Hg Wells The Time Machine Essay

1246 Words5 Pages

A plethora of writings, novels, and interpretations have made H.G. Wells one of the most insightful authors in literary history. He was truly gifted in expressing revolutionary ideas in exciting and enjoyable stories, one of the most notable of which is The Time Machine. In this particular novel, Wells expresses a number of his personal opinions on controversial matters, such as the evolution of man and the idea of socialism. Reaffirming Wells’ ideas on such matters, Peter Firchow elaborates on Wells’ developments declaring, “Wells is a radical innovator. He is the first writer of Utopian fiction to argue that the achievement of Utopia will inevitably lead to stagnation and degeneration” (Firchow 3). The results of Wells’ thoughts on socialism and evolution are seen throughout the novel. In Wells’ writing, the Time Traveler surges thousands of years into the future, where he experiences an incredibly foreign society that displays textbook characteristics of a communist society. He explains that because the …show more content…

They maintain the machinery as well as create the clothing and tools for the Eloi. In the encompassing environment, the Eloi have become the rich class and have forced the Morlocks underground to be a laboring class. Writer James Harkin explains the situation very clearly, stating, “The nice-but-dim Eloi lived a carefree life above ground, their only worry being the bestial, lumpen Morlocks who toiled all day long underground to keep them in the style to which they had become accustomed” (Harkin 1). In the process, a totally communist exchange has formed between the two races, where the rich upper class depends on the labor class to provide them with a means of production. The consequences of the arrangement are substantially evident in the Eloi’s ineptitude, as they cannot provide any effort towards advancement