The Shell - Literature Review

Student’s Name Instructor’s Name Course Date Introduction In this literature review, the focus is given to the various themes evident in the play “The Shell.” The most significant ones examined include; science fiction in theatre, science fiction, and gender, race, and colonialism, and imagining social change through science fiction. The short science fiction play which has its setting in Canada portrays the fears of human beings similar to the concerns demonstrated against the aliens. The play depicts Greg, a central character, as one who hates and fears children merely because he cannot understand them. According to Greg, children are just like other species. The play also brings the science fiction close to humanity when Kamala tells Greg that she was from his future and she was searching an art masterpiece for a sea creature. The masterpiece that she was looking for is the seashell. The principle that she was putting forward is that all living creatures are potential artists and the shell was a piece of art from a sea creature that she was looking for. The story in the play is a captivating one that narrates about time travel, a science fiction concept, and a child who had a bigger head than her body. The play encompasses several themes that are significant in this review. Some of the themes brought up in the play, “The Shell,” are to be analyzed separately because of their prevalent differences. Additionally, the themes in the play, “The Shell” are going to be compared with other studies from other authors so that we can analyze the similarities and differences as well as understanding the significance in the application of these themes. Science Fiction and Theatre Science fiction helps human beings to project or extrapolate ideas and thoughts that are beyond our realities and actual execution. All the human imaginations can be brought into a virtual reality in a theatre. In the play, “The Shell,” the storyline attempts to make the audience understand the dynamics of the science fiction by the using the character Kamala to tell Greg that she was coming from the future coming to look for the seashells. According to Nahin (200), there is nothing as exciting and romantic like how the authors and the characters in a movie bring out the concept of the time travel to the human either in a film or in a book. The readers and many writers have found the science fiction of the time travel as very fascinating. In 2016, Schneider found out that the science fiction encompassing time travel had opened doors to old aged human questions and mysteries (79). She explains that the very nature of the universe can now be well understood by the concept of time travel. The theme of science fiction and theatre are critical in this play by bringing human imaginati...