Humanity And Downfall In H. G. Wells 'The Time Machine'
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Zweir 6
Humanity?s Future and Downfall Have you ever envisioned what the future will hold for you? How about the entire human race as a species? Well, H.G. Wells did. He had a remarkable view of human nature that very few others on the planet ever even considered. He seemed to have this certain fascination with how the human race would evolve and/or deal with future endeavors. As a boy, Wells? family was not the most financially robust. He spent most of the day working as an apprentice to a draper. Every day he worked for long, strenuous hours, but in his free time, he read book after book, filling his head with ideas and forming the imagination that would eventually lead to the creation of literary classics we still read today.1 …show more content…
What really captured his focus was the evolution of Homo sapiens. Wells was a particularly bright individual, especially when it came to science. He started out his scientific career as a professor who taught science to students attending the Normal School of Science in South Kensington, London. Eventually Well?s moved on from his teaching career to focus more on his own scientific discoveries.
Science was only one outlet for Wells. The other was writing. From all the stories he had read throughout his early life, resulted in a fluctuating imagination. He would write his theories and ideas into essays, stories, and adventures. The difference between Well?s stories and all the other literature that was already present in the world was that his stories combined his love of science and imagination.3 His stories were some of the first ever books to go under the category of science fiction. In fact, he is considered the father or ?the Shakespeare of science fiction.?4
Science fiction is ?fiction based on actual or imaginary developments or discoveries in science, often futuristic or fantastic.?5 ?As a genre, science fiction emphasizes the importance of scientific laws, realistic accuracy, a thematic concern for the future, and the place of humanity in the universe.?6 Wells came up with many circumstances from time travel to the invasion of aliens. He then put these ideas into captivating tales that led him to become one of the most well-known authors of the English literature era. However, his success wasn?t just about the ephemeral creations he thought of in his head. It also was the other ideas that helped to create his stories. Such as what becomes of humanity when a man travels so many years into the future. Wells also had many predictions about what would happen in the future for humanity. ?Wells forecast the shape of the twentieth-century warfare and the vanishing distinction between soldier and non-combatant; . . . the coming of specialized motor-ways . . . the emerging of nuclear fission . . .?7 Most of his predictions for the future became true.
Wells?
book The Time Machine expresses one of the greatest and most well-known creations of science fiction which is the idea of time travel. Throughout history, scientists have been theorizing and testing the possibility of time travel. Some of the most famous scientists have even given a little thought about the impossible proposition including Albert Einstein. Einstein theorized that all parts of time, past, present, and future are relative rather than absolute. All three exist all at once. This conclusion has inspired different scientists who have been attempting to crack the code of time travel for centuries. Some have even claimed to have accomplished such an achievement. Though there is no actual proof that time travel exists now doesn?t mean that it won?t exist in the future. With the new technology we are inventing every day, perhaps one day we?ll be able to travel through …show more content…
time.8
One of Wells? most famous quotations was ?Roads? Where we?re going we don?t need roads.?9 But why was this quotation so important? It was one of his many quotations that were able to capture his imagination in words. He believed in the scientific inventiveness of mankind. He believed that one-day humanity would have the ability to fly into space of travel through time.
In Wells?
story The Time Machine a scientist, who created a time machine, travels into the future to discover what has happened to the human race. As he activates his newly created machine, he lands thousands of years into the future. In this future, he encounters two co-existing tribes. One that lives above ground called the Eloi and the other that lives below ground called the Morlocks.10
The Eloi creatures are scrawny and weak looking with a peaceful, fearless exterior.11 They are the first of the two tribes he encounters. When he meets them they don?t seem to fear the Time Traveler in any way. They take him in and he learns little bits about them. Meanwhile, the Morlocks are a bit bigger with an ape-like quality to them. When the Time Traveler encounters them they are a lot more hostile and they attempt to capture him but he manages to
escape.12
The Time Traveler soon discovers that each of the tribes must have been an evolution of the human race. One side peaceful, the other side hostile. As the Time Traveler spends time with the Eloi he hoped that humanity had finally overcome fear, but as the time went on he discovered that the Eloi, though having barely any fear, still feared the night.13 The Time Traveler didn?t understand why the night was scary for the Eloi at first, but soon he realized it was because the Morlocks would come out from underground during that time and eat the Eloi for food.14 But how did they end up this way? Through the Time Travelers analysis, he theorized that the Eloi were originally the dominant of the two tribes. They got the comfort and beauty of living above ground while the Morlocks were cast into the underground to live out their days.15 But the Eloi were so weak and feeble so how could they have been dominant?
The Time Traveler believed that the Eloi were originally very intelligent which gave them the dominance of the two species. Yet, with knowledge comes the ability to ease struggles. So the Time Traveler speculated that the Eloi figured out a way to ease all of their problems to a point where there were no problems remaining. This meant that there were no more issues for the Eloi to deal with resulting in no more fear. But with no more problems needing to be solved meant that there was no more need for the intelligence because they had found an intellectual complacency. This meant that in the long run their intellect decreased so they were now peaceful, ignorant beings. They had no way of defending themselves. The Morlocks, on the other hand, never seemed to have the intelligence that the Eloi had but they did have power and strength. So when the Eloi finally had no more ways of defending themselves, the Morlocks took this opportunity. At night using the cover of darkness they would come out and capture any of the Eloi they could. This resulted in the Eloi being eaten.16
This, in a sense, is a possibility that Wells hypothesized will happen to the human race. ?His invention of the Time Machine was good, but his description of the ultimate evolution of society . . . is gruesome and horrible to the last point.?17 He believed that one-day humanity will get to a point of intellectual complacency that we will no longer use our intellect anymore. ?Wells gives his readers an image of our species on the decline, regressing in intelligence and function.?18 If that were to happen, Wells thought that we then would no longer be the dominant species on the planet anymore, just another species that is a part of nature. Though Wells portrays a very morbid future he also includes a very important piece about social complacency.
In the story, the Time Traveler met an Eloi whose name was Weena. During the time the Time Traveler spent with The Eloi and the Morlocks, Weena became a temporary companion to him after he saved her life. Along their journey Weena picked a flower and gave it to the Time Traveler. This little act of kindness was very important in the Time Traveler?s eyes.19 The flower that Weena gave represented a very big part of the humans. This part happened to be the human spirit which is considered the most important part that makes a human, human. This little act of giving the flower showed that even when all else is gone, the intelligence or strength, even after it has decayed, the human spirit lives on.20
Wells also had his share of ideas on a dying society as well. As we saw in the Eloi and Morlock society, since there was no longer intellect and barely any human spirit left between the two the Morlocks turned to cannibalism and the Eloi were defenseless to do anything. But that was not the only part of the book that referred to a dying society. In another part of the book, there was a beach. This beach was set to be billions of years into the future. When the Time Traveler got to this beach in the future he encountered giant monstrous crabs. As he was on the beach for that short time he realized that there seemed to be no human life around. There weren?t even signs of human life which could mean that humanity had not been around for a long time.21
As he escaped the giant crabs he traveled a bit farther into the future. He landed on the same beach but this time, there were no giant crabs. In fact, there barely seemed to be any forms of life. The air was very difficult to breathe which didn?t allow for many living things to survive on the planet anymore. As the Time Traveler was leaving he noticed in the distance he sees a moving being. The Time Traveler guessed that that was one of the last living things on the planet.22
Now Wells has put a great question into everyone?s head. What happened to humanity? We can only guess that they either excelled in technology so much that they were able to leave the planet before the conditions became too unbearable to endure or the human race ended up dying out.
Wells always was fascinated by the human race and where it would go in the future. ?Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.? The quotation shows how Wells viewed humanity. Humanity keeps on gaining knowledge every day. Some of that knowledge is good and some of that knowledge is bad. It all depends on how we as a race use that knowledge. When weapons were created from the knowledge they were used to kill other living creatures and other human beings. But when medicine was created from the knowledge it was used to save lives.23
Wells believed that it is up to the human spirit to decide humanity?s fate. He hoped that humanity would be able to evolve into a species that didn?t go war and used knowledge for good. But, at the same time, Wells knew better. He made so many predictions for the future of the human race and how it will evolve. Humanity will continue to evolve and find ways of survival against new threats or they will fail which may lead to the end of the species. Only the future holds the truth. And maybe one-day time travel will no longer be science fiction but reality. We can only hope that the human spirit will keep humanity alive even when knowledge and strength have left us.
Zweir 6
Humanity?s Future and Downfall Have you ever envisioned what the future will hold for you? How about the entire human race as a species? Well, H.G. Wells did. He had a remarkable view of human nature that very few others on the planet ever even considered. He seemed to have this certain fascination with how the human race would evolve and/or deal with future endeavors. As a boy, Wells? family was not the most financially robust. He spent most of the day working as an apprentice to a draper. Every day he worked for long, strenuous hours, but in his free time, he read book after book, filling his head with ideas and forming the imagination that would eventually lead to the creation of literary classics we still read today.1 …show more content…
What really captured his focus was the evolution of Homo sapiens. Wells was a particularly bright individual, especially when it came to science. He started out his scientific career as a professor who taught science to students attending the Normal School of Science in South Kensington, London. Eventually Well?s moved on from his teaching career to focus more on his own scientific discoveries.
Science was only one outlet for Wells. The other was writing. From all the stories he had read throughout his early life, resulted in a fluctuating imagination. He would write his theories and ideas into essays, stories, and adventures. The difference between Well?s stories and all the other literature that was already present in the world was that his stories combined his love of science and imagination.3 His stories were some of the first ever books to go under the category of science fiction. In fact, he is considered the father or ?the Shakespeare of science fiction.?4
Science fiction is ?fiction based on actual or imaginary developments or discoveries in science, often futuristic or fantastic.?5 ?As a genre, science fiction emphasizes the importance of scientific laws, realistic accuracy, a thematic concern for the future, and the place of humanity in the universe.?6 Wells came up with many circumstances from time travel to the invasion of aliens. He then put these ideas into captivating tales that led him to become one of the most well-known authors of the English literature era. However, his success wasn?t just about the ephemeral creations he thought of in his head. It also was the other ideas that helped to create his stories. Such as what becomes of humanity when a man travels so many years into the future. Wells also had many predictions about what would happen in the future for humanity. ?Wells forecast the shape of the twentieth-century warfare and the vanishing distinction between soldier and non-combatant; . . . the coming of specialized motor-ways . . . the emerging of nuclear fission . . .?7 Most of his predictions for the future became true.
Wells?
book The Time Machine expresses one of the greatest and most well-known creations of science fiction which is the idea of time travel. Throughout history, scientists have been theorizing and testing the possibility of time travel. Some of the most famous scientists have even given a little thought about the impossible proposition including Albert Einstein. Einstein theorized that all parts of time, past, present, and future are relative rather than absolute. All three exist all at once. This conclusion has inspired different scientists who have been attempting to crack the code of time travel for centuries. Some have even claimed to have accomplished such an achievement. Though there is no actual proof that time travel exists now doesn?t mean that it won?t exist in the future. With the new technology we are inventing every day, perhaps one day we?ll be able to travel through …show more content…
time.8
One of Wells? most famous quotations was ?Roads? Where we?re going we don?t need roads.?9 But why was this quotation so important? It was one of his many quotations that were able to capture his imagination in words. He believed in the scientific inventiveness of mankind. He believed that one-day humanity would have the ability to fly into space of travel through time.
In Wells?
story The Time Machine a scientist, who created a time machine, travels into the future to discover what has happened to the human race. As he activates his newly created machine, he lands thousands of years into the future. In this future, he encounters two co-existing tribes. One that lives above ground called the Eloi and the other that lives below ground called the Morlocks.10
The Eloi creatures are scrawny and weak looking with a peaceful, fearless exterior.11 They are the first of the two tribes he encounters. When he meets them they don?t seem to fear the Time Traveler in any way. They take him in and he learns little bits about them. Meanwhile, the Morlocks are a bit bigger with an ape-like quality to them. When the Time Traveler encounters them they are a lot more hostile and they attempt to capture him but he manages to
escape.12
The Time Traveler soon discovers that each of the tribes must have been an evolution of the human race. One side peaceful, the other side hostile. As the Time Traveler spends time with the Eloi he hoped that humanity had finally overcome fear, but as the time went on he discovered that the Eloi, though having barely any fear, still feared the night.13 The Time Traveler didn?t understand why the night was scary for the Eloi at first, but soon he realized it was because the Morlocks would come out from underground during that time and eat the Eloi for food.14 But how did they end up this way? Through the Time Travelers analysis, he theorized that the Eloi were originally the dominant of the two tribes. They got the comfort and beauty of living above ground while the Morlocks were cast into the underground to live out their days.15 But the Eloi were so weak and feeble so how could they have been dominant?
The Time Traveler believed that the Eloi were originally very intelligent which gave them the dominance of the two species. Yet, with knowledge comes the ability to ease struggles. So the Time Traveler speculated that the Eloi figured out a way to ease all of their problems to a point where there were no problems remaining. This meant that there were no more issues for the Eloi to deal with resulting in no more fear. But with no more problems needing to be solved meant that there was no more need for the intelligence because they had found an intellectual complacency. This meant that in the long run their intellect decreased so they were now peaceful, ignorant beings. They had no way of defending themselves. The Morlocks, on the other hand, never seemed to have the intelligence that the Eloi had but they did have power and strength. So when the Eloi finally had no more ways of defending themselves, the Morlocks took this opportunity. At night using the cover of darkness they would come out and capture any of the Eloi they could. This resulted in the Eloi being eaten.16
This, in a sense, is a possibility that Wells hypothesized will happen to the human race. ?His invention of the Time Machine was good, but his description of the ultimate evolution of society . . . is gruesome and horrible to the last point.?17 He believed that one-day humanity will get to a point of intellectual complacency that we will no longer use our intellect anymore. ?Wells gives his readers an image of our species on the decline, regressing in intelligence and function.?18 If that were to happen, Wells thought that we then would no longer be the dominant species on the planet anymore, just another species that is a part of nature. Though Wells portrays a very morbid future he also includes a very important piece about social complacency.
In the story, the Time Traveler met an Eloi whose name was Weena. During the time the Time Traveler spent with The Eloi and the Morlocks, Weena became a temporary companion to him after he saved her life. Along their journey Weena picked a flower and gave it to the Time Traveler. This little act of kindness was very important in the Time Traveler?s eyes.19 The flower that Weena gave represented a very big part of the humans. This part happened to be the human spirit which is considered the most important part that makes a human, human. This little act of giving the flower showed that even when all else is gone, the intelligence or strength, even after it has decayed, the human spirit lives on.20
Wells also had his share of ideas on a dying society as well. As we saw in the Eloi and Morlock society, since there was no longer intellect and barely any human spirit left between the two the Morlocks turned to cannibalism and the Eloi were defenseless to do anything. But that was not the only part of the book that referred to a dying society. In another part of the book, there was a beach. This beach was set to be billions of years into the future. When the Time Traveler got to this beach in the future he encountered giant monstrous crabs. As he was on the beach for that short time he realized that there seemed to be no human life around. There weren?t even signs of human life which could mean that humanity had not been around for a long time.21
As he escaped the giant crabs he traveled a bit farther into the future. He landed on the same beach but this time, there were no giant crabs. In fact, there barely seemed to be any forms of life. The air was very difficult to breathe which didn?t allow for many living things to survive on the planet anymore. As the Time Traveler was leaving he noticed in the distance he sees a moving being. The Time Traveler guessed that that was one of the last living things on the planet.22
Now Wells has put a great question into everyone?s head. What happened to humanity? We can only guess that they either excelled in technology so much that they were able to leave the planet before the conditions became too unbearable to endure or the human race ended up dying out.
Wells always was fascinated by the human race and where it would go in the future. ?Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.? The quotation shows how Wells viewed humanity. Humanity keeps on gaining knowledge every day. Some of that knowledge is good and some of that knowledge is bad. It all depends on how we as a race use that knowledge. When weapons were created from the knowledge they were used to kill other living creatures and other human beings. But when medicine was created from the knowledge it was used to save lives.23
Wells believed that it is up to the human spirit to decide humanity?s fate. He hoped that humanity would be able to evolve into a species that didn?t go war and used knowledge for good. But, at the same time, Wells knew better. He made so many predictions for the future of the human race and how it will evolve. Humanity will continue to evolve and find ways of survival against new threats or they will fail which may lead to the end of the species. Only the future holds the truth. And maybe one-day time travel will no longer be science fiction but reality. We can only hope that the human spirit will keep humanity alive even when knowledge and strength have left us.