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The Machine Stops Essay

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In “The Machine Stops” by E.M. Forster, several real world social and psychological issues are portrayed and discussed through the use of a fictional, fractured relationship between a curious son and his stubborn, technologically occupied mother. Forster gives the reader a new perspective on the falsely perceived benefits of technology that distance an individual from face to face interaction. There is constant demonstration of disgust towards reality from the characters that are absorbed by what they consider to be the perfect machine, managing their lives and giving them anything that they think they could ever need without taking potential technological failure into consideration. Forster creates a dialogue between a desperate son, Kuno, …show more content…

It seems that the catastrophe of the machine creaking to a halt at the end is the only way the issue of technological dependency can be resolved, almost identical to hitting the reset button. The way people rely on their technology during this time eerily parallels the way we are today with our own personal handheld devices and apps that decide everything for us. We are on no course to step away from technology and we only continue to adapt it to everything possible which may create the issue in the future that the only way to make a positive change will be to shut it all down. A sad similarity between Forster’s world and ours is the amount of inevitable environmental destruction. The mother announces, ”I dislike seeing the horrible brown earth, and the sea, and the stars when it is dark. (p.3)” She does not really even seem to care that the earth is destroyed and rather worries more about the lack of ideas and benefits taken from the earth now that all of the resources have been depleted. When there was a glimpse of the natural beauty, he was “annoyed, and tried to adjust the blind” in order to not have to deal with the inconvenience of the beautiful sun on the ocean “like a golden sea”. Instead, she would rather have her cabin switched. The way we manage climate issues and continue to ignore serious, growing problems only puts us closer to this path that E.M. Forster has predicted for the human

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