The Time Machine by H.G. Wells sends the reader on a journey that is best appreciated by those with an objective imagination. It allows the reader to imagine the possibility of viewing time travel first hand, as it gives vivid details about the traveler’s futuristic experiences during his journey into the future. The “Time Traveler” cleverly invites guests to his house, providing dinner and the stage or setting for a grand entrance needed to help accentuate his story and thus prove his theory that time is the fourth dimension and movement within this dimension is possible. Knowing that his guests are suspicious of his theory and capabilities, the “Time Traveler” leads his doubters into the comfort of his own home, thus having control of the setting and mood of his presentation. He begins to tell of his time travels into the future, capturing the attention of the reader by painting visual images into their minds and entertaining them with intriguing stories of the future generations. Although the recounts of his adventure seems to be exaggerated, the “Time Traveler’s” experience is didactic, in that it warns the present generation concerning the possible future consequences of its present social injustices and inequalities.
In H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine, Wells describes, in vivid detail, the time traveler’s theory and explanation concerning travel in the fourth dimension as a means of relating the growing interest with new technological advances that fascinated people in the nineteenth century. The scientific and detailed description of time travel set the stage for Wells’ warning of the injustices among social classes. Wells uses the futuristic setting to mask his feelings about the injustice of the working class and the cruelty of the present day high class society. As the reader is intrigued with the traveler’s scientific motivation to explore the unknown, he or she is subtly led to see the potential future outcome of such social oppressions. Whereas it would be concluded that the future would bring and harness astounding technological and social advances, Wells shows how our treatment of others, along with these advances, can have an adverse affect on the future societies, sending them backwards in development and leading to a reverse in societal positions. The present state of social injustice insights the oppressed to assert their longing for social justice, by any means necessary.
"Real people do real things, that's why they're real." 