The Wretched And The Beautiful And Time Capsule Found On The Dead Planet

The short story, "The Wretched and the Beautiful," and the poem, "Time capsule found on the dead planet," touch on the overall indecency of society and how greedy and vile we can be. The author of "Time Capsule foon the dead planet," Margaret Atwood, conveys the image of envious acts done by people to get more money, which they considered a god, and how far they will reach to get it. In the poem, the people believed you could go anywhere and do anything you wanted with money. Long story short, if you had tons of money you would be considered this all-powerful human being that would be "able to fly." E. Lily Yu tackles the idea that society is repulsed and hostile towards anything different, or on a deeper level; Immigrants. In the short story,

The poem creates a picture in your mind of what could or will happen if people don't do anything about it. In the poem, Atwood talks about how the earth was beautiful and the people would respect and loved the earth, but people started to become envious as money improved and made more of an impact. Money became so important that people wouldn't be seen without it, and no one could stop it because it was such a valuable item to have, that it would be disrespectful to throw away. At the fourth age, the author describes the need for this precious coin and says, " We made these deserts from the desire for more money and from despair at the lack of it" (Atwood 5). As money grew and grew, hunger grew with it to the point where humans destroyed everything in their path, including their sacred resources, to get it. Yet, "Wars, plagues, and famines visited us, but we did not stop in our industrious creation of deserts." Even though there were incredible amounts of destruction and wreckage, they kept making more money since they couldn't get enough of it, it became their only source of freedom and it was their only way of surviving. Money was all that they knew and it made them feel invincible, but eventually, the world that they once loved and cherished started decaying like everything

E. Lily Yu reflects on the coarseness of the humans' behavior and how people are often unwilling to take responsibility for helping others who are different. When aliens came seeking refuge, the humans didn't want to help them since they looked ugly and again, "sickening" to look at. The humans even blamed the aliens for their own destruction and were upset because "Who were they to land on our dwindling planet and reduce our resources further" (Yu 34). The aliens only wanted someplace where they could be safe from harm and live in peace. The aliens weren't dangerous and weren't seeking to hurt anyone, yet the humans doused one of the aliens in gasoline and set it on fire. Then the humans have the audacity to blame the aliens for "troubling their youth," for simply existing. After, new aliens appeared and the humans were surprised to see how beautiful the aliens were. Immediately, the humans put all of their trust in the aliens, who look and sound the same as them so of course they would have to be great beings. The humans referred to the beautiful aliens as their "solution. Here was [their] freedom......Here was justice, as bright and shining as [they] imagined justice to be" (Yu 49). When the beautiful aliens arrived, the humans were radiant and pleased to see that there were others to take care of their problems. This ultimately shows