I recently read the book "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells. The narrator is a man named Mr. Hillyer, a guest to The Time Traveller. We do not follow Mr. Hillyer very much in the story, however, as the bulk of the story is a narration of the Time Traveller's travels into the future. The story is set in the Time Traveller's house in Richmond, a London suburb. Seeing as the book was written in 1895, the year of the narration is 1895, not including the time spent in the Time Traveller's adventures, set in the year 802,701.
In this new age, he meets an evolution of humans known as the Eloi, a golden skinned race descending from humans, frolicking through meadows without a care in the world, never doing any work, while underground, a race known as the Morlocks, an apelike descendant of humans, does all the work. This set up is meant to symbolize the upper class and the working class in the (then) modern day.
There are many external and internal conflicts. The main external conflict in this book is protecting the Eloi, helpless and defenseless, from the Morlock, aiming to kill the Eloi in the nighttime (when they can go outside without fear of their sensitive eyes being blinded due to the sun) for years of slavery. Internal conflicts in this book are about the relationships that he forms with one of the Elois there, whom he names Weena. When she is killed by the Morlock, his inner struggles turn towards disgust to the Morlocks. After spending so much time with the Elois, who are disgusted with the Morlocks, their behaviors began to rub off on him.
This story symbolizes life in this world. The rich breeze by, while the working class struggle to stay in one job and make enough money to support their families.
I liked your post a lot Erik. I liked how you could make the connection between real life and the story of the book. What you said about Mr. Hilleyer I think is true, when you dislike something, it is usually because it has in some way, hurt you. I thought you could've put a bit more about the summary of the story,I was a little confused.
ReplyDeleteUnlike the Time traveller, I do not think that the Eloi should be disgusted with the Morlock. I think it should be the other way around. The Morlock are the ones doing the work and working to provide for the Eloi and just to survive. The Eloi don't have to do anything and does not experience what the Morlock go through. Even though a Eloi was killed by a Morlock, it is uderstandable why the Morlock would act this way. I think that you did a very good job of showing the perspective from the Eloi's and the Time traveller's point of view. You make it clear that the Elois thought they were the ones that were better and that they regarded the Morlock as a lower race. I think Eloi would think differently if they feel what the Morlock feel.
ReplyDeleteHola.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you made a life-to-world connection in your post. I agree with Tess, there is always a reason to dislike or be afraid of something. Also: who is the Time Traveller? Is he like the Doctor? Because the way you summarized the book reminded me of Doctor Who a lot. Why do the Morlock want to kill the Eloi? I think you should explain a bit more.