Mortal Engines Literary Analysis

In his novel Mortal Engines, Philip Reeve is critiquing society and class, violence, and technology. To begin with, Reeve is displaying how unfair society is and how the wealthiest people get the recognition for making our society run smoothly. In chapter seven, Reeve (2001) states that the “Top Tier hangs over the city like an iron crown, supported by vast pillars” (p.48). This statement implies that the wealthiest people which is the top one percent in our society are very important and valuable. Furthermore, Reeve (2001) continues to state that the top tier “is the smallest, highest, and most important of the Seven Tiers” (p.48). This quote from the novel implicitly means that the upper class citizens of our society are anchors and that
They forgot that they used to live in the same conditions as poor people and feel that the working class is beneath them and just seeing them makes the upper class shudder in this novel. In contrast, the author states how gloomy it is at the bottom tier. He states how people are working endlessly to clear the waste from the city and making sure that the city is able to function properly. They are the anchors or pillars of the city but, are living in horrible, filthy conditions. The upper class looks down on the lower class and do not acknowledge them unless they aren’t doing a job or being punished. They are underappreciated and Reeve wants to expose this issue in society. He wants readers to acknowledge the fact that the upper tier of society would not exist without the bottom tier supporting it. It would fall and would inevitably meet its demise. In addition, throughout the book Reeve continuously describes how much the bottom tier of people are needed and how a problem occurs if both classes of people are not able to work
Reeve critiques the technology of society. In chapter six it states that “The city was never out of their sight, but it grew smaller… and more distant… and Tom realized that it might soon be lost forever beyond the horizon” (Reeve, 2001, p.40). This statement implies that we creating technology so fast to the point where it is getting impossible for anyone to adequately process and adapt to the new technology. Reeve believes that our society is moving so fast to create things that may be detrimental to our society and will allow history to repeat itself. For instance, when Pearl Harbor was attacked the U.S. could not wait to develop something that would destroy other cities. Furthermore, when they finally developed a nuclear bomb, they attacked Hiroshima and killed millions of innocent people. Reeve wants his audience to see that if we continue to use technology to its full capacity we could potentially repeat history and destroy ourselves. Reeve is trying to convey a message which is to pay attention to the past to avoid repeating catastrophic events in the future. The author implies that we will inevitably bring ruin upon ourselves if we do not think and assess our problems and provide effective solutions. The key idea is that the top tier has to establish a relationship with the bottom tier in order for our society to move forward and