questions

Study Questions – Parts II and III of E. M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops”

1.    Describe and define “homelessness” in the Vashti and Kuno’s society. Homeless in the society means people who break machine’s law and the machine sent them to the earth surface.  This action would kill the homeless because the air is highly polluted at the surface and the people who are homeless cannot breath and dead.

2.    What is Vashti’s comment about “worshipping” the machine? Vashti’s comment is she thinks the machine is a good place to live and it provides everything for her. But she did not treat the machine like God. Using her reaction, what can you infer about how Vashti’s society feels about religion? In vashti’s society, people do not have religion and they just believe machine is a safe place to live.

3.     How does this society view physical strength? The society does not admire physical strength, when a baby is born if the machine think is too strong they will kill the body. Why? Because the society do not wants people to go outside or do something that against the machine.

4.    List Kuno’s discoveries he made while on the platforms. Kuno discoveries grass and some human lives on the earth’s surface and kuno get back his sense of space.

5.    Summarize the section in which Kuno journeys to the top by listing the key events. What

Discoveries does he make in this journey? He gains back his sense of space. When he finally gets on the earth surface he found out he can breathe without the respirator and he discover there are humans lives on the earth surface.

6.    Trace the symptoms of the Machine’s destruction from the beginning of Part III until the end of the story. At part two, the machine cannot provide beds for people to sleep and lights in the room become darker every day. The air in the room is dirty. When vashti try to play some music on her video, the music sounds is very strange. Later on, the machine stop working.

7.    What does Kuno believe the future holds at the end of the story? Kuno believe human will lives on the surface of the earth. They will never live in the machine anymore.