Final Project

The idea of time travel is something that is often pondered, yet never successfully done. Time travel is something mentioned often in our culture. Movies like Back to the Future and The Time Machine involve time travel completely while other movies like Napoleon Dynamite mention it. Television shows like Quantum Leap and Doctor Who use time travel as a basis for their plot. Other shows, like South Park and Family Guy mention it, or do an episode on it. Books like The Time Machine make us wonder what life was like in the past and in the future. What did dinosaurs really look like? What did cavemen sound like when they talked? Did Jesus really rise from the dead? What will the human race look like in 500 years? What animals would be extinct? These are all questions that could be answered if we could travel in time. However, would that appease us? If we could travel to the past, could we change things? What if we were to travel in time and find out that Jesus never rose from the dead? Christianity as we know it would be changed and possibly obsolete. What if Jesus was in fact the son of God? What would other religions do or think? Would we be at war? What if someone went back into time to study the dinosaurs and was killed? If that person had children would those children disappear because in reality, that person doesn't exist? Obviously there are a lot of questions that are raised when it comes to the discussion of time travel.
In H.G. Well's The Time Machine, the future of human civilization looks glum. Our race, divided into two subspecies who are at war with eachother lack the intelligence that we currently have. There are no more "animals" in the sense that we see them. Cattle, dogs, horses, sheep, dogs, and many more useful animals from our time are now extinct. The Elois and the Morlocks are the only two species of animal that appear to be left. One positive thing about this life in the future is that the environment is in a lot better shape than it is now. It's as if Earth "started over" after so many years. The grass is green and the air is free of pollutants. There are virtually no weeds and the flowers seem to grow in a wild pattern. I was fascinated by the description of flowers and fruits in this book. Everything was described as so much brighter and prettier than it is today, so it was hard to picture in my head. The fruits are described as things the Time Traveler has never seen before. Because fruits are the only thing in the Eloi's diet, the fruits appear to be always in season and in abundance.
The Elois are the species that interest me the most. These small vegetarians have both good qualities and bad. First of all, their way of life is simple. They seem to spend a great amount of time simply frolicking around, placing flowers atop each other's heads, and eating the plentiful fruits. On the other hand, their thought process is so simple that they cannot perceive much. For example, when the Time Traveler first arrives, the Elois think that he came to them from the sun in a thunderstorm. The Time Traveler immediately puts them in the same intellectual category as a 5 year old child from his time. The Eloi's style of dress is unique. They wear brightly colored robes and sandals throughout the days. They have no hair on their heads or faces, but on the neck and below. They have small mouths and ears and pointed chins, but their eyes were somewhat larger. Perhaps the Eloi's are similar to our impression of an elf. One of the things I find most interesting about the Elois is the way they can speak. I was fascinated at their ability to accurately imitate a thunder clap, as well as how high-pitched their voices were and how sensitive they were to hearing the low voice of the Time Traveler. Their attention spans were also fairly short. According to the Time Traveler, like children, these creatures would often get excited about something only to be distracted by something else moments later. Of course the Elois have their bad traits, too. The Elois are absolutely terrified of the Morlocks, and didn't dare step foot outside after dark. I found this interesting because although they are a large group, they seem helpless towards the Morlocks. These cute, cuddly creatures give us a dim outlook on the future. It is a horrible thought that in the future, the creature equivalent to a human would have to run in fear of other creatures. Perhaps it is such a shock to us because Man is on the top of the food chain. It is difficult conceive the idea of humans breaking off into two subspecies, and for those two subspecies to not be able to live in harmony together. It seems as if the Elois are the naive, happy, care-free creatures while the Morlocks are the intelligent, aggressive, working creatures.

The Morlocks project a very dark side of the book. These carnivorous creatures feed off the Elois- which appear to be the only other creatures alive. These white, ape-like creatures dwelled underground. The Morlocks are the working class in this civilization. These creatures, although intelligent, show no mercy towards the Elois. However, these creatures do have one disadvantage- they cannot see in the daylight. Their eyes are extremely large and reddish grey, and give them excellent night vision. These creatures resemble apes, although albino, and have hair covering their bodies. When they crawl down into their dwellings, they seem to resemble spiders, as they are very agile. Perhaps these creatures did not like the way of life of the Elois, so they chose a life of working underground. The only things these creatures seem to fear is light. When the Time Traveler ventured down to the habitat of the Morlocks, he was surprised to see that they live in total darkness. The only sounds that were heard in the tunnels were the sounds of the machines the Morlocks ran. Their language is different from that of the Elois, although they do communicate with each other. They show no fear towards the Time Traveler, and only back away from him when he lights a match. They paw at him curiously, and they laugh when he shrieks. The Morlocks were most likely seeing if he was edible. However, the creatures' intentions went farther than just to eat him. The Morlocks were the ones who took his time machine and even set up a trap to get the Time Traveler cornered. This proves that the Morlocks are indeed intelligent creatures. I believe that the only reason why the Elois were alive was due to the Morlocks' inability to see in daylight. However, I think that if the Morlocks were able to see in daylight that they would have eaten the entire population of Elois rapidly, and would eventually feed on each other until no food supply was left and both species perished. So clearly, although inconvienent for the Elois, this ecosystem seemed to work.

One part of the book that sticks out in my head is towards the end when the Time Traveler decides to go further into time. The idea of being on a desolate beach with nothing but giant crab monsters blows my mind. To me, this is obviously more glum than having a world with the Elois and the Morlocks. This is one thing from the book that I would have really enjoyed seeing brought to life on screen.

Of course, almost every great book has to be ruined by a movie based on it. The Time Machine (2002) was, in my opinion, a horrible rendition of the book. First of all, I did not like that the Time Traveler was a well-known professor. In the book, he is the Time Traveler and nothing more. We don't know much about him, not even his name. I think that having him be a more-developed character in the movie took away from Well's intentions. Ironically, the movie was directed by a man named Simon Wells, who may be a relative. Another thing I did not like about the movie version is the fact that there was a romance involved. In fact, Alexander Hartdegen's, (The Time Traveler's name in the movie) reason for creating the time machine is to go back into time and save his fiance's life. Once again, I think this took away from Well's intentions. In the book, the only passion the Time Traveler has is SCIENCE. He carefully plotted out his invention, and his only interest seemed to be time travel. On the other hand, the passion of Alexander seemed to be his dead fiance. His reason for creating the time machine was not motivated by science, or by the desire to break the barriers of time, but just to get his girlfriend back!

A huge disappointment for me in the movie was the fact that the Elois were human. I was expecting to see Furbie- like creatures when in turn I saw regular humans with less clothes on. Once again, the book is written the way it is for a reason. Wells was trying to illustrate the idea of human beings splitting up into two different species who do not resemble the current human beings at all. The Elois also spoke perfect English in the movie and there was yet another romance between Alexander and Weena. Although the Weena in Wells' book had a cute, childlike crush on the Time Traveller, this was obviously different and to me, seemed nothing more but fluff for the movie. One thing that the movie and the book had in common was the Morlocks. When I saw the Morlocks in the movie, they looked almost as I had pictured them while reading the book. However, I was disappointed once again when I saw that the leader of the Morlocks was a human! For me, this was the last straw. This was NOT similar enough to Wells' book to be credited to it. Unfortunately, this is the case with most books turned movies. I suppose the main purpose of a movie is to make the dollars, and not necessarily to hold true to the novel.

To conclude, I was extremely impressed and fascinated with H.G. Wells' Time Machine. The idea of Time Travel is something that is discussed frequently in our culture and Wells has brought this idea to life. However, I think this book should not have been made into a movie, because after enjoying a book, it's hard to enjoy a movie that is so much different and has a completely different, and in my opinion, empty meaning. So perhaps one day we will be able to travel into the future or the past, and find out what is to become of us, and find out the truths of the past. However, would that scenario be better than life as we know it right now? In my opinion, time travel should be something left to science fiction geniuses such as Wells, and not to real-life scientists. The discovery of truths from the past and future would probably be the start of World War Three. Perhaps these truths that we seek can be found later, after life on Earth.