Review of the book

“I grieved to think how brief the dream of human intellect had been. It had committed suicide.”- The Time Machine, H.G. Wells 1897. This quote from the book describes how the Time Traveler felt about the human race when he traveled 800,000 years into the future. H.G. Wells portrayed the future as a split world with predators and prey. There are two races: the Eloi and the Morlocks. Their simple but entirely complex society causes the Time Traveler to have many troubles, but yet he learns so much about what the world might be like in the future. This science fiction book is very interesting, and it causes one to think about the future, and what our human race will be like.

The book begins with a bunch of men sitting in a room, discussing the possibility of moving in the fourth dimension: time. Every one is quite apprehensive about the whole idea except for one man who is known in this book as the Time Traveler. He believes time travelling is possible, and even shows them a model of the time machine that he is building. As days go by, they once again have their weekly meeting, and the Time Traveler comes in quite rugged looking and starts telling them about the journey he has just made, 800,000 years into the future. After an interesting and very exhilarating journey in his machine, he comes to a land and is greeted by strange people. They are small, speak with joyous gentle tones, and all act childish. This is quite a disappointment to the Time Traveler, for he was expecting a new human race far superior to the one in his time. As the creatures, known as Eloi, bring him to their main building, the White Sphinx, he makes an observation. “I saw great and splendid architecture rising about me, more massive than any building of our own time, and yet, as it seemed, built of glimmer and mist” (Wells 21). He also notices that the world looks like a giant garden with fruit and greenery flourishing everywhere. As a day went by, he came back to the hill where his time machine was, only to find it had vanished.

This is when the Time Traveler starts his journey to find it and get it back. When he saves a young Eloi girl, Weena, from death, he gets a companion for his journey. The Time Traveler believes that the Eloi have taken it, but he soon changes his mind. He encountered the Morlocks: white, slimy creatures with red eyes that live in the Under-world and happen to come out at night. After many scary encounters with these Eloi-eating beasts, he goes to the Palace of Green Porcelain, where he hopes to find supplies to defeat the Morlocks, and any clues about the where about of his machine. At night, on his way back to the White Sphinx, he has a deadly encounter with the Morlocks at night when the forest he and Weena were sleeping in gets set on fire. The Time Traveler searches through the flames for his very close friend, but alas, Weena has died. Defeated he makes his journey back, and gratefully finds his machine. As he is getting into the machine to return back to his own time, the Morlocks attack him and in a hurry, he accidentally sends himself more into the future where there is little life. He goes farther into the future, to see what the world will become and finds it a vast beach close to the sun with only one creature. Disappointed and the world’s fate, the travels home and his story ended. No one believed him except one man and when he came to ask the Time Traveler about it, he has already traveled into time, and hasn’t returned for three years.

Even though this book is science fiction, the characters behave as one would normally. Most people would be apprehensive about the plausibility of traveling in the fourth dimension. The men at the beginning discuss that it is entirely not logical, and even with our technology today, most people would agree. A break in the fourth dimension would be highly impossible and not many people would support the idea, just as in this book. I think that the Time Traveler, over the course of the book, matures greatly. He is very scared and apprehensive in the beginning of the book, but over a course of time, he begins to really contemplate how things got this way and becomes more confident. He is fearless enough to fight off the Morlocks, and he even kills some. At the beginning, he just kind of accepts the way the world has become, but never stops to think about what the human race has done to become like this. He comes up with logical conclusions and inferences that really help him survive later in the world.

Through this book, you can really get an idea of what kind of ideals and beliefs H.G. Wells has, and how he expresses them thoroughly throughout his writing. H.G. Wells is a prominent believer in evolution, as one may suppose by reading some of his work. You can tell by the way he portrays the future. He sees the human race decreasing over time and becoming less intelligible and forming into different kinds of species. This sort of is like how evolutionists believe that we were formed from monkeys; he may believe that we will go back to an animal-like thing in the future. He also believes that the world will live for much longer than any Christian believes. Not only his he more than 800,000 years into the future a majority of this book, but he goes even further: about 30 million years. Because I am a Christian, I believe that Christ will return before then. He will rapture all the believers, but the nonbelievers will stay on earth for a tribulation. Eventually there will be a new heaven and earth, but I do not think that the setting of the book portrays what it will look like.

The setting of this book really helps the reader visualize what the Time Traveler is experiencing. He describes it as a flourishing place, with many ruins, but it was all so beautiful. This contrasts with the way our earth is now, which causes some things to be done differently than we do now such as eating. If the author had portrayed the future in another setting, maybe a high-tech world with flying cars and robots with a metallic looking world, this whole book would have been different. H.G. Wells has a very different kind of setting compared to most futuristic books, which really makes it a whole lot more interesting.

I would highly recommend this book to all who are considering reading this. It mixes thoughtful insight, science, and some action together to make it a worth while book. Even though it is fiction, the characters are quite believable and they help keep the reader interested. If I could change one thing about this book, I would not let Weena die. She was my favorite character in the book, and not only did she help him the whole way, she did not deserve to have such an awful fate which was slightly caused by the Time Traveller. Although H.G. Wells states some controversial ideas in his book, I think he did a good job writing it, and I would be very interested in seeing more of his science fiction work.

Imaginary Interview

For this interview, I am interviewing Weena, a character from my book. She cannot really talk intelligibly, but if we could pretend she could, these may be her answers. Also, in this book she dies, but if she had made it home safely and watched the Time Traveller go, this is what she would say.



Me: What was your first impression of the Time Traveller?

Weena: Well, when I first saw him, he was saving my life, so I immediately looked up to him like a hero. He looked a lot different than anyone I had ever seen. For one, he was so tall! He talked kinda funny. He tried to communicate with me, but it didn't work out very well. It was still nice knowing that he cared enough to try though



Me: Why did you start following him?

Wenna: I didn't really have anything better to do, and he interested me. I also felt safe when I was with him, even in the dark. I wanted to help him. I could tell he was looking for something but I didn't really know what, so I wanted to find out.



Me: Why are you so afraid of the dark?

Wenna: Because the Morlocks can see at night. They come and eat my people and take all we have. I have never seen one, but I can hear them. All the older people strongly warn anyone about staying out after dark.



Me: When you first saw the Time Traveller, he was saving you. Why did you need to be saved?
Weena: I was out swimming one day because I love the water. All of the sudden, the current started taking me away. I screamed for help but everyone was too busy. But than before I knew it, there was this strange thing jumping in and saving me.


Me: Where did you think he was from, considering he didn't look like anyone you had ever seen.
Weena: Well, I really had no clue. I assumed he was either just in my imagination or maybe he was from another part of the world. But when I kept following him, I realized he could not be either. Everything he did was so different. I don't even think he could have been from our time.


Me: What do you wish that you could tell him if you spoke his language?
Weena: I would say that when I travelled with him, I felt really happy. Even though we encountered danger, he made me feel safe and secure. I would also wish him good luck. Good luck for whatever he was doing, and whatever he is going to do in the future. I really value him as a friend. I would also say sorry for being scared. I'm just a girl; I don't know any better.


Me: What was your life like before you met him?
Weena: Life was just life. I did the same things everyday: play during the day, sleep and hide at night. I was really happy, but quite restless and bored with my life. I lived in constant fear of the Morlocks.


Me: Do you think the Time Traveller wanted to be in your time?
Weena: I think that he meant to come to my time, but when he did, he realized that it wasn't what he had expected. He got frustrated a lot, and sometimes he would yell at me or any other Eloi. I think what we were searching for was a way back into his time because he couldn't stand ours

Me: Where do you think he is now?
Weena: I think he is somewhere with his own people. I hope he remembers me for forever though. I think he is back with his family, but I'm not too sure about what kind of stuff he would be doing. I really hope that wherever he is, he has found what he has been looking for, and that he will come back one day to see me again.

Me: Do you wish he would have taken you with him back to his own time?
Weena: In a way no, but mostly yes. I mean, my life here is fine, but I'm living in constant fear of the dark. It seems like he wasn't afraid, and I want to be like that. I had such an interesting time with him, and I don't want to forget those days we shared. I would miss my family, but maybe if he brought me back, he could give me a new family. I really hope that wherever he is, he is thinking of me.

Links

This link first starts talking about War of the Worlds. It than tells about H.G. Wells's childhood and his life. It lists the most popular books he wrote, and quotes from certain ones.
http://www.online-literature.com/wellshg/

This website tells of his life, and his most well known books. At the end, it lists all the books he wrote, and the year they were written in.
http://kirjasto.sci.fi/hgwells.htm

This link answers some questions from the actual book, and restates themes. It is quite interesting and gives you a deeper look into some themes.
http://www.answers.com/topic/the-time-machine-themes

Chapter 12

In this chapter, the Time Traveller finally arrives back in his time and everything is exactly how he left it. He finishes his story of his journey and everyone looks at each other in disbelief. Could this really have happened? Most think he had just told the story. The narrator comes to the Time Traveller the next day and he asks if he can talk to him because he thinks his story really is true. The Time Traveller promises to meet with him later but he has to do "something" before that. He packs his camera and notebooks and the last the narrator sees is his time machine vanish-to any where in the universe. At the end the narrator confesses that he has been gone for three years, and still no one has seen him and all that is left is the withered flowers the man Time Traveller received from Weena.

Chapter 11

In this chapter, the Time Traveller is lopsided in his saddle because of his traumatic escape and he finds that he not travelling back to his own time, but more into the future. The sun beings slowing down, even as he passes years at an enormous speed. He stops the machine only to be at a beach. It looks like there is no one but the calm ocean but than giant crab-like creatures began attacking him. He got into the time machine and began travelling more and more into the future out of curiosity, to see what the world had become. He stops and now the water is a bloody red, the sun ever constant, but half way hidden, and no life. He sees one lone slimy black creature and greatly pities his loneliness as he starts his dreaded journey back to his day.

Chapter 10

In this chapter, the Time Traveller finally arrives at the hill he was on when he first came to the future. He really thinks about the Under-world and Upper-world, and concludes that the Elois in the Upper-world lived an easy life. They had no fears-except when it got dark. He concluded that the Morlocks did not always feast on Elois, but over time it became necessary when they started to run out of food. As he headed back to the White Sphinx, he was wonderfully surprised to find his time machine, looking polished and clean. As he fumbled in the dark for the levers to put into the machine, suddenly the Morlocks began grabbing and attacking him. Fighting blindly, he got the machine in order and then he was off: back into his own time.

Chapter 9

I made a mistake for the summary for chapter 8. They did not plan to go underground, they just got supplies in case they encountered Morlocks.

In this chapter, the Time Traveller is determined to make it back to the White Sphinx, the Eloi's living place, the next morning. Although it is dark, he takes his matches and little Weena on his arm and continues to hike. On his way, the Morlocks try to take Weena from him and attack him. He lights a fire and decides to rest, hoping that the light will keep the Morlocks away. He suddenly awakes to trees burning around him, Morlocks running blindly into the fire, and Weena missing. He searches frantically for her, killing many Morlocks, but alas, she has either been eaten or burned because he cannot find her. Devastated, he continues to the White Sphinx, this time, with no companion.