G. Wells The Time Machine And Kurt Vonnegut's Harry Potter

What is the point of time travel? The phenomena of having the ability to go to any point in time seems to fascinate modern cultures, and the realm of literature is no stranger to this. The concept of time travel appears to be a popular trope to explore throughout not just science fiction, but in general fiction, as it branches out into multiple genres, with a famous example being in the worldwide bestselling fantasy series, Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling, with the existence of a magical timepiece. Spanning years and crossing over genres, why exactly do authors and readers keep coming back to this style of storytelling? Through various example texts including H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, and other shorter works,

readers can easily identify the various ways authors utilize time travel in their works based on the author’s interpretation of time travel and how they intend to incorporate it into their story.
A paramount examples of early time travel literature, The Time Machine by H. G. Wells tells of the Time Traveler, who recounts his journey to the year 802,701, where he discovers the evolutionary result of the human race becoming two separate species: the Eloi, who are peaceful, childish beings who live in delicate luxury, and the Morlocks, who are vicious, carnivorous, and moderately clever creatures who work underground in darkness. When given the context of when Wells wrote this novella, which is referenced by the Time Traveler himself, parallels can be drawn between the future with the Eloi and the Morlocks and Wells’ present with the heavy social division between the wealthy and the working class respectively. “So, in the end, above ground you must have the Haves, pursuing pleasure and comfort and beauty, and below ground the Have-nots, the Workers getting continually adapted to the conditions of their labour.” (Wells, Ch. 5) With this information accounted for, the novella suddenly becomes a social commentary on these classist tendencies, providing radical examples of how things might end up if these tendencies, past and present, continue.
Meanwhile, writers such as Vonnegut use very unique variations of time travel.

The beginning of Slaughterhouse-Five makes this immediately clear. “Listen: Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time.” (Vonnegut, Ch. 2) With a non-linear progression, the novel follows Billy Pilgrim—or rather, his conscience. This interpretation of time traveling throughout one’s own timeline is quite different from the standard mechanical method presented by Wells. Billy is constantly traveling throughout his own life, his conscious halting at random points of his life. “Billy is spastic in time, has no control over where he is going next, and the trips aren't necessarily fun. He is in a constant state of stage fright, he says, because he never knows what part of his life he is going to have to act in next.” (Vonnegut, Ch. 2). Because of Billy’s endless journey, he learns that life is structured and nothing can be changed. Time travel is used in Slaughterhouse-Five to express this philosophy that life is just an inevitable series of events we cannot change, but we can change how we live our lives, choosing to embrace the better moments in life instead of worrying over the tragic times, seeing as it is all simply a part of life. So it

goes.
Between these two drastically different examples of time travel in literature, there are a myriad of other examples of ways authors have used it in their works. One example is in Ray Bradbury’s famous short story, A Sound of Thunder, where the whole idea is that we can indeed change time, intentionally or not. One displaced step could unravel the future, in theory (Bradbury). Another example would be from T. E. D. Klein’s Renaissance Man, in which the overall idea challenges our expectations for the future, that maybe everyone is not as advanced as we suspected, at least not to our expectations, by pulling some by random out of the future for interrogation (Klein). These are just a fraction of examples from an expansive selection of stories, each with their own stories to tell and ideas to share.
What is the point of time travel in literature? Just from four works alone, it is clear that, as a story element, it allows exploration; exploration of ideas, different issues and scenarios, and many ways to present a griping story. There have been so many applications and revisions of this fantastical idea of exploration through time. Wells used it for commentary, Vonnegut used it to heavily explore an idea, and if past trends continue, the ways time travel can be applied into literature do not seem to be ceasing anytime soon.