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No.37 The Man Who Walked on the Moon

Exam code: 2010
Written by: Ashika|Reviewed by: Caroline Carroll|Updated 2 July 2026

No.37 The Man Who Walked on the Moon: The Man Who Walked on the Moon analysis

The Man Who Walked on the Moon analysis

In the exam, you will be asked to answer one question from two options. Both questions will be on a different text from the selection of ten texts in Stories of Ourselves Volume 2. 

Because there are so many text options, make sure you read through the exam instructions carefully, and look for the questions on Stories of Ourselves. 

The following guide to The Man Who Walked on the Moon by J.G. Ballard contains:

  • Plot summary

  • Themes, ideas and perspectives

  • Writer’s methods

  • Key quotations

No.37 The Man Who Walked on the Moon: Plot summary

Plot summary of The Man Who Walked on the Moon

The first-person narrator of J.G. Ballard’s short story The Man Who Walked on the Moon introduces himself as a former astronaut. He is sitting at a Copacabana Beach cafe in Brazil. He explains that he has been abandoned by his family and government, and has amnesia, and resorts to begging off “American tourists”. The narrator is confused about parts of his life, but he is certain he was once an “astronaut”. 

The narrator admits he was once an unpopular, failing journalist and feels the pressure of disappointing everyone. On a mission to find a “human-interest story” for his editors, he finds himself intrigued by a middle-aged man sitting in a cafe. The man is Mr Scranton, who says he is a former space commander, although he looks impoverished. He attracts a lot of tourists. They pay him to tell them about his time as an astronaut, and have their picture taken. 

The envious narrator finds out that Mr Scranton was never an astronaut and just a “crop-duster” who lost his pilot license, but this increases his interest in the fraudster. He approaches him for an interview, and when Scranton invites him back to his apartment to show him some photographs, he goes. 

There, he is disappointed to find out that the photographs are just news cuttings. Nevertheless, he is fascinated with Mr Scranton’s sense of peace. The narrator comes to the conclusion that Mr Scranton is like an astronaut as he is able to look at the world in a detached and distant way. 

As Mr Scranton’s health deteriorates, the narrator cares for him, although he never calls a doctor. Eventually, Mr Scranton’s ill health leads to his death, at which point the narrator takes to living in the flat. By this stage, his own state of mind has worsened; he says he enjoys the freedom that comes from purposelessness and loneliness, as if he sees the world from space. 

He goes to the cafe at the beach, and begins to tell tourists that he used to be an astronaut.  

No.37 The Man Who Walked on the Moon: Themes, ideas and perspectives

Themes, ideas and perspectives in The Man Who Walked on the Moon

For top marks, you need to form a critical understanding of the text’s themes and ideas. This is best when it includes personal judgements and evaluations of the themes, ideas, and perspectives of the text. Here are some of the key ideas you will need to understand in J.G. Ballard’s The Man Who Walked on the Moon. 

What are the key themes in The Man Who Walked on the Moon?

Theme 

Analysis

Identity 

  • The short story explores the psychological impacts of depression and isolation:

    • The narrator feels that he used to amount to “nothing”

    • His sense of disconnection from his family and work colleagues makes him suspicious and self-pitying

  • The chance encounter with another man who looks to be similarly disenchanted with the world leads to a transformation:

    • Ballard shows how the narrator becomes envious of the ease at which Scranton makes a living

  • The story raises issues about an individual’s position in the world, and the idea of purposefulness:

    • While Scranton’s state of being offers him peace and contentment, it is based on a lie

Reality and delusion

  • Ballard uses the symbolic idea of being an astronaut, far from the world, to represent distancing oneself from reality  

  • He uses imagery that describes “shadows” and an “empty world” to represent the state of delusion 

  • Ballard’s story reveals how the narrator, finding reality burdensome, is tempted towards a comfortable, numbing lie:

    • American tourists play into this delusion, which illustrates the temptation of fantasy

  • Ballard shows the narrator’s growing nihilism as he chooses to immerse himself in a lie and become Scranton:

    • He fails to get medical help for the ailing Scranton, and ignores the concerned doctor in the final days

Freedom  

  • Ballard’s story reflects the American preoccupation with space travel after World War II:

    • The idea of an astronaut alludes to a childhood dream, and the idea of heroism

    • After the Apollo programme, astronauts were celebrated

    • The admiration Scranton receives from tourists is alluring to the narrator, and he becomes envious

  • The symbolic image of being in space, looking down on the earth, offers the narrator freedom from the challenges of life:

    • He describes the city “yielding” to him, and that there was a "loosening air” once he sees it differently

No.37 The Man Who Walked on the Moon: Writer's methods

Writer's methods in The Man Who Walked on the Moon

How does J.G. Ballard present his ideas and perspectives?

In the short story The Man Who Walked on the Moon, Ballard’s flawed narrator finds his reality challenging. To avoid the disappointments and trials of life, and in a bid to regain some self-confidence, he is drawn to a deception.

Technique 

Analysis

Cyclical narrative

  • Ballard uses a cyclical structure to present his narrator as trapped in his alternate reality:

    • The story begins with the line: “I, too, was once an astronaut”

    • It ends with the line, “Yes, I am the astronaut”

    • Ballard implies the narrator faces the same fate as Scranton when he moves into his flat

  • Ballard uses the representation of an “astronaut” to symbolise the delusional state of Mr Scranton and, then, the narrator:

    • There is irony in the way the narrator introduces himself

    • He says he is confident in his  “sense” of “true history and worth”

    • The rest of the story relates his decline into a delusional and detached state, which makes him, essentially, worthless

Unreliable narrator 

  • The short story is told from the first-person point of view to reveal the troubled mindset of the flawed narrator:

    • The narrator is confused and cannot remember things clearly

    • He is self-pitying and feels “abandoned”, but admits he is unpopular because of his “reticence” and “sharpness”

    • His editors “laugh at” him, and his wife resents him

    • He says all his effort “failed to get me to the top”

  • The narrator’s gradual decline in mental health stems from his need to escape the responsibilities of life: 

    • “Their faces became invisible”

  • Being alone, without clear purpose, allows him, like Scranton, some distance from pressures, but he loses a sense of reality:

    • He decides that the photos of “Armstrong” and the other astronauts is a picture of he and Scranton walking “on the moon of this world”

No.37 The Man Who Walked on the Moon: Key quotations

The Man Who Walked on the Moon key quotations

The mark scheme for Section B of Literature in English Paper 1 asks you to showcase your knowledge of the story in the question. To do this, you should refer to the text through references and quotations. You will not be required to remember direct quotations, though. Summarising, paraphrasing, referencing single words, and referring to plot events are all considered valid supporting evidence for your points. 

The best way to revise quotations is in connection to a theme. Below you will find explanations and analysis of some key quotations from J.G. Ballard’s The Man Who Walked on the Moon, arranged by the following themes:

  • Identity

  • Reality and delusion

  • Freedom

Identity   

Meaning and context

  • The narrator says that readers might think he is a “failure” because he looks like he is poor, does not have a good job, is dirty, drinks, and relies on charity

Analysis

  • Ballard introduces a question about the meaning of success in a direct address

  • Ballard critiques modern capitalist ideals of success — the office job, self-sufficiency, outward respectability — which the narrator rejects in favour of delusion

  • The narrator implies this is not true, and that he has found an alternative

Meaning and context

  • The narrator feels the tension of city life, with its citizens rushing and panicked

  • Everyone is focused on themselves, and this makes him feel unseen and alone

Analysis

  • Ballard suggests that city life can bring a sense of chaos for an individual

  • Ballard’s narrator notices his society is self-absorbed, and this leaves him isolated

  • Ballard’s story may imply that modern life can lead to an identity crisis

Reality and delusion 

Meaning and context

  • The narrator feels sympathetic towards Mr Scranton even though he is deceiving American tourists and pretending to be a former astronaut

  • He says that he found out that Mr Scranton was actually a small aeroplane pilot who lost his license

Analysis

  • Ballard shows how his narrator is tempted by Mr Scranton’s similarly impoverished and disappointing life, and that he feels a sense of connection with him:

    • The reader, however, sees him supporting deception, rather than the truth

  • The narrator chooses delusion, believing that he has been putting up a “facade” at work anyway, and that that kind of lie got him nowhere:

    • This way, Ballard offers a subtle critique on a hypocritical society

Meaning and context

  • The narrator says that only he attended Scranton’s funeral

  • However, this is appropriate as he believes that they are the only “real” people in the city

Analysis

  • Ballard presents his unreliable narrator as confident and certain:

    • This signals his clear delusion in the face of such strange comments

    • At the same time, Ballard raises questions about the meaning of truth, exploring alternative perspectives on versions of reality

  • Ballard shows how the narrator fails to see the significance of Scranton’s poorly attended funeral:

    • This is used as foreshadowing

    • His delusion prevents him from seeing his likely future 

Freedom   

Meaning and context

  • When the narrator travels on the tram, he sees things from Scranton’s perspective

  • He describes the tram “aisles” as full of “light”, as if he is in a church 

Analysis

  • Ballard uses a simile to make an unlikely comparison, which highlights the narrator’s strange mindset:

    • The tram “aisles” are like those of a “cathedral”

  • The imagery in “corridors of light” alludes to a moment of epiphany

  • Ballard implies the narrator feels a sense of freedom, like a religious awakening, when he begins to see the world from a detached viewpoint 

Meaning and context

  • By the end of the story, the narrator is entirely delusional, believing himself to be an astronaut because he and Scranton had both “seen” the “void”

  • The narrator is free from all previous worries now that he believes he has walked on the moon

Analysis

  • Ballard’s calm narrator raises questions about how lies and self-deception bring freedom from the worries of life, and an escape from the need to be a success

  • The metaphor of walking on the moon represents the sense of exceptionalism the narrator enjoys in his fantasy:

    • This, he thinks, is better than feeling invisible in the real world

Sources

Wilmer, M (ed.), 2018, Stories of Ourselves: Cambridge Assessment International Education Anthology of Stories in English Volume 2, Cambridge University Press.

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