Category: Grade 11

I created this propaganda poster for the Machine Stops story using Canva.

I created this propaganda poster to support Kuno’s ideology. Kuno was against the machine and wanted people to think for themselves. I decided to use a base image of a machine hand with strings connected to people. This demonstrated people being treated like puppets by the machine. This is a fear factor because it portrays the machine as an evil being, controlling society. At the top of the poster, I used the words “WAKE UP!!!”. This technique is called Virtue words or Glittering Generalities. This sends a strong message to the reader to draw their attention to the poster because it is a bold message written in all caps with exclamation marks. This is also a metaphor for waking up and realizing what is truly happening. Then, I wrote “Don’t let the Machine Brainwash you” in red font. I used red because it tends to be associated with evil and wanted to make the machine seem evil to use the fear tactic. This message also used the name calling tactic because I associated being Brainwashed with the machine. I then used an image of a robotic machine that is holding two brains. I made the machine black and red to again associate it with evil to use the fear factor. I made the robot hold the brains to show that the machine was controlling people’s minds and that they weren’t thinking for themselves. This is also an Ad Hominem ATTACK because I am purposely attacking the machine by creating a bad image for it. Overall, this poster’s main theme was the fear factor to scare the society into seeing the truth behind the machine.

Synthesis Composition of The Machine Stops and WALL-E

Wall-E and the Machine Stop story are both dystopian stories. They both demonstrate the possibility of our future society if we rely entirely on technology. Wall-E is a Pixar film written by Stanton and Jim Reardon. It is a dystopian society that takes place in the year 2805, where humans live in a ship in space because the earth’s environment has been destroyed by overwhelming pollution. Wall-E is a lonely waste-collecting robot left behind to clean up the mess. The main message behind this story is the consequences of overreliance on technology and the depletion of our planet’s resources. It urges us to consider the impact of our actions and the importance of preserving our environment. The Machine stops story is a dystopian story written by EM Forster and takes place in the far future. In this society, humans live in isolated chambers underground, communicating only through the machine. In the story the machine starts to fail, leading to a collapse in their society. The overall message from this story is to be aware of the dangers of losing our critical thinking to the machine and the consequences of complete reliance on technology.

Wall-E shows the effects that pollution can have on the environment and human society. In the movie, the earth becomes so polluted that humans cannot live on earth, so they move to a spaceship and wait until the earth is habitable again. While on ship they have built many machines that will do all the necessary tasks for them. Because of this, humans have become entirely reliant on technology to do everything for them. For example, they all are stuck in their chairs and use the screen in front of them. They would communicate through the screen even though they were right next to each other. They have become so reliant on the machine for generations, they have forgotten how to think and do things themselves. This has caused them to be unaware of their surroundings and lose touch with their critical and creative thinking. In the movie, there is a scene where they advertise a new color jumpsuit, and everyone immediately switches over without thinking if they like it or not. They have let technology gain so much power over them that when they wanted to go back to earth the head robot would not let them and wouldn’t listen to the captain.

The story machine stops also displays what can happen when we let technology control us. In the story the society depends on the machine and treats it like a god like figure. One example from the story is when Kuno told Vashti “You talk as if a god had made the Machine, I believe that you pray to it when you are unhappy. Men made it, do not forget that. Great men, but men. The Machine is much, but not everything.” Kuno is reminding Vashti that the machine is not everything and was created by humans. Similar to Vashti, the other residents also praise the machine, and they are scared to disobey it. Because of the overly reliance on the machine, they have lost diversity and creativity.  The society was described by “Few travelled in these days, thanks to the advance of science, the earth was exactly alike all over.” This suggests that technological advancements have created a homogeneous world where physical locations and cultural differences no longer matter. This is also shown by when Vashti travels over Greece and says, “I get no ideas here.” She has no ideas because she has lost critical thinking because the machine does everything for her. She can’t come up with new ideas because all the ideas are recycled.

Wall-E and the machine stops story both relate to the Allegory of the Cave by Plato. In the story the Allegory of the Cave, there are three people who have been trapped in a cave their whole life. All they know is what they can see from the shadows outside. This is similar to the Machine stops story because they have all lived in isolated cells since babies which is similar to the cave. In Wall-E they do have more access to move around but they have been stuck on the spaceship their whole lives. Then in the Allegory of the Cave, one person is freed. He goes to look outside and is overwhelmed by the light and the color. The things he saw in the shadows were real and colorful. This person is similar to Kuno because they were both unaware of what the real world was like until they got to see it for themselves. The man would come back from the cave and tell the other men about what he saw outside, but they didn’t believe him and were scarred to see for themselves. That is similar to Vashti because when Kuno wanted to meet her face to face and told her about seeing the surface, she was scared to disobey the machines.

If we continue to follow in these dystopian stories’ footsteps, we may end up just like them. Humanity needs to be conscious to be aware.