An Analysis of "The Machine Stops"
Although the title of this post is “An Analysis of ‘The Machine Stops’”, I do not intend to analyze the entire story; rather, I will be analyzing the sentence, with those exact words, that is present in the story. Although it may seem strange to write about a sentence that is also the title of the story, this sentence is surprisingly important to the story, causing a complete shift in its tone. For context, this story takes place in the distant future in which there is a mass of people living underground that follow the rule of the “Machine”, a little-known yet omnipotent force that seems to control everything. This may be one of the most perfect examples out there of a dystopian story; although it is quite hyper-exaggerated, it was relevant for its time, in which machines were relatively new and feared by many. However, one thing that is uncommon in most dystopian stories but present in “The Machine Stops” is a drastic change in overall tone as a result of one short sentence. From the...