Major Theme Analysis for HG Wells First Men in the Moon

¶ … HG Wells the First Men in the Moon, discussing the structural analysis between societies and class structures of the alien Selenites with a comparison to the class and society structure of modern man, finally looking at how this affects modern society.

Structural analysis of HG Well's The First Men in the Moon

Politics and literature have always found a way to mix, although many readers of late nineteenth and early twentieth century novels did not actually associate these topics and mixable many authors found ways of bring forth and entering their own political views into the manuscripts.

One of these classic writers was English writer Herbert George Wells, known colloquially as HG Wells, known for his famous books such as the Time Machine written in 1895, the Invisible Man written in 1897, War of the Worlds written in 1898, and The First Men in the Moon written in 1901.

Wells was not just a writer of science fiction novels, through out his life he wrote many other non-science fiction books, such as Kipps, written in 1905, here we see Wells' snipe and sneering at those that attempted to better themselves and go against their upbringing. However, Wells' was not just a writer he was also a journalist, sociologist and historian.

Born in Bromley, Kent, Wells' father was a shopkeeper and therefore belonged to the upper lower classes or perhaps the lower middle classes, however it would be safe to argue that as his father was also an avid cricketer which he played on a professional basis he belonged to the lower middle class.

During his formative years Wells' developed his love for the literary art, as his mother was a housekeeper at a nearby estate he spent many a day secretly studying the books in the great houses library.

When Wells' fathers business went bankrupt, Wells followed his brothers into the apprenticeship of being a draper, it was through his experiences in this role between the years 1880 and 1883 that he wrote the book Kipps in 1905, here we see that a young man like Wells' is apprenticed and soon makes his way into the upper classes through the good fortune of gaining an inheritance, Wells' adds criticism to this entry as a betrayal of his original values and class, this is one of Wells' attitudes towards the upper classes and capitalism.

It is this attitude against the class structure that Wells' illustrates in his a lot of his books, in particular the book The First Men in the Moon, published in 1901, it is classed as one of Well's most popular scientific romances that embraces the new age of space travel.

It is through the discovery of a new anti-gravity metal, named Cavorite after the scientist that discovered it Professor Cavor, that he and a young Englishman of good standing travel to the moon, it is here that they encounter the strange world of the Selenites. The Selenites live in a strange system not unlike that of insects, they are insect like and live in a rigid society that forms an organized hive system, for example in chapter twenty four of the book Wells notes through his young English man that the insects are unique " in having four limbs, and I have compared the general appearance of their heads and the jointing of their limbs to that of insects." (Wells PG). Further more he adds that "though of course they fall under no division of the classification of earthly creatures, and he points out "the insect type of anatomy had, fortunately for men, never exceeded a relatively very small size on earth." The largest terrestrial insects, living or extinct, do not, as a matter of fact, measure 6 in. In length; "but here, against the lesser gravitation of the moon, a creature certainly as much an insect as vertebrate seems to have been able to attain to human and ultra-human dimensions." (Wells PG).

Through this description we can see that Wells is using a from or racism to define the Selenites as compared to humans, he is describing the inhuman way in which they are developing but also adds that they are also similar to humans, in this way Wells is bring forth the anthropological and archaeological knowledge that was being discussed at the time concerning Neanderthals and humans, how apelike they looked and resembled but also how human like they were, Wells' is using his knowledge here to define the non-human Selenites as sub-humans.

In considering the style of Wells' writing when describing this system of habitation by the Selenites we can see a mixture of societal structures taking place, for example there is the class and caste structure with high ranking officials, administrators and workers, for example "He does not mention the ant, but throughout his allusions the ant is continually being brought before my mind, in its sleepless activity, in its intelligence and social organization, in its structure, and more particularly in the fact that it displays, in addition to the two forms, the male and the female form, that almost all other animals possess, a number of other sexless creatures, workers, soldiers, and the like, differing from one another in structure, character, power, and use, and yet all members of the same species" (Wells PG).

Wells' bring forth the political and racial aspects of the Selenites by describing each one as unlike to each other, yet bring this into a contextual analysis of society on earth we see a great similarity between the classes and social structures of Victorian and Edwardian England.

The upper classes looked down upon the middle and lower classes and workers and upstarts, with little regard for their safety and well being, in a way this is how the Selenites are being considered, through a class state and environment where everyone knows their place.

If we look at society today compared to when Wells' was writing his novel, we can see that times have certainly changed, although the class structure still exists the barriers have become thinner with more members of the lower classes becoming more educated and moving up to the middle classes and members of the middle classes moving up to become members of the upper class, moreover with the many ways of winning millions of dollars and pounds through lottery funds and tickets many members of the lower classes are rapidly rising to the rank of upper class.