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Air-Ships
In the world of the story, “Homelessness” is a term for execution in which the condemned person is exposed to the air at Earth’s surface, which supposedly kills them. This form of execution is a punishment for deviation from the values and rules of this society, as when Kuno is threatened with Homelessness for escaping to the surface without a permit. Human beings can apparently no longer survive in this future world without living underground and breathing the artificial air generated by a technological system called the Machine. As Vashti reveals, Homelessness was once used for the mass executions that put an end to a past “Great Rebellion.” But when Kuno escapes to the earth’s surface, he discovers that Homelessness is not always a death sentence—there are human beings who have somehow adapted to living on the outer surface, outside of the Machine’s control. Kuno finds hope in these “Homeless,” as they are proof that humanity may survive the Machine’s downfall and regain their communion with nature that they lost in their retreat underground.
Homelessness Quotes in The Machine Stops
The The Machine Stops quotes below are all either spoken by Homelessness or refer to Homelessness. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Part 2: The Mending Apparatus
Quotes
“I did not get an Egression-permit.”
“Then how did you get out?”
“I found out a way of my own.”
The phrase conveyed no meaning to her, and he had to repeat it.
“A way of your own?” she whispered. “But that would be wrong.”
“Why?”
The question shocked her beyond measure.
“You are beginning to worship the Machine,” he said coldly. “You think it irreligious of me to have found out a way of my own. It was just what the Committee thought, when they threatened me with Homelessness.”
At this she grew angry. “I worship nothing!” she cried. “I am most advanced. I don’t think you irreligious, for there is no such thing as religion left. All the fear and the superstition that existed once have been destroyed by the machine. I only meant that to find out a way of your own was—Besides, there is no new way out.”
“So it is always supposed.”
“Except through the vomitories, for which one must have an Egression-permit, it is impossible to get out. The Book says so.”
“Well, the Book’s wrong, for I have been out on my feet.”
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Tears gathered in his mother’s eyes. She knew that he was fated. If he did not die today he would die tomorrow. There was not room for such a person in the world. And with her pity disgust mingled. She was ashamed at having borne such a son, she who had always been so respectable and so full of ideas. Was he really the little boy to whom she had taught the use of his stops and buttons, and to whom she had given his first lessons in the Book? The very hair that disfigured his lip showed that he was reverting to some savage type. On atavism the Machine can have no mercy.
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Part 3: The Homeless
Quotes
“Is there any hope, Kuno?”
“None for us.”
“Where are you?”
She crawled towards him over the bodies of the dead. His blood spurted over her hands.
“Quicker,” he gasped, “I am dying—but we touch, we talk, not through the Machine.”
He kissed her.
“We have come back to our own. We die, but we have recaptured life, as it was in Wessex, when Aelfrid overthrew the Danes. We know what they know outside, they who dwelt in the cloud that is the colour of a pearl.”
“But, Kuno, is it true? Are there still men on the surface of the earth? Is this—this tunnel, this poisoned darkness—really not the end?”
He replied:
“I have seen them, spoken to them, loved them. They are hiding in the mist and the ferns until our civilization stops. To-day they are the Homeless—to-morrow—”
“Oh, to-morrow—some fool will start the Machine again, to-morrow.”
“Never,” said Kuno, “never. Humanity has learnt its lesson.”
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Get the entire The Machine Stops LitChart as a printable PDF.
Homelessness Term Timeline in The Machine Stops
The timeline below shows where the term Homelessness appears in The Machine Stops. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1: The Air-Ship
...at the time was only just rising into prominence, outlawed this pursuit as punishable by Homelessness. This failed attempt to “defeat the sun” marked the end of humanity’s interest in anything...
(full context)
Part 2: The Mending Apparatus
Kuno tells Vashti that he has been threatened with Homelessness. He could not tell her this through the Machine. Homelessness is a form of execution...
(full context)
...his actions. This is the same reasoning the Committee used when they sentenced Kuno to Homelessness. Vashti is enraged by this, insisting that she “worships nothing,” and that the Machine has...
(full context)
...his room. Kuno’s story comes to an end. Vashti tells him it will end in Homelessness, and that the Machine has been merciful to him. Kuno says he prefers the mercy...
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Vashti asks Kuno if he ever saw the bones of those who were executed through Homelessness after the Great Rebellion. Vashti insists that Earth’s surface no longer supports higher forms of...
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Part 3: The Homeless
...parts of the Machine. There is also the threat of persecution, in the form of Homelessness, against those who do not believe.
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...a dictatorship. People call to “avenge the Machine,” punishing anyone who meddles with it with Homelessness.
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...they are waiting for this civilization to end, when they will no longer be the Homeless. Vashti says that “some fool” might start the Machine again in the future, but Kuno...
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