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Complacency In The Time Machine

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In H.G Wells book, The Time Machine, he discusses the fate of mankind by telling the story of a time traveler. The Time Traveler goes to 802,701 A.D and is surprised about the future society that awaits him. Wells in the book uses his own ideas about survival of the fittest; however, he also incorporates ideas from Edwin Lankaster’s essay, “A Chapter in Darwinism”. In Lankaster’s essay, he discusses the concept of degeneration, which in turn has been shown in the future society. Wells uses the causes of degeneration; complacency and the lack of challenge to emphasize the possible fate that humankind. Edwin Lankaster believes the process of degeneration is a slow change which in an organism becomes “adapted to less complex conditions of life” (pg 161). In a society that becomes …show more content…

Throughout the Time Machine, complacency is presented as a major theme in the how Eloi have seemed to regress as the years had progressed. An example of complacency during the book is the Palace of Green Porcelain. The Time Traveler was searching for a place to shelter them from the Morlocks. He describes the palace as “deserted and falling into ruin.” (pg. 51). Despite the condition of the palace, the palace shows that at some point in the future, that humans reached a peak in architecture or knowledge since that palace was made out of porcelain. However, the Palace continues to fall apart and the Eloi do not care to fix it. This fact illustrates that the Eloi has become so comfortable with having everything that they need created for them, that they have lost the desire to do things for themselves and have become lazy. Another way that the palace displays the complacency is when the Time Traveler thought to ask Weena to tell him about a strange letter marking on the palace but soon realizes that she would not know. He said that “the bare idea of writing had never entered [Weena’s] head.” (pg. 51). The idea of learning had not crossed

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