In the novel, Machine Man by Max Berry, the main character undergoes several transformations to literally becom e a machine man. He first replaces his legs then later other parts of his body transforming him to a machine. It is through this transformation that he encounters strange and weird looks from friends and family (Barry, 2011). He initially had a notion that making it in life and having money would make him a successful man . However , after coming up with everything , he realizes that people no longer treat him with the courtesy and love that befits a human being. He instead becomes just like another commodity. He is a new man but that is not what those who he relates with see him. He has money, a lab that is serving several clients including the army but people view him as unwell and as another commodity with the numerous machines attached to his different body parts.
The man becomes a stranger in his own dwelling. His friends treat him differently and somehow he becomes isolated. This affects his esteem until he meets Lola, a young girl at the hospital who shows love and is struggling as a result of an ailment at the hospital. It is at this point that he realizes that health and love are more important than money. He becomes so much attached to Lola because of the affection and the emotional touch he gets from her. Lola is one character in the book who ends up showing the main character in this novel that love is fundamental in life and that there are those who will never get attached when there is no genuine love. Lola exhibits love but struggles with her health and the main character see the same by explaining the pain in her eyes meaning he comes to the point of appreciating love and health at the same time. He realizes that all this while , he did blind himself and was driving himself away from humanity with his obsession for money and machines (Barry, 2011). This is why he later confesses that human beings need three things in life and these are money, health, and love but the greatest of them all is love. He chooses to show love to others and starts to give less attention to machines and his work.
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If I was to choose any two of the three ingredients of the basic recipe to a happy life as per the novel, I would go for health and love over money. I am a girl and I have been brought up from a humble background and so I know the place of poverty and how the same can negatively impact on the life of an individual. As I was growing up my mother always taught me to love others and not to value money as it may not buy other things like health and love. It is possible to have money and not enjoy it because there are those with money but spend their entire lives in hospitals trying to seek medication and moving from one physician to the other. It is only when one is healthy and is loving that they can connect to others in society and so it does not require money. Money is a basic commodity but it is possible to have money and still fail to connect with others . However, when one is healthy and has love within them then the person is in a position to even access more opportunities due to the connections and network and in the process make money. B efore money becomes a priority there is a need for a connection through love and this can only happen when one is healthy both physically and in the mind.
Love and health also create the passion and motivation for individuals to pursue goals and dreams meaning that when one works and there is nothing pushing them then it becomes a tall order to break even in the workplace. Love and health are vital, take for example when one is suffering from a terminal illness and the individual has money but lack the former basic recipes for life the person will definitely die a premature death . Nevertheless, when love is there, people will care for the person and when health is taken care of then the money will find other better uses in the family. Love and health indeed become basic before any other thing in life.
Reference
Barry, M. (2011). Machine man . New York: Vintage Contemporaries.
