In the essay Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Brown, Virginia Woolf states that human character changed around the year 1910, a statement that serves as starting point for his insights into the modernist movement. Much of his later writings explore how human character changed in the early 20th century. In her first experimental story, Jacob's Room, Woolf uses the contemporary city and technology to illustrate just one aspect of how human life has changed. Where people once spent their lives within ten miles of the rural area in which they grew up, humans now lived crammed together in radically different spaces. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay. Woolf notes that if someone simply looked at the city, they would be "choked with observations" (Woolf, 91). To cope with this overwhelming new reality, “nature and society have agreed upon a classification system that is simplicity itself; stalls, boxes, amphitheatre, gallery” (91). Comprised of both organic and inorganic parts, the city works to create a cohesive unit that is not entirely uniform, but does not require individuality. As a result, the way humans interacted with each other changed dramatically, moving from a more fragmented but individual connection to a much more massified but superficial sense of connection that allowed more individuals to interact than ever before. The change in interaction can be seen explicitly in the introduction of new technologies, such as the omnibus, into human spaces. In a passage halfway through the novel, Woolf notes that “human life is very tolerable on the roof of an omnibus in Holborn, when the policeman raises his arm and the sun beats on his back” (86). The emphasis on “human life” as opposed to just life serves as a reminder that human life is not the only entity in the new city. The intersection of three entities - the omnibus, a form of technology, the policeman, a representation of a man-made institution, and the sun, an organic matter - in this phrase highlights the role of the city against the backdrop of human interaction. , the omnibus serves as a key tool for understanding the role of technology in the modern city. Woolf narrates an omnibus journey that highlights how technology connects and separates individuals. The passage begins with a very un-Woolfian tone, using truncated, staccato sentences stuck together in a monotonous fashion. Then, once “the proximity of the buses has given the outside passengers the opportunity to look at each other,” the sentences suddenly begin to extend in the familiar Woolfian stream-of-consciousness style. The pace of the song is truncated until the introduction of the omnibus, as is the level of human connection. However, it is important to note that technology, in this case the bus, does not magically create a deep connection between humans. Indeed, it seems that, despite uniting people in a literal and physical way, any connection that is created is superficial: “Each had his past locked inside himself like the pages of a book he knew by heart, and his friends could only read the headline…and the passengers going in the opposite direction couldn't read anything” (Woolf, 85). That old saying about judging a book by its cover becomes literal here, as each passenger can see the others only as their appearance, "'a man with a red moustache'" or "'a young man smoking a gray pipe'" (85 ). What remains is a rampant solitude, despite being together in a crowded public space, so when the omnibus "moved away" "each felt relief in being a little more.