English Final

1. English Final H.G. Wells By Emily Hooper

2. Biography: • Herbert George Wells, better known as H.G. Wells, is the author of many classic science fiction books. • An accident left him bedridden, and this is where he started to gain an interest in books, reading everything he could. • He got into the Midhurst Grammar School, and the Normal School of Science in London. He dropped out of the school in London, and ended up teaching. • He then married his cousin, Elizabeth, but soon after left her for one of his students.

3. H.G. Wells changed his lifestyle and became a writer. His first successful book was “The Time Machine”, a book about a scientist who travels into the future, but returns because of what he sees. • He then wrote many more books, some of the most popular being “The Island of Dr. Moreau”, “The War of The Worlds”, and “The Invisible Man”. Many of his books were then turned into movies because of their popularity because of their popularity. • For a short time Wells was involved with the Fabian Society, a group of philosophers in London. Wells moved from writing science fiction to writing more critiques on the society. Wells was often said to be a “father of modern science fiction”. • Herbert George Wells died on August 13, 1946.

4. Literary Devices: Mood, Foreshadowing, Theme - Foreshadowing is when an author uses something to show what is going to happen later in the story without directly saying it. -Foreshadowing is important because it gives the reader a sense of what is to come, and makes the reader think ahead to make predictions. -The author uses the quote “It was here that I was destined, at a later date, to have a very strange experience” to foreshadow the event of the missing time machine. He says that the Time Traveler will have a strange experience, which is when he returns to his machine and it has been taken, leaving him confused and upset. (Wells, The Time Machine, p. 32). - Theme is an idea that runs throughout a story, and keeps reoccurring.Theme is an important aspect of a story because it conveys an idea throughout the entire story, and ties the story together. - Capitalism: The Time Traveler relates the Morlocks to the working class and the Eloi to the higher society richer people in the 19th century. He says directly that “It seemed as clear as daylight to me that the gradual widening of the present social difference between the Capitalist and the Labourer was the key to the whole position” which is his way of descrbing how the Morlocks and the Eloi are representative of the two opposite classes. - Mood is an emotional overtone; that makes the reader feel the way the author intends the story to be read.Mood is important to a story because it sets the reader into the mindset of the story. It gives the reader a sense of how the author intends the story to be perceived. - Solemnity: In the War of the Worlds, the narrator sets the mood as a verysolemn tone. This can be shown when H.G. Wells describes the ending scene of the invasion “And scattered about it, some in their overturned war-machines, some in the now rigid handling-machines, and a dozen of them stark and silent and laid in a row, were the Martians – dead! – slain by the putrefactive and disease bacteria against which their systems were unprepared; slain as the red weed was being slain; slain, after all man's devices had failed, by the humblest things that God, in his wisdom, has put upon this earth.” (Wells, The War of the Worlds pg. Even though the Martians are dead, it is still talked about as a solemn occasion.

5. The War of the Worlds • This story is set in the early 20th century, and begins with the unnamed narrator, a writer of speculative scientific articles, visiting an observatory in Ottershaw on the invitation of a "well-known astronomer" named Ogilvy. There he witnesses an explosion on the surface of the planet Mars, one of a series of such events that arouses much interest in the scientific community. An unspecified time later, a "meteor" is seen landing on Horsell Common, near London. The narrator's home is close by, and he is among the first to discover the object is a space-going artificial cylinder launched from Mars. The cylinder opens, disgorging the Martians: bulky, tentacled creatures that begin setting up strange machinery in the cylinder's impact crater. A human deputation moves towards the crater and is incinerated by an invisible ray of heat.

6. The Island of Doctor Moreau • A man is found afloat in the middle of the ocean--he then finds himself thrust into a world that is inhabited by monstrosities, ruled by a mad man. He soon finds that the only way to survive is to bring madness upon the island of Dr Moreau, a thing he wishes would never have happened.

7. The Invisible Man • An interesting man arrives in the small town of Ippling fully covered; only a pink nose shows through his scarf. Many people wonder where he comes from and what his business is there, but they soon find that they wish they never saw him...

8. Review: War of the Worlds • The book War of the Worlds is split into two parts, The Coming of the Martians and The Earth Under the Martians. The first publication of War of the Worlds was in 1897, in a magazine. The finalized story was not published in a book form until 1898. The book is seen from the perspective of a narrator that is anonymous. When many things happened on Mars, the life forms Martians living on it decide to leave, sending themselves to Earth. Back on Earth a light is seen, but no one is quite sure what it is, or what to make of it. When a Martian ship lands many people think it is just a shooting star that lands on the earth, but a scientist, named Ogilvy, is curious because he heard something inside of it. • He tries to convince people that there is something inside of it, but the only person who listens is a journalist, named Henderson. A bunch of people go to where the “star” has landed, and discover that it is a ship. They are scared when a Martian opens it up, and another comes out behind it. They jump back, and are afraid to get to close to the pit where the ship is sunken into the ground. A man falls into the pit, but unable to escape, is pulled back by the Martians. The people see that the Martians cannot get out of the pit, and move closer again to look at them. Men decide that they should show a white flag, to signal peace, but they are shot with a heat-ray. The heat-ray is talked about, and people from surrounding towns all come to see what it is. When they see that the Martians tried to shoot at everyone they ran away, leaving a mother and children to be trampled. • The Narrator then runs away, and tells his wife about what has happened, although he realizes he has scared her and tries to comfort her. When the heat-ray is responsible for more deaths the military becomes involved, and takes over all of the church towers, not letting anyone know what is going on. The Narrator and his wife head to a town called Leatherhead, to stay far away from the Martians. The Narrator needs to return a cart back home, and on his way sees a Martian in a big machine, and the man from the pit’s dead body. For a few more days the Narrator is traveling, and sees the Martians destroying everything around. He leaves the town again thinking he will be safe, but the fifth Martian ship lands right beside a house he is in, and he gets trapped along with another man. When the man starts being too loud he kills him, and hides until the Martians are gone. When he comes out he realizes how much everything has changed, and how plants from mars have taken over.

9. He decides to head back to Leatherhead and find his wife, and starts to walk. He reaches a Martian pit and has succumbed to knowing that his death is near because he cannot evade the Martians forever. He decides to walk towards it and have the Martians kill him, but when he looks into the pit he sees the Martians are dead. He realizes that the things people on Earth are immune to can kill the Martians. He wanders for a while, until a family takes him into their home, and he hears the news that Leatherhead was destroyed. He still has hope that his wife is alive, and returns home. His wife is at their house when he arrives, and everything returns to normal, but he still has flashbacks of the Martians. • I would recommend this book to people who enjoy science fiction. It isn't my favorite type of book, but it was a good read if you are into it. The book is easy to read, and gives readers a good plot to follow. The plot is interesting and leaves the reader wanting more. If you are into aliens, machines, and world domination, this is the book for you.

10. Review: The Time Machine • In the novel The Time Machine, the story is told by a narrator recalling a story that begins at a dinner. The Time Traveler, the main character, tells his guests about his idea of time travelling. They all say that there is no way, and he tries to disprove them by showing them a miniature version. He has a professor push the lever, and it disappears, but the guests are not impressed, thinking it is just a trick. He then takes them back to the real time machine, and tells them of his plan to travel time. • He tells his guests about what he has seen, mainly talking about the small people of the future. He discovers that the people are like children, and have no competition between them like modern day humans do. He tells about how he leaves is time machine, but decides to take the lever that makes it work, so that he will not be left there. He meets a woman named Weena, after he finds out that his time machine has been moved, and hopes she can help him. He then discovers that there are two types of people, the Eloi and the Morlocks. One night he decides to venture down into the wells where he thinks that the Morlocks have taken his time machine. Weena is upset by this, but he travels down anyway. He finds out that the Morlocks go away when he lights matches, but still try and prevent him from leaving. Eventually he makes his way back out of the well, and back to Weena and the Eloi. When he is back out he thinks about what he has seen, and realizes the relationship between the Eloi and Morlocks is a competition. The Morlocks eat the Eloi, and come out at night to “hunt” for them. He ventures to a green building that he has seen, and finds out that it is a museum. He walks around inside for awhile, but when he realizes it is dark out breaks a piece off of a machine to use as a weapon against the Morlocks. He and Weena decide to head home. He gathered things for a fire, knowing it will keep the Morlocks away, but Weena has never seen a fire and tries to play with it, setting the trees around them on fire. They continue their walk, and soon the Morlocks try to attack, but the Time Traveler lights a match scaring them away. Weena, however, faints from the close encounter. The Time Traveler decides to stop for the night and makes another fire to keep the Morlocks from attacking.

11. He falls asleep, and while he is sleeping the fire goes out. The Morlocks attack and when the TimeTraveler awakes, Weena is gone. He fights off the Morlocks as best as he can, and realizes the forest has caught fire, scaring them away. He still tries to follow them and find Weena, but is unsuccessful. The Time Traveler returns to the area he first arrived in, and sees that the door to where his machine is kept is open. He knows that there is a trap, but he still goes in anyway hoping that he can get his machine to work. He struggles with the Morlocks, but gets his machine moving and is whisked away. He is thrown farther forward into time, and realizes the Earth has stopped moving. He notices that the rocks are a red color, and there is a huge crab-like animal. The crab tries to attack him and he uses his machine to get away. He then sees the last life form, a small football sized creature that was right beside the sea. The whole scene made him sad, and he got back into his machine. The guests do not believe him, but in an attempt to show he is telling the truth, pulls out flowers that Weena had given him. The scientist that was at the dinner says that he has never seen that kind before, and even the Time Traveler begins to doubt himself. The Narrator of the story goes back to the Time Traveler’s house and the Time Traveler tries to show him that he can really travel through time. He says that he will show him if he can return after lunch, so the Narrator does, but only in time to see the machine disappear. The narrator then reveals that all of this happened three years ago, and the Time Traveler has not been seen, or heard from since that day. The Narrator reflects on the events of that story, and looks at the flower remains that are left. He realizes what the Time Traveler had said about the eventual end of human life, and what the flowers represent. • This book was not as good as the War of the Worlds. The plot was predictable, and was a little bit boring to me. If you really like science fiction you might be fine reading this book, but it doesn't have the same cliff-hanger, wow-fator type plot that War of the Worlds does. This book is more about the end of the world and hopelessness, and conveys a very somber tone throughtout the whole book. It isn't a book that I would want to pick up and re-read every day.

12. Webquest: • To see the webquest click here!

13. Works Cited • "Biography of H.G. Wells (September 21, 1866 - August 13, 1946)." Biography of Herbert George Wells. War of the Worlds Invasion Website. Web. 14 May 2012. <http://www.war-ofthe-worlds.co.uk/h_g_wells.htm>."Herbert George Wells - Biography." Herbert George Wells. Web. 14 May 2012. <http://www.egs.edu/library/herbert-george-wells/biography/>."Study Guide for H. G. Wells: The War of the Worlds (1898)." Study Guide for H. G. Wells: The War of the Worlds. Web. 14 May 2012. <http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/science_fiction/warofworlds.html>.Wells, H. G. The War of the Worlds. New York: Epstein and Carroll Associates]; Distributed by Random House, 1960. Print.Wells, Herbert G. The Time Machine. London: Unwin, 1924. Print."Mood." The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Houghton Mifflin Company. 14 May. 2012. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Mood>."Foreshadow." The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Houghton Mifflin Company. 14 May. 2012. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Foreshadow>."Personification." The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Houghton Mifflin Company. 14 May. 2012. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Personification>."Symbolism." The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Houghton Mifflin Company. 14 May. 2012. <Dictionary.comhttp://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Symbolism>."Theme." The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Houghton Mifflin Company. 14 May. 2012. <Dictionary.comhttp://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Theme>.