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What does the Emperor's machine represent to him in Bradbury's "The Flying Machine"?
Quick answer:
In "The Flying Machine," the Emperor's machine, a garden of metal and jewels, symbolizes his desire for control and stability, representing his kingdom in a state of unchanging beauty. This contrasts with the flying machine, which embodies unpredictability and potential change. The Emperor fears the flying machine's power and its potential misuse, leading him to execute its inventor to preserve his peace and prevent any disruption to his controlled world.
The Emperor's garden of metal and jewels represents his kingdom in miniature as it is right now. It is a representation of beautiful stasis, of the Emperor's desire to control his kingdom so that it will never change. The Emperor's machine is lovely, but it poses no threat, because it can't alter anything. There is nothing unpredictable about it.
The Emperor's garden of metal and jewels is juxtaposed against the new flying machine that one of the Emperor's subjects builds. The Emperor fears the beautiful flying machine, because it represents uncertainty. Even the man who invented it is not sure what it is for. The Emperor dreads its power and his lack of ability to control it. As he tells the inventor before he has him executed, his machine could do harm in the hands of an evil man. It could be used to destroy the kingdom.
In Ray Bradbury's 1953 short story "The Flying Machine," the Emperor is confronted with the news that someone in his kingdom has learned to fly with bamboo and paper wings. The Emperor demands that the man be brought to him.
When the inventor arrives, conversation ensues, and the Emperor decides to execute the man and destroy his machine, as he does not want progress to interfere with the peace of his world. Even as the inventor argues that the Emperor's invention of the miniature world in a box is a wonderful invention in itself, the Emperor cannot be dissuaded, and the man is killed.
To the Emperor, the garden with trees and birds represents not only peace, but peace of mind that he may avoid change in his world. Change is something he feels threatened by, and he believes that he can control change by simply destroying the inventor and his machine.
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