Time Machine Theme Essay
In “The Time Machine” by H.G. Wells, the author portrays, for the most part, that the choices humans make now cannot drastically change the outcomes in the far future. The obvious representation of social and political classes, even as the time traveler goes 800,000 years into the future, describes this more. The fact that, even 800,000 years later, there are still apparent classes that can determine an individual’s worth guides the reader towards the conclusion that even if an individual were to change the present, it would be impossible to avoid the very same mistake from being repeated in the future.
Social and political classes are overtly exaggerated in “The Time Machine”. This is represented during the present
…show more content…
time of the story, where the time traveler is telling his story to a dinner party. During the party, various guests are introduced. Among these are doctors, a mayor, and a common person. It’s already clear from the first few pages that social class has a large impact on how the narrator sees things. The narrator chooses to refer to these said guests not by their names, but by their profession. The separation of classes is also a problem in the future, proving the theme that mistakes are likely to be repeated. In fact, the social separation is so strong that the upper and lower classes have almost evolved into two different species. The Eloi live a luxurious life above ground, hinting at the fact that they represent the upper class. The Morlocks, on the other hand, live below ground in complete darkness and work to keep their society functioning. This can be interpreted as the lower working class. The author’s purpose is to bring to light the usefulness of building a time machine, as well as the possible consequences if the wrong decisions are made. When the time traveller went back in time, he chose to leave his time machine unguarded as he went to explore. This choice would lead to an anxiety-filled few days as the time traveller searched desperately for his only way home, his time machine, which had gone missing. However, the time traveller also chooses to spend his time exploring the area and learning the local language. This gives him a greater idea of how the present managed to evolve from the future. The author also engages the reader by using dramatic irony, when the characters from the novel know less than what the audience knows, to create suspense.
By going back and forth between the time frames, the first being in the present and the second being in 800,000, H.G. Wells lets the reader know that the time traveller has made it back from the future by providing passages that prove he made it home, to the present, alive. However, during the time span of the novel, the time traveller from the future did not know that he was able to escape the future. This changes the point of view throughout the story, even though the main character doesn’t change. Because of the changes in the time frame, the time traveller in the present and the time traveller in the future can be considered different people. “Selecting a little side gallery, I made my essay. I never felt such a disappointment as I did in waiting five, ten, fifteen minutes for an explosion that never came. Of course the (dynamite sticks) were dummies, as I might have guessed from their presence. I really believe that, had they not been so, I should have rushed off incontinently and blown Sphinx, bronze doors, and (as it proved) my chances of finding the Time Machine, all together into nonexistence.” In this excerpt, the time traveller is speaking of his own adventure after coming back from the future. However, he makes it sound as if he were in the future. By putting interjections into the story, he changes up the storyline
and creates dramatic irony because at the moment in the story, the time traveller didn’t know he would have made a mistake by blowing up that Sphinx, but the audience does. Another example is at the end of the book, where In conclusion, “The Time Machine” by H.G. Wells conveys the theme that the choices humans make now cannot drastically change the outcomes in the far future. His purpose is to enlighten the readers of the positive and negative outcomes of time travel, which is expressed by a point of view from one person, but in different places in time.
BNW Literary Lens Essay- Marxist Since the primitive civilizations of Mesopotamia and the classical kingdoms of Greece and Rome, people have always been divided. Up to the status quo, society has naturally categorized people into various ranks and statuses. With the Marxist literary lens, readers can explore this social phenomenon by analyzing depictions of class structure in literature. In Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World, readers are introduced to a dystopian society with a distinctive caste system.
In his essay “Land of Opportunity” James W. Loewen details the ignorance that most American students have towards class structure. He bemoans the fact that most textbooks completely ignore the issue of class, and when it does it is usually only mentions middle class in order to make the point that America is a “middle class country. This is particularly grievous to Loewen because he believes, “Social class is probably the single most important variable in society. From womb to tomb, it correlates with almost all other social characteristics of people that we can measure.” Loewen simply believes that social class usually determine the paths that a person will take in life. (Loewen 203)
Nevertheless, our social structure isn’t a brick wall were individuals are trapped in there social class. We are still able with education and the opportunities to shape our lives and achieve our full potential. Harlon L. Dalton emulates the possibility within his story about Horatio Alger, “neither Alger nor the myth suggests that we start out equal. Nor does the myth necessarily require that we be given an equal opportunity to succeed. Rather, Alger’s point is that each of us has the power to create our own opportunities.”
If you have ever read the book 1984 by George Orwell, then an interesting topic may have crossed your mind. The way the classes of people break down can be quite similar, and very different at times. In the United States, we have classes like the lower class, the working class, and the middle class. In 1984, there were such classes as the Proles, the Outer Party, and the Inner Party. The way the classes are broken down in 1984 reminds me a little bit of my old history class. When I studied medieval times and the classes back then were broken down into the nobles, the bourgeois, and the serfs.
The population in Equality’s society is taught to live for the betterment of their brothers and environment, rather than for themselves. The inhabitants of this society become very self-reliant on their brothers and society to think, feel, act and judge for them, consequently people’s opinions and decisions remain identical. Ayn Rand discusses how dependence affects innovators in another one of her novels, For The New Intellectual, “Men have been taught every precept that destroys the creator. Men have been taught dependance as a virtue” (Soul of an Individualist). This sentiment shows the effects of the Society’s dictation of dependence, it has removed any function of the ego and killed individual creativity . This form of dependence causes history to constantly repeat itself, making it
After this time change the traveller immediately talks about his past experience taking the text back even further. His story is about a sculpture of Ozym...
For millennia, there have been constant conflicts between the upper class and the lower class, characterized by the upper class’s sense of superiority towards those less economically prosperous. Mansfield, Gordimer, and Orwell describe these conflicts between the upper and lower classes to propose that completely transcending class prejudices is impossible and suggest that societal values have greater impact than individual values as they degrade both a person’s behavior and morality.
In some societies it is the actions of many men that change the environment to which they belong and this in turn makes up history. However in other societies such as the United States and R...
Humans have believed this since the beginning of time, valuing their survival and existence over animals, nature, and anything else that came in its way. Annie Dillard is an American author who has written many award-winning pieces in various genres, as well as been awarded a Pulitzer Prize. In Annie Dillard’s creative non-fiction essay “The Wreck of Time”, she discusses the effects of human life on the planet and human population within the last century. She introduces the idea that “there must be something ultimately heroic about our time, something that sets it above all those other times” (Dillard 56). This idea is that people value human life that is spent here on earth and the lives of everyone around them. People believe that each century becomes more and more valuable and impactful towards the progression of our society. People see that in ‘those other times’ people were not as smart as they are now and didn’t contribute as much to the world. Due to this, the value of human life only continues to increase as the impact that one human being can contribute also increases. During one’s life they will form connections and relationships that they value and find to be extremely important within their personal
In the 1920’s, people lived life however they felt like. Coming off a colossal war, many of the citizens believed they had this right. Examining humanity during this time period shows that groups of people fell into a hierarchy. By living life recklessly the high society class hurts others along the way. The people in the Valley of Ashes have lost all optimism. And the middle class which is portrayed as straightforward hard workers is left with self pride. After further social examination, the ranking of humans is purely based upon their wealth and status; breaking down into three classes of people. A high class made of money; a lower class in desperation … And a middle class is that the only societal group to have balance between work and play.
The Time Machine represents the different classes of society and how each one is changing and benefitting. The Eloi represent the upper-class who are very petty and lazy as they sit around all day and do nothing for themselves. The Morlocks represent the lower and working-class as they live underground and have to work to survive. While the Eloi's society seems perfect at first, they are lazy and weak with no stress for survival showing it is an imperfect society.
The book The Time Machine has various key elements that connect with literarily terms. Another connection that Wells makes us wonder is the time in this story, whether its human time or geologic time.
As Berger says, “the art of the past is being mystified because a privileged minority is striving to invent a history which can retrospectively justify the role of the ruling classes, and such a justification can no longer make sense in modern terms” (157). The upper class mystifies us to stay in control; without being able to see things in our own way, we are being deprived from our right to understanding ourselves and placing ourselves in a role of society.
There are numerous people in society who lack certain skills that they need for survival.
In Time is a high concept sci-fi film about a world in which currency is replaced with direct bartering of people’s time. Every citizen is given a year to start out with, which at the age of 25 starts ticking down. The film’s macro plot casts this society as a typical capitalist failure state, wherein the seeming equality provided from the market results in widespread inequality as power accumulates from generation to generation. The plot centers on Will Salas, who is a poor factory worker making only one day every day. After the system results in the early death mother, while the rich live nearly infinite lives, Will vows to get revenge on the system. He teams up with/kidnaps the daughter of a rich banker, and they work together to disrupt the system.