The Time Machine

H.G. Wells: The Time Machine


The writer:
The author of The Time Machine is called Herbert George Wells. He was born in 1866 and died in 1946 he died of an unspecified cause. The Time Machine was Wells' first novel and was a huge success. First of all he was drapers assistant but he hated the job and became a teacher. Wells wrote on average 3 books a year for a time. Wells' work darkened towards the end of his life. 

Themes
The main themes are: Science, Society and Class, Change, Technology and Modernization, Passivity, Fear, Awe and Amazement

Characters
The main characters are;

The Time Traveler
During the novel The Time Traveler's name is never given, its like H.G. Wells wants to protect his identity. He is an inventor who likes to speculate on the future.

The Narrator
Mr Hillyer, is The Time Traveler's dinner guest. His curiosity is enough to make him return to investigate the morning after the first time travel. 

Weena
Weena is one of the Eloi. Although The Time Traveler does say it is hard to distinguish the gender of the Eloi. He is quite sure Weena is a female. He saves her from being washed down the river. 

How does Eggers present the relationship between him and Toph in chapters 1-5 of AHWOSG?

Eggers presents the relationship between Dave and Toph using humour actions and very strong imagery to highlight his younger self, like Dave's insecurities surrounding his parenting of Toph.

At the end of chapter 1 Eggers uses imagery "I take his hand...and fly up" this metaphor is significant because most readers would interpret this as Dave's sudden parental role over Toph and it is seen as the beginning of Dave's long parental relationship with Toph. The verb "take" implies that Dave is in control now and again links to him now having to be the new father figure to Toph. 

Eggers use of a discourse marker to contrast this initial positive impression with the difficulties Dave goes on to experience in chapter 2 "we'll look for a new bat". The noun "bat" is from the lexical field of baseball which could be seen by an older reader as a family (father to son) sport. Eggers in contrast presents the older brother figure by using the dynamic, transitive verb "push him in a bush" this shows the teasing abuse of a bigger brother's power. Eggers put both these actions in the same paragraph to really indicate the difference in the two types of relationships between Dave and Toph, and the immaturity of Dave. 

Eggers uses words from a lexical field of murder when describing Dave's feeling about leaving Toph alone "handcuffs, floorboards, clown suits..., knives, bathtubs, refrigerators". The use of asyndetic listing makes the reader feel like Dave's paranoia over this situation causes him to think of an endless list of what the babysitter can do to Toph. This could affect an older audience in a way because they would pity Dave over his insecurities over Toph's safety, because after all he is his carer/brother. Or contrastingly this could be interpreted as gallows humour which Eggers uses a lot throughout the memoir.

Dave is also presented by Eggers as sometimes needing to escape the parental role and actually go out with his friends "Toph, oh I haven't seen him for weeks" The informal tone created by the exclamatory "oh" creates irony and shows to younger readers that Dave can fool his friends and make them look gullible by believing the stories he tells about him and Toph, which may enhance enjoyment of the memoir. But to older readers this may make them gain negative feelings towards Dave and make them think why does he lie and why is he so false.      

Plan of essay of how women are presented in AHWOSG

- "had the temerity to move away"- after all him and Toph have been through how dare she leave them.- Dave actually said he liked this babysitter- this links into Dave being suspicious of everyone who comes into his life and how he always finds a problem with them.
- "fine until one night"- links again into Dave finding weaknesses in all people especially the women he lets into his and Toph's life.
"share her bed"- he thinks that loads of women are just waiting to have sex with him.- also the lexical choice "share her bed" is made less explicit as to what he is actually doing.
"I expected single attractive mothers"-this shows Daves high opinions of himself on the way he can presumably just get with any women, the verb "expected" highlights again that Dave thinks his ability to pull women is much better than it really is, also he thinks he is every womans' desire.