Puppet Masters Essay, Research Paper

& # 8220 ; The Puppet Masters & # 8221 ; by Robert A. Heinlein A Comparison to the Future Seen through the eyes of 1950 Writer By Rebecca Irwin & # 8220 ; The Puppet Master & # 8221 ; is a futurist fiction novel written by Robert Heinlein in the 1950 & # 8217 ; s. There are many similarities to Heinlein & # 8217 ; s twenty-first century hereafter to that of the existent hereafter. There are besides many cases when he missed the grade of announcing the hereafter with his fiction. Robert is confined to announcing the hereafter in & # 8220 ; The Puppet Masters & # 8221 ; to those state of affairss and experiences he had from life in the 1950 & # 8217 ; s. I & # 8217 ; m traveling to compare the 1950 & # 8217 ; s futurist position of the twenty-first century to that of the existent 1990 & # 8217 ; s. Robert besides used several ways of speech production that demonstrate fluently that the clip in which he wrote the book was in the 1950 & # 8217 ; s. For case, when Sam was depicting & # 8220 ; The Old Man & # 8217 ; ( 4 ) , he described him as looking like & # 8220 ; a cross between Satan and Punch of Punch-and-Judy & # 8221 ; . Punch and Judy were a well-known child & # 8217 ; s demo where two marionettes would sock each other and say bad things to each other. Besides Sam, a authorities agent and the storyteller of the book, asked Mary to get married him after merely cognizing her a few hebdomads. In today & # 8217 ; s universe, that merely wouldn & # 8217 ; t go on. Another 1950 & # 8217 ; s stating that caught my oculus was & # 8220 ; I had the hackie swing out over the ocean to avoid the Carolina velocity trap & # 8221 ; ( 45 ) . I remember my pa used to state that. However, there was some things that Robert did portray that did fit his futurist position to that of the existent 1990 & # 8217 ; s either through good conjecture work, or perchance desirous thought. One case was the function that adult females played in the book. In the 1950 & # 8217 ; s, there were really few adult females who had executive occupations or place of power. In the 1990 & # 8217 ; s, there are about as many adult females higher up on the executive concatenation as there are work forces. Mary was a character that was powerful plenty to be given the right to guard the president. She was besides good respected by the other characters because she could make her occupation and make it good. With this leap from a 50 & # 8217 ; s adult females to a 90 & # 8217 ; s adult females, Robert did portray the feelings of work forces toward adult females those yearss ( in the 1950 & # 8217 ; s ) . For case, every clip Mary put herself in a compromised place, such as the clip when she was traveling to volunteer her organic structure to be ridden by a & # 8220 ; hag & # 8221 ; , Sam jumped in and became a voluntary to forestall her from making it. He portrayed that old stereotype of adult females that they are delicate and are non capable of managing all state of affairss that work forces can. In world, work forces are giving adult females more recognition for state of affairss that are capable of passing. He besides hit the nail on the caput when it came to the technological progresss his characters had entree to in the book. One technological progress in his book was that of communicating. The authorities agents in the book such as Sam, Mary, and the Old adult male all had communicating devices implanted in their caputs so that they could be reached anyplace, anytime, any topographic point. This is really similar to cellular communicating used in the existent hereafter, although with cellular communicat

ion, the device is held in the manus. The medical technological progresss were besides really similar to actuality in which they could graft a individual a new manus or arm. The lone thing that was non credible was the clip frame in which this could be accomplished. In the book, it merely took a affair of hours to graft a new manus or arm, but in world it would take hebdomads. One technological progress that he didn’t foresee in his futuristic novel was that of electronic mail.

If this novel had been written today, alternatively of the 1950 & # 8217 ; s, the writer would hold most likely used electronic mail as signifier of communicating so manner or some signifier. He besides would hold used the Internet as a agency for reassigning informations back and Forth. For case, when Sam went into Kansas with a & # 8220 ; picture camera & # 8221 ; ( Robert called it a & # 8220 ; portable scanning rig & # 8221 ; ( 45 ) , alternatively of holding a direct nexus they might hold used a digital imagination to convey the information over the cyberspace. Another stereotyped illusion that was drifting around the 1950 & # 8217 ; s was UFO & # 8217 ; s. This, I feel, was the most binding subject throughout the whole novel. In fact, the book is based upon a UFO landing that is masqueraded and covered up by the foreigners who landed here. The foreigners try to wholly take over the Earth by taken control of the worlds & # 8217 ; they ride on. They attach themselves to the dorsums of human and infix a portion of their foreign organic structure into the cervical cord in which they control all the actions of the human host. In the 1950 & # 8217 ; s there was a large dirt that the US authorities covered up a UFO landing in Arizona. This supposed UFO was taken to a controlled authorities site called Area 51. I find a batch of similarities to this 1950 incident to that of Heinlein & # 8217 ; s novel & # 8220 ; The Puppet Masters & # 8221 ; . Robert Heinlein lived during the cold war when Russia was still a great menace to that of the free universe. The menace that freedom could be lost if the Soviet Union was to overrun their thoughts of communism into the free universe was a existent fright during the 1950 & # 8217 ; s which the writer used to bring down the fright of the foreigners taking over control of the worlds. After Sam & # 8217 ; s first incident of being infested by an foreigner, he was highly fearful of being controlled once more by the bullets. That fright of losing his freedom was plenty to desire to kill the maestro that rode him. That fright of losing one & # 8217 ; s freedom is really prevailing throughout the full book. There are many mentions made sing Russia that would suit will with a 50 & # 8217 ; s attitude. For case, Sam referred to the Soviet Union as the & # 8220 ; Curtain & # 8221 ; , a term used to depict Russia during the cold war. Could Robert have foreseen that Russia would no longer be a communistic state in 2100 with his 1950 eyes? I feel that would hold been a tough call. Although there are many similarities to the 1950 & # 8217 ; s novel of a futurist American, there are besides many differences between Robert & # 8217 ; s hereafter and the existent hereafter we know today. It would be interesting to read a new novel ( if Robert Heinlein was still alive to compose it ) written by Robert in the 1990 & # 8217 ; s about a UFO invasion of the universe.