The Time Machine by H. G. Wells (Evan)

These past few weeks, I've been reading The Time Machine by H. G. Wells. It's a science fiction novel about time travel, the end of life on Earth, and society.

The story begins in a dinner party, where the Time Traveller explains time travel and demos his time machine. The next week, the Time Traveller comes late to the party, dirty and disheveled. He says he has travelled through time, and he begins to tell the story of hsi adventure.

The Time Traveller travels in time to the year 802701, where he sees a white sphinx and huge buildings, bigger than he has ever seen. He meets beautiful human-like creatures called the Eloi that are shorter--at about 4 feet tall--and very childlike--mentally and physically. The Time Traveller tries to communicate, but isn't successful in doing so.

When the Time Traveller goes to a dining hall that has a couple hundred Eloi eating fruits, he notes the dilapidated look of the building. The stained glass was broken and the curtains covered in dust. The fruit is delicious, but it seems like it's all they eat. He notices there were no small houses. "Here and there among the greenery were palace-like buildings, but the house and the cottage, which form such characteristic features of our own English landscape, had disappeared. 'Communism,' said I to myself."

Outside, he comes to the conclusion that humanity had triumphed over nature. He sees no gnats in the air, there are no weeds, and fruits and flowers are abundant. Without any challenges, humans evolved to be dumb and beautiful.

What the Time Traveller eventually discovers, is that the Eloi aren't the only creatures here. He sees white ape creatures that go into wells. He names them Morlocks and thinks they may be also evolved from humans, and that there was a evolutionary split. The Eloi live above ground, while the Morlocks live below and come out at night. 

I'm ending the summary here, because I don't want to just end up saying every plot point.

The Eloi and the Morlocks represent the rich 1% and the working-class, respectively. The Eloi have seen no conflict and thus have evolved to be childlike and dumb. The Morlocks have been working underground, and evolved into hulking apes.

Wells is criticizing the class system in this story. He portrays the upper-class as stupid and immature, and the working-class as dehumanized and forced to work underground to support the upper-class.

I think this book is great. It's what popularized time machines in science fiction. Over 100 years later, it still holds up as a solid sci-fi story in the modern day.