“buttons and switches everywhere- buttons to call for food, for music, for clothing”
There are buttons provided for her, so she does not have to do any physical work, and that is why she is described as a ‘lump of flesh’. This supports the word ‘swaddled’ as she is like a baby with things brought to her automatically. Therefore the disturbing image of Vashti presented in the opening of the novel highlight the negative aspects of the Machine. It is effective because it shocks the reader and sets tone for the remainder of the novel. It creates an impression of an undesirable lifestyle to the reader. There is no mention of currency in the Machine world, so we can draw to conclusion that humans are not made to do any work.
Furthermore, Forster uses simile, disease imagery and the alliteration of the ‘f’ to reinforce Vashti’s lack of stamina development and her unattractive physical appearance:
“about five feet high, with a face as white as fungus..”
Forster describes Vashti as only ‘five feet high’ even though she is a mother; suggesting that she has stunted growth at young age, probably due to the impact of the Machine on her growth. Forster uses ‘high’ rather than ‘tall’ to describe her, which also dehumanises her character. Her face is sickly ‘white’, this emphasises that she does not leave her windowless room, so she does not see the sun at all. Therefore she is pale and has not grown. The simile that compares Vashti’s face with fungus indicates to the reader her difference to us. The alliterative repetition of ‘F’ makes the reader pause and reflect the words used to relate the protagonist to the ‘fungal imagery’. It reinforces the harshness of the ‘fungal imagery’ and the health condition of human beings in the Machine world. The ‘fungal imagery’ also symbolises that this lifestyle can be ‘contagious’ and ‘poisonous’, just like that of a virus. In addition, Forster describes Vashti’s house explicitly by using confined space imagery to explain why she is unhealthy:
“…small room, hexagonal in shape, like the cell of a bee…”
She lives in such a small, unusual shaped room-hexagonal that there is virtually no space for her to move. A beehive is dark and small therefore this confined space is detrimental to her health and lifestyle. Forster uses a simile, ‘like the cell’ to suggest that she is trapped in her house, an organic prison cell. Similar in how a mother provides all the needs for her fetus in her womb, the Machine provides for its people. We can also relate this comparison to the way a fetus grows to love his mother. The people of this world grow to appreciate and even worship the Machine. Her limited space house foreshadows her general entrapment in the Machine world why she cannot escape because the Machine controls her mind literally, which also symbolises her superstitious belief in the Machine, as a kind of ‘god’.
Along side this powerful and explicit imagery, Forster uses dramatic dialogue to emphasise the horrifying presentation of an individual who almost worships the Machine and knows no other existence. Also, Forster develops the Cult of the Machine through these dramatic dialogues effectively:
“O Machine, O Machine!… feed us and clothes us and houses us… Machine is enemies of superstitious… men spent their strength praying their Book …”
Forster compares the Machine to a ‘god’ by the use of repetition of Vashti’s prayer “O Machine”. It suggests that Vashti worships the Machine and it indicates the Machine’s power over Vashti, like that of a God, which is a shocking image to us. The Machine is important to the survival of humans, ‘feed, us, clothes us and house us’; this implies that the Machine provides their ‘basic needs’ and therefore they depend on the Machine for the survival. This idea can be linked to the swaddled baby image; humans cannot live without the Machine, just like babies cannot live without their parents. It highlights its power over human life.
In addition, the Book is compared to the Bible. Forster uses a personal pronoun, ‘their Book’ to highlight that humans worship the Book as if it is a Bible and provide answers to everything. Even when humans are in trouble towards the end of the novel, they spend their strength praying to ‘their Books’ instead of saving themselves manually. Ironically, the Machine is an ‘enemy of superstition’ but in reality, humans treat it as a ‘god’, which is a superstitious act. Therefore, Forster shows that humans have lost their belief in their own abilities to control their lives, which is particularly horrifying.
Forster uses similes, different types of imagery, dramatic dialogue and a prolonged comparison of the Machine to God to create what I consider to be a particularly horrifying representation of a dehumanised Machine world, where humans have lost their humanity and worship the man-made Machine. Forster criticises these negative aspects of technology in modern society. He also echoes his concern of the impact of modern technology has on human beings’ health and lifestyle through rich imagery. This is perhaps a warning or a prediction for the further generation to consider the impact of technology has in modern society.
