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“The Machine Stops” represents the early phase of technological advancement in early twentieth century when world was adopting a new change, a new revolutionary society was coming into being which was more advanced and technological advanced. The author of the story has tried its level best to portray the image of the advanced world in the setting of a modernized world in the time when everything and every invention was a new thing in the world. It is very important to remain in touch and connected with the rest of the world.
Physical movement and travelling are the most important components for developing the physical interaction with the world outside. However, in the story the interaction of the characters with the world outside was very limited without getting into the physical contact with other people around them or even outside their “isolated cell.” They engrossed themselves so much in the “love” of their machine and the technological world that they missed hearing the humming of the machine which was an alarming sound indicating that the machine is closer to its end.
The people in the machine have given up to the hope of living without the machine and technology. Thus, making their lives more complicated and isolated. However, we know that distance is the only difficult thing that matters the most when our loved ones are far away from us. Different people have different opinion on the understanding of distance. It could be a geographical distance, personal distance or the distance from thought. But, with the advent and advancement in technology, people have become more isolated in their shells.
People in the age of modernism, prefer bridging the distances through internet, video and voice calls. Communicating or interacting with the loved ones though internet and other technological modes lacks the basic feeling of affiliation, love and touch. People often misunderstand the concept of distance. It is important for the people to get in touch with other people living on the other end of the world, other than; communicating with each other through technological based devices. In the story, it was highlighted that people were so much attracted towards the machine that they started believing that this machine is their god.
Their love and regard for the machine was more than just a device. They forgot that this machine was invented by the humans and not by the technology. In other words, we can say that machine in the story was becoming the dominant element in the lives of people. This is a dystopian fiction that involves the general societal issues that how with the advancement in the technology, people have moved far from nature and other fellow human beings. The author of the story has tried showing the nightmare of the technology and its adverse effects that how can it affect the lives and mental well being of the humans.
To some extent, this is true because with the passage of time, people are moving closer and closer to the
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