even though you know it's not true. So, all of you who want to go, you follow me in the ship.’"
Every one of the ladies is influenced to step on that ship, knowing they are going to their death. Ironically, this time they know the truth. They probably even know that they have been influenced by Mrs. Bellowes’s speech, but they choose to follow the crowd anyway. They have no one and nothing left to go back to. And when the ship does explode, they each choose to believe “the darkness like a great church, and the stars like candles, and in spite of everything, Mr. Thirkell, the rocket, and the dishonesty, we are going toward the Lord.” In choosing death, they have finally chosen their own fate.
The central ideas of Ray Bradbury's works often involve a combination of fantasy, futurism, and horror. The science fiction story "A Little Journey" is no exception. This 1951 work explores the characters' fascination with space, Mars, the world beyond, and God. The higher being in this story suggests as Christian God; however, Bradbury was appreciative of all religions. The central idea of technology (and the fears that accompany it) are present in this story. One can also see the theme of unfulfilled desires reflected as the passengers wait in limbo in a Mars resort, waiting for the voyage to "Him" to begin. Of course, the dreams or desires of the passengers are smashed when they find that the resort and 'Restorium' soon become unappealing, that the journey will not go ahead, and that Mr. Thirkell is a sham and a crook, promising to take one hundred very old women to see God. (Note the element of humor in that last line.)
The violent explosion of the rocket is symbolic; this failure of technology is a recurring theme or central idea in Bradbury’s work. Bradbury bemoaned the lack of connection between science and theology. That motif can be seen in “A Little Journey.” It seems that science and technology fail to get charlatan Thirkell’s passengers to God; however, there is a bittersweet meeting at the end of the story as Mrs. Bellowes connects with a godlike figure, reflecting once again Bradbury's dream for science and religion to unite. One cannot help but see Bradbury's final hope, tinged with cynicism, in Mrs. Thirkell's last thoughts:
"Of course, thought Mrs. Bellowes. Out into space. Out and out, and the darkness like a great church, and the stars like candles, and in spite of everything, Mr. Thirkell, the rocket, and the dishonesty, we are going toward the Lord." (Bradbury)
Bradbury, Ray. "A Little Journey". Gutenberg Press. 10 Feb. 2016, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/51171/51171-h/51171-h.htm. Accessed 27 April 2018.
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