The Time Machine, written in 1895, describes the adventures the Time Traveler as he explores the 800 thousandth century and the unknown eons unto the dying of our sun. The bulk of the story occurs in the year 802,701, where the Time Traveler stops and encounters a strange species called the Eloi. The Eloi are small, fair, and child-like; they are obviously descendants of humans. The Eloi appear to live in a perfect world, an Eden of the remote future. The land is rich with lush vegetation and plentiful fruits. These little people of the future seemed never to work; their only goals and ambitions seemed to be the pursuit of pleasure. Yet who maintains their dwelling spaces? Who makes their clothing? The Time Traveler, through his examination of this future civilization, comes upon the realization that there is, in addition to the Eloi, another species descended from humans: the Morlocks.
[...] Wells' fascinating science fiction story set thousands of years in the future can be read as a commentary and a warning on the relationship of the American aristocracy and the 19th century immigrant worker. The Eloi of Wells' novel resembles the Western Elite in their appearance, their lifestyle of easy luxury, and their dependence upon the Chinese laborer's toil. The Morlocks of Wells' Time Machine resemble the Chinese immigrants of the 19th century in their appearance, their lifestyle of being forced underground in the mines, and their almost continual labor that provided the elite with luxury and comfort. [...]
[...] There are numerous similarities between the two humanoid races of the future and the aristocrats and Chinese laborers of the 18th century American West. The Western aristocrats and Eloi share similar physical traits, while the Chinese laboring class shares similarities with the Morlocks in relation to not only physical but environment as well. There is also a similarity in the relationship between the Eloi and Morlocks and between the aristocrats and Chinese. There is a similar symbiotic relationship. The Eloi and the aristocrats also share a similar fear for the Morlocks and Chinese laborers. [...]
[...] Probably no man on the face of the earth gives so little time to sleep as the Chinaman.[12] The final similarity between the characters of The Time Machine and the historical characters of the 19th century west is the similarity in the symbiotic relationships they possess. When Wells describes the relationship between the Eloi and the Morlocks, he makes clear distinctions in the roles of each race. The Eloi live a paradise lifestyle above ground while the Morlocks toil underground with their machines. [...]
[...] They are doing a large share of the farm-work, and build all the railroads and irrigating canals and ditches.[15] Basically, without the Chinese labor, the Western Elite would not have enjoyed their own paradise of wealth. The Chinese, in turn, were dependent upon the Western Elite for their living wages, just as the Morlocks were dependent upon the Eloi (in a much more sinister form) for their food source. In addition the similarities in the symbiotic relationship between the classes of the 800 thousandth century and the classes of the 19th century, there was also a similar fear on the part of the Eloi and the aristocrat. The Eloi instinctually feared the Morlocks. [...]
[...] The Time Traveler recovers his machine, and disgusted by the era of the Eloi and the Morlocks, he presses on, hoping to find comfort in the still more distant future. All he finds, however, is the further decline of the human race. The Time Traveler then returns to his own time to recount his adventures. That Wells may have had American class differences in mind when he wrote The Time Machine is conceivable. In a 1928 biography of Wells, Patrick Braybrooke wrote, America Wells found a gigantic, rushing, whirling humanity that by its very size and complexity was provokingly inhuman. [...]
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