How Comfortable Are We?
Sentence Analysis of The Machine Stops “Dawn, midday, twilight, the zodiacal path, touched neither men’s lives not their hearts, and science retreated into the ground, to concentrate herself upon the problems that she was certain of solving.” (Forester, 59) “Men seldom moved their bodies; all unrest was concentrated in the soul.” (Forester, 57) Both of these sentences reflect on a big part of the society that Forester describes in The Machine Stops , which is that people have gotten rid of practically all discomfort in their lives. I think one theme of this story is that while we complain about discomfort now and are always seeking ways to alleviate it. If we actually had a society where there was no discomfort, we would rapidly decline as a human race. Part of what makes us so successful is our ability to endure discomfort and grow through it. I think part of what we often associate with discomfort is change, including changing temperatures, emotions, and