The Time Machine Essays

The Time Machine Essays The Time Machine Paper The Time Machine Paper Essay Topic: The Time Machine The pen is mightier than the sword; an expression that summarises the central theme of both my choices for the wider reading assignment. George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair) and Herbert George Wells both apply an ingenious and extremely effective technique in their finest novels, Nineteen Eighty-Four and The Time Machine. Their tool is not blindingly obvious, but rather like a Trojan horse, implanting itself in the readers mind whilst he or she is indulging in the storyline. Their tool, a concealed propaganda in a way, is the use of satire.Satire is the use of ridicule, irony, humour or other such methods to mock any given subject. Satire is widely recognised as a deadly weapon in media, and is a genre for moving picture and written text. I class Nineteen Eighty-Four and The Time Machine as political satires as they confront certain political ideologies. The latter also falls under science fiction as it plots a scientists adventures as he travels into the distant future in his time machine. In fact, Nineteen Eighty-Four is also set in a future time (relative to the time of writing), but it does not involve any time travelling or regard other such scientific theme.Both serve as prophecies of what society may come to if current political practices are continued. I feel that this is very obvious in both books. In The Time Machine, the main character actually proclaims after telling his story, No. I cannot expect you to believe it. Take is as a lie or a prophecy. Nineteen Eighty-Four, describes a horrendous world, where freedom is a word associated only with animals. It also describes the politics in this world, and after a while it is obvious that Orwell is criticising certain political principles.Although today they may come across as incredible exaggerations, at the time of writing they were very much plausible to the typical reader, as I will explain. H. G. Wells pursues a time travelling scientist into the year 802,701, where corrupt, unbalanced society results with the human race splitting into two different species. Although both have evolved into creatures very different from todays human, one race, the Eloi, seems to be more similar to homo sapiens that the other; it exists on the surface of the earth and has a similar physical appearance.The other, the Morlocks, has formed its habitat under the ground, and has developed hairier bodies, and eyes that are complimentary to its dark environment. The Morlocks survive by farming the Eloi. The initial horror of this state that mankind has reached is simply the fact that the Eloi have, in a way, devolved. They have a basic language, express no emotion or attachment to each other and show a child-like sense of interest; they are amused easily for a few minutes, after which they move on. And yet they live a fantastical life, always happy and content.This, as I said, is only the initial horror. Wells then introduces the Morlocks; the descendants of working class communities. These hideous animals farm the Eloi, providing them with clothing and other such materials in order to produce healthy crops. They emerge in the dark to prey on isolated Eloi. The Time Machine was first published in 1895. The young mastermind Albert Einstein was introducing new theories into physical science, concerning time and time travel. British society was still in the stages where the poor were very poor and the rich were very rich.These are the two main reasons that The Time Machine would not have come across as completely bogus at the time of writing. Wells describes a horrific situation; something that many target readers will be sensitive to. This is a technique that Orwell also employs. As the title suggests, Nineteen Eighty-Four portrays Britain in the year 1984. Although Orwell may have been exaggerating in this portrayal, this novel was first published at a time when Orwells suggestions came across as credible possibilities similar to The Time Machine. The novel follows the life of a certain Winston Smith in this future Britain, under the government, called The Party of Oceania. This government practices what it called English Socialism. It criticises capitalism, and emphasises how life has improved dramatically since the eradication of capitalism and the introduction of English Socialism. However, Orwell gradually reveals a totalitarian society. Ironically, capitalism is very evident in this society. Winstons, and every other party members, days are monotonous endurances.They live in a world where totalitarianism has overcome their lives. In fact, totalitarian ways mean that people cannot know whether totalitarianism has overcome the world, the nation or merely their own community. Winston Smith is a representation of the many civilians who have become rebels in their mind but are too frightened to let their rebelliousness be outwardly expressed. The government monitors every move Winston makes, via a technology called the telescreen. Every word he utters is recorded. All interactions with other people are analysed.Society has reached a stage where sleep is a threat to oneself, for the reason that the telescreen may pick up words of rebel that escape ones mouth during a dream. The social order is hierarchically arranged. The lowest and most numerous class is the prole. I put lowest in speech marks because they actually are not treated as the lowest form; they are given more freedom than party members. These come next. Normal party members, like Winston, are employed by the party to work in one of four ministries. Here they carry out various tasks to ensure that the party runs smoothly.Winston works in the ministry of truth, where day after day, he rewrites newspaper, magazine and other such articles as the party sees fit. For example, if a previous article states that Oceania is at war with Eurasia, but the party is now at war Eastasia, all copies of that article must be tracked down and rewritten to agree with the current situation. In reality, Oceania may not be at war at all, but in order to unite all citizens and in an effort to take over their minds and control their thinking, Oceania is at war with Eastasia and Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.Above the ordinary party members is th e Inner Party. Such members are privileged; they live luxurious lives, in large houses with servants. They make the decisions that other civilians have to follow. Finally, at the apex of the hierarchy, stands Big Brother. All decisions pass through Big Brother before they are finalised. The character, though, is very vague. He appears only on large posters with the caption Big Brother Is Watching You, and the word Ingsoc, an abbreviation for English Socialism and on the propaganda transmitted through telescreens.The people are taught to love Big Brother, and obey his every command without hesitation. And that is what people do. The description of Big Brother, not coincidentally, fits that of Stalin. Similarly to The Time Machine, Nineteen Eighty-Four suggests that if current ways are continued, human intelligence will generally decline. In Nineteen Eighty-Four, Orwell makes it clear that civilians are unintelligent by giving examples of characters that ignore the obvious truth and continue their lives as if nothing if wrong with the world. Orwell then demonstrates that these people have no choice.Winston and his lover Julia, whom he discovered was also rebellious at mind, are found out whilst attempting to assimilate with the proles. They are taken to the Ministry of Love, where, to the readers horror, their way of thinking is altered so that they conform to the party and learn to truly love Big Brother. A world where the government has so much power, that it can control peoples thoughts and wishes, may seem bizarre to present day readers, but it was not so to the Britain of 1949. At the time, totalitarian tyrannies were in the recent past or in current practice, i. e.the Nazis and The Soviet Union under Stalin. Britain was still recovering from the devastation that the war with the Nazis had brought and people were still very traumatic and sensitive with the subject. Orwell would not have to think twice about whether this novel would might received as an ex aggeration. The Time Machine is written from a first person point-of-view. This allows the story to be more dramatic, as the characters feelings and thoughts can be shared with the reader. It also makes it easier for the reader to imagine the situation, as they can imagine themselves in the place of the main character.Nineteen Eighty-Four is written from a third person point-of-view, but orients around Wilson. Often, Orwell goes into the mind of Winston and writes in the first person. This allows Orwell to express Winstons thoughts, but also write about certain aspects without bias. Both novels use vivid descriptions of horrific situations as their element of satire. By depicting a hell-world, and suggesting that the existent of these hell-worlds was brought around because of corrupt political practices, the authors are ridiculing their target political practices.Both authors begin with mildly shocking descriptions and then, develop the scenario by introducing increasingly shocking descriptions. The more they can shock the reader, the more effective theyre text will be. The Time Machine begins with The Time Traveller very eager to travel forward in time. He arrives in a harmonic, serene world, as if it had been taken out of a dream, at a time which he first refers to as The Golden Age. However, this is only the cover. The Time Travel then discovers some of the inhabitants of this future world, the Eloi, who, as I have explained, are devolved humans, with child-like tendencies.One of these Eloi creatures, through gesturing asked [the Time Traveller] if [he] had come from the sun in a thunderstorm! Such a question immediately forms low opinions of the Eloi. In Nineteen-Eighty Four, the stupidity of people is not so extreme, but it is evident in the way characters converse and act. For example, a character called Parsons, continually compliments Big Brother and the Party and cheerfully carries out his duties to the party such as collecting money from party memb ers for the Party.He is oblivious to the fact that the party is more-or-less robbing party members of their money; a very tiny percentage of this funding will go towards the public. Although this fact is all-too-obvious, many characters like Parson simply ignore it. Another indication is Orwells direct description of these characters actions: Winstons handed over two notes, which Parsons entered in a small notebook, in the neat handwriting of the illiterate. Orwell is directly illustrating that Parsons is almost illiterate.