I thought it was really interesting to look at how water was used is the concluding chapters or Red Mars. The novel mentioned that it snowed on Mars. I thought that this seemed to signal a sort of Earth-izing Mars in that snow seems completely foreign to Mars and this seemed very out of place. this could be a metaphor of sorts to the people having colonized Mars as they also seem out of place. Finally, I think it represents the idea that people bring what we have come to know as earth with us in that all of our problems we face here and general lifestyle has a lot to do with human presence which is now present on Mars. More poignant to the plot, it was really cool to see that the escape route they had planned in the valley was to flood of all things. Using water as a weapon against these characters was very clever in that water is a symbol of life and a huge part of what makes earth, Earth. I thought this also continued the idea that humans are making Mars into a sort of new earth rather than a real, fresh start. Earth is the only planet we know to have fresh water, so using a huge amount of it placed on Mars is ironic in this way and new to the planet having coincided to when humans came there. They also had an aquifer burst in chapter seven which was neat. It seems like our focus on Mars in real life is to find even trace amounts of fresh water. The novel depicts these settlers as having enough to break their aquifers. Overall, I really enjoyed this novel. I thought it spoke on a number of issues that would likely come up in the case of placing a colony on Mars. It seemed very thought out in that way. Focusing on the first hundred idea was a great idea because it seemed to tie into the notion of the founding fathers in America with the sort of precedents they were expected to establish and the celebrity role they earned.