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LITR 4368 Literature of the Future  |
Sample answers
for Essay 2:
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Fariha Khalil
09
July 2015
The Possible Fates of the Human Race
As a society we tend to think that the human species will evolve into something
magnificently bright, but this might not be the case. Until now, I never
imagined a future in which the human race degenerates.
I always thought of humans to be progressing and evolving with time and
becoming more and more advanced and intelligent, but never regressing.
In the novel The Time Machine,
the time traveller travels to the year A.D 802,701 where he encounters
two distinct species of the human race, the Eloi and the Morlocks, which are a
dominant metaphor in the novel.
These two species symbolize the degeneration of the human race.
The Time Machine further reiterates
the fact that there could be a possible reversal in evolution from human to
primitive in our future. When the Time Traveller traveled back in time, he
expected to see a forward evolvement in the human species. Instead, he sees that
the human species have evolved into two separate species. One of the species was
the Eloi, angel like species with childlike qualities, while the other species
was the Morlocks. The Morlocks were cannibalistic hairy creatures that
lived underground. The Time Traveller was hoping to see how the society has
progressed since back from his time, but instead he saw the opposite.
Similarly, Parable of the Sower is set in a post apocalyptic world where
humans are quickly regressing to their animal instincts.
Parable
tells a story of survival after what appears to be an apocalyptic event. What
is described in the story could be an evolutionary process that has occurred and
evolved over a short or not as long of a time frame as one first imagines. The
apocalyptic event that devastated the planet was through drugs, severe climate
issues as well as a breakdown in the democratic government of the U.S., issues
not unlike the ones that plague our own society today. This particular novel
describes a dystopian existence of a future set in a situation within a very
fanatical, scary and overall crazy society, which is the complete opposite of a
utopia. In the novel
the characters are minimized to their basic
human instincts and needs. Fire, as one of four classical elements, is used in
this book as a sort of drug equivalent to sex in its ability to inflict human
passion (111). We see that people are brought back to such natural elements as
fire in order to receive gratification and pleasure, and ultimately wreak havoc
(246). In order to survive, the
characters are forced to steal, scavenge and rob.
This is also relevant in Speech Sounds,
written by Octavia Butler as well.
In a time when the sense of community as a whole is lost forever, the individual
is forced to search and rebuilt companionship any way possible. In this story
the world has fallen victim to a mass worldwide epidemic that strips people of
their ability to communicate with one another. In some it affects their ability
to speak, in others their speech remains but they lose their ability to read or
write. This leaves people frustrated, and enraged to the point of killing one
another and mass rioting breaks out all over the world. Adults began to act like
unlearned children who have been told they can’t have any candy at the grocery
store. They flop around screaming incoherently in public places, lashing out at
any one who comes near them. Two men almost tear a bus apart fighting for
reasons unknown to themselves and to the reader. The bus is rescued by a man who
is still holding on to his sense of duty and order by wearing his police badge
and helping people wherever he can. It is also at this time that the main
character, Rye has found a possible end to her search for community and
companionship. Rye accepts the man's protection and offer for a ride with
reluctance at first, but in the end she accepts his offer because she really
feels that she has nothing left to loose. Rye asks the man to go home and live
with her. He finally accepts her offer only to be killed by a mad man chasing a
woman with a knife in the street. At this point Rye feels that everything again
is lost, but the children that are survived by the dead woman in the street
reveal their ability to speak. Rye reestablishes her hopes and dreams for the
future rebuilding of a community and society through these children that seem
unaffected by the deadly epidemic.
Both, Callenbach’s Chocco
and Silverberg’s House of Bones gives us a glimpse of our possible
evolution into everything primitive. Chocco shows us our evolution
of humanity from Machine people to a more primitive society. This new society
has reverted back to the use of hunting for survival and they strive to serve
the community and not their individualistic selves. This new society
respects nature; while the machine people, trampled all over it with their big
machines and cityscapes. This new society does not see us, the Machine people,
as being smart. Rather, they see us as this primitive society who killed
themselves off with unwise choices. It is comical because even though we would
see this new society as being primitive, since they revert back to low-tech use,
they see us as being the primitive creatures.
Similarly,
the characters in the House of Bones revert back to the use hunting and
nomadic lifestyles for survival. There is really no technology available;
rather, the people use their hands to create tools and weapons. We are
introduced to the Scavenger, which could be a visual representation of our
future evolution into Neanderthals. This Neanderthal is not searching for
advancement in the world; rather he is searching for a place to rest his head.
He is described as not being the “brightest color in the box”, and he is given
animalistic qualities such as following the main character back to the village.
Living in this day and time, we as a society imagine the future as a time with
flying cars, and immensely advanced science and technology.
We always see ourselves improving and evolving with time that it never
occurs to us that we just might be heading in the opposite direction.
Instead of having flying cars in the future, we might have to learn to
live in a walled community and scavenge and steal just to survive. This did not
occur to me either until I read the evolutionary narratives
Parable of the Sower,
and The Time Machine.
Our future might not be as bright and magnificent as we imagine, it could
be very dark and dreary instead.
