The Machine Stops Essay

The Machine Stops, a short story by E.M. Forster detailing the lives of a woman named Vashti and her son Kuno in a dystopian society, is able to effectively demonstrate the beliefs of existentialism. While Vashti conforms to the rules and beliefs of the society, her son Kuno embraces his existentialist beliefs and illegally sneaks out onto the surface of the planet. Through the utilization of these two characters, E.M. Forster is able to shape his work into an expression of existentialist ideology.
By including Vashti, a stereotypical follower who believes everything the government claims and relies on the machine to accomplish simple tasks, the author is able to convey the disbeliefs of existentialism to the reader. By depending on the machine,

Kuno is a perfect example of an existentialist in the sense that he is not shaped by the people around him and displays his free will through the actions he takes. After Vashti becomes upset with Kuno for exploring the surface without an Egression-permit, he claims, “you are beginning to worship the machine...you think it irreligious of me to have found a way out on my own. It was just what the Committee thought” (8). By accusing Vashti of worshipping the machine and claiming that her thinking is being shaped by the Committee, Kuno is showing that he possesses the ability to see through the false utopia he is living in and become his own dependent person. In a similar manner, after being told that the Book of the Machine claims that it is impossible to escape without an Egression-permit, Kuno blatantly tells his mother, “well, the book is wrong, for I have been out on my feet” (8). Throughout this section of the story, Kuno is proving that he is an existentialist, since he has the ability to see through the falsehoods of the society and form his own opinions and do what he desires without the help of the