From Social Critique to Cosmic Perspective: When Personal Loss Meets Deep Time
Essential Question
Why do we tell stories about the future when we're really talking about today?
Before We Start 3 min
Think → Pair → Share
Think about a time you found out a hard truth about something you used to trust or admire — a person, a place, a system, a product.
What was your first reaction?
Did you try to make sense of it, or did you want to ignore it?
Did it change how you acted?
Share with a partner → we'll hear a few responses.
Where We Left Off
The Time Traveller arrived in 802,701 AD — a world divided into the Eloi and the Morlocks
The Eloi: beautiful, helpless, live on the surface
The Morlocks: live underground, run the machines — and feed on the Eloi
His time machine was stolen. His friend Weena died in the forest fire
He fought his way back — and now, for the first time, he stops to think
Chapter 10: Seeing with New Eyes
"I thought of the physical slightness of the people, their lack of intelligence, and those big abundant ruins, and in a flash I understood it all."
— H.G. Wells, The Time Machine
He's back on the yellow metal seat — the same spot where this world looked beautiful
Same landscape. Same sunshine. But now he can't un-know what's underneath
He describes the Eloi as "cattle in the field" — this is not kindness
The cupolas he thought were decorative? Entrances to underground horror
His Theory: How Did This Happen?
The Time Traveller traces the history of this divided world
Rich & poor separated by wealth
→
Rich move above ground Poor forced below
→
Over generations, both groups change
→
Morlocks gain power Eloi become helpless
→
Workers end up farming the masters
His key insight: separating people by class dehumanises everyone — not just the poor
Is Wells Describing Today? 4 min
Think → Pair → Share
Wells wrote this in 1895. Look at these examples from today. Which feels most real to you?
Gated communities a few kilometres from food deserts
Private schools with Olympic pools; underfunded public schools nearby
Tech workers' neighbourhoods pushing out families who've lived there for generations
Countries that produce luxury goods but whose workers can't afford them
If Wells could see our world, would he think things had changed — or stayed the same?
The Trap: Playing on His Assumptions
The Morlocks' plan
Open the bronze doors — make it look like an offering
Wait for him to step inside
Close the doors. Remove the levers
Use darkness as a weapon
Why it almost works
He wants to believe they'll cooperate
His arrogance makes him careless
He assumes he's smarter than they are
He escapes — but uses violence, and accidentally travels too far forward
30,000,000
years in the future
Chapter 11: The Dying Earth
The Eloi, the Morlocks, class conflict — all gone
The sun is enormous, red, barely moving across the sky
The air is thin and cold. The beaches are encrusted with salt
The only life: giant crabs, and something small and black flapping in the shallows
No cities. No ruins. No trace of anything human.
Freewrite 5 min
Freewrite — Keep your pen moving
Imagine you could see 30 million years into the future. Everything humans have ever built, said, argued about, loved, or fought over is gone.
How does that make you feel? Does it make today's problems feel smaller — or does it make them feel more urgent? Why?
There's no right answer. Write what you actually think.
What Wells Is Doing Here
What he shows us
All civilisations are temporary
Environmental collapse is the final stage
Even the sun dies — the planet eventually loses everything
Life continues without humans — just not our kind of life
The connection to today
Climate change is a shorter version of this story
Rising oceans, dying species, changing atmosphere
The Earth doesn't care about our class struggles — it changes anyway
Wells asks: if you knew this was coming, what would you change?
"An Invisible Hand Seemed to Sweep Out the Stars"
"The darkness grew apace; a cold wind began to blow in freshening gusts from the east, and the showering white flakes in the air increased in number. From the edge of the sea came a ripple and whisper. Beyond these lifeless sounds the world was silent."
— H.G. Wells, The Time Machine
A solar eclipse plunges the dying world into complete darkness
The Time Traveller is terrified — not of monsters, but of silence
This is the closest Wells gets to showing us the end of everything
The Big Question 4 min
Think → Pair → Share
Wells shows us that everything — the Eloi, the Morlocks, human civilisation, the planet — eventually ends.
Does knowing that everything ends anyway make you think...
(A) Current problems don't really matter that much
(B) Current problems matter even more because this is all we have
(C) Something else entirely
Defend your answer with one reason.
Wells Gives Us Three Lenses
The novel works on three time scales at once
👤
Personal Time
Days & weeks
The Time Traveller's journey, Weena's death, individual survival and grief
🏛
Social Time
Centuries & generations
The rise and fall of civilisations, class division, inequality becoming catastrophic
🌟
Cosmic Time
Millions of years
Environmental collapse, the death of the planet, humanity's place in the universe
Wells asks: how do you balance all three at the same time?
What He Gets Right — and What He Misses
What he gets right
Class division dehumanises both groups
Separation creates mutual ignorance and fear
Exploitation eventually reverses — the exploited gain power
The system was always unsustainable
What he still misses
He never feels real sympathy for the Morlocks
He still describes them as "things" and "ape-like"
He assumes the Eloi were the "better" class
His own violence is never fully questioned
He can see the system's flaws — but he can't fully see his own biases
How Do We Respond When the Truth Is Overwhelming?
Think about climate change, inequality, or any big systemic problem
Denial
"It can't really be that bad."
Individualise it
"I'll just take care of my own family."
Escapism
"I don't want to think about it."
Heroic fantasy
"Someone important will fix it."
Paralysis
"It's too big. Nothing I do matters."
Systemic action
"We need to change how things work."
Which one does the Time Traveller choose when he escapes?
Discussion 6 min
Whole-Class Discussion
The Time Traveller has now seen the consequences of inequality AND the eventual death of the planet. Does seeing the long-term make him a better or worse witness to what's happening in 802,701 AD?
Wells shows us that "paradise" can be built on exploitation. Where do you see that in the world today? Does knowing it change how you engage with those things?
Is the Time Traveller's story a warning — or just entertainment? Does it matter which one Wells intended?
How This Connects to the Bigger Unit
Metropolis — What happens to a class-divided city over generations rather than millions of years? Fritz Lang saw Wells's ideas and made them visual
Black Panther — Wakanda has advanced technology and chose how to use it. How does that choice look different from the Eloi/Morlock future?
Afrofuturism — What if, instead of Wells's dying earth, the future was built on different values from the start? Who gets to imagine that future?
Essential Question
Who gets to imagine the future — and why does that matter?
Before You Go 5 min
Journal Prompt — Exit Ticket
Pick one of these to write about for 5 minutes:
A. Choose a major problem you care about — climate change, inequality, something local. How does it look different when you think about it personally (this week), socially (this generation), and on a longer timescale (100+ years)? Does the scale change what you think should happen?
B. The Time Traveller saw evidence that the world was heading toward disaster — but he wasn't from that world, and no one would believe him. What do you do when you can see a problem that others can't or won't?
Coming Up: Back to Victorian London
The Time Traveller returns home. Same evening. Same dinner guests.
He now carries knowledge that could change how people think about inequality and the future
But will anyone believe him? Will he tell the story in a way that matters?
And what does it mean that he tells it as an adventure story — rather than as a warning?
Think About This
What's the difference between a story that entertains and a story that changes how you act? Can it be both?
Teacher Reference: UbD Alignment
Enduring Understanding
"Science fiction serves as both a mirror reflecting current social issues and a telescope for imagining possible futures."
Transfer Goals
Apply multi-scale thinking to real social/environmental problems
Analyse a narrator's perspective critically, not just sympathetically
Connect literary themes to contemporary systemic issues
Activities & Timing
Opening TPS: 3 min
Recap: 4 min
Ch. 10 content + TPS: 12 min
Ch. 11 + Freewrite: 12 min
Three-scales + blind spots: 10 min
Discussion: 6 min
Exit ticket: 5 min
MTSS / UDL Supports
All key ideas repeated in visual form (flow chain, scale cards)
Pair work supports reluctant verbal participants
Choice in exit ticket (analytical or narrative path)