The Fun They Had
The story under the title "The Fun They Had" was written by a highly prolific American writer, one of the three grand masters of science fiction - Isaac Asimov. The theme is probably "the influence of technology on the process of teaching." The story is kind of utopian story, but from the perspective of the children who are the main characters of the story, it is a dystopia, since they thought there was so much more fun back in the days when there were classrooms... but the whole story circles around the theme of technology and how children in this version of the future and how children today interact with that.
The key in this text is lyrical, and the narration here is interwinding with the direct speech and the dialogues. To prove that the mood is lyrical lets look at the descriptions of one of the main characters feelings related to her mechanical teacher. The author uses colloquial speech and jargonized words, such as gee, I guess, I betcha here, to show us that these children are rather ordinary, and looks similar as the children of our age. The text could be divided into three logical parts.
The first part of the story begins with the description of two kids who found a real book. It was a little discovery, the girl even wrote about it that night in her diary It should be noted that all the events of the story take place in the future, in the year 2155, that's why a mere book from the past seems quite an interesting object for exploration. And, our heroes, Tommy (13) with Margie (11) read the book, thinking of those who used it many centuries ago. The author uses in this story such feature as pointing out the words by using the italic font. He emphasizes the words, to make us feel deeper and pay extra attention to the very phrase. Margie's grandfather once said that when he was a little boy his grandfather told him that there was a time when all stories were printed on paper as we read this the, we understand that from the point of view of these children it was very-very long ago. From the dialogue of the children we see that they relationship is a friendship. Of course, the author could not avoid from inventing new terms, such as telebook.
The second part begins with the picture of the teaching process in the far 2157. From the very beginning of the part, we see the Margies feelings to the schooling process. Her attitude to the mechanical teacher leaves much to be desired. Reading the story we come across the problem, tackled by the author. It is a low knowledge level of children, and their uneagerness to study. To prove it we should mention the fact when the County Inspector slowed up Margie's mechanical teacher to an average ten-year level. The girl was 11, but she couldn't or didn't want to cover her own age level, "she had been doing worse and worse". And how strong was her hatred towards school! She hoped her teacher wouldn't be back, that "large and black and ugly" teacher! "The part she hated most was the slot where she had to put homework and test papers." - This sentence indicates at her being a usual girl with a usual nature, while this is the exact thing commonly disliked at schools.
The third part of the text is the speculation of these children about the teaching process Centuries ago. They argue whether the live teacher better than the mechanical one, or not; could the living one be smarter than the machine etc. The narrator lets us see the criticism of this young girl, she could not believe that the human can teach as good as the machine. The key in this part is rather emotional, we can see this in the dialogue of our story-heroes. The author uses such colloquies as sure he is, I betcha; and again points out the admiration of Tom a regular teacher
This story, written by I.Asimov makes the reader to think about the teaching process nowadays. If we remember that it was written in the middle of the 20th century, we can say that the details in this story are well chosen. I think that it has a certain purpose to warn the reader about the possible future problems, because the era of Internet and wide spread of the computers has certain impact on our generation. Of course the mechanical, or computer teachers is the ideal solution for breeding the very clever people, the caste of self-made people, but from the other point of view, these people wouldnt be so social, and would expect certain problems in communication with other ordinary people. So, it is for us to decide, which way of education is better.
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The Happy Man
The novel under analysis is entitled The Happy Man. It is written by Somerset Maugham.
The main character is the narrator. There is no any information about his appearance in the text. The only one thing about his age is the information that he was a young man when he advised well. Nevertheless we can judge about his character from his thoughts, behavior and speech. The description of his character is indirect. He is a wise man: he knows that it is impossible to know another persons as well as oneself to give him/her advice which would be good for him/her. And he is bold enough for a man who dares to give the life changing advice to a man he see for the first time.
The text is expressive and emotional because it describes the feelings of the man who has been forced to point the finger of other mans fate. The author uses different stylistic devices for this purpose.
The events took place in London and Seville, Spain. The settings where the actions took place are the following: a modest apartment and an ordinary Spanish house with a patio. We dont know at what period of history the actions took place, but we know the time length of the narrated events and the amount of time during they occurred: many years later, fifteen at least.
This novel runs about a desperate man who confided his life to a total stranger. The theme of the novel: a mans search for happiness; the role of advice in the life of people.
We can divide the novel into three logical parts in order to understand it better.
It is a narrative text. The key in the first part is rather pessimistic, and sometimes we can say that it is rather negative. This could be proved if we look at the metaphors the author use: he compares every man to a prisoner in a solitary tower, life to a difficult business. Another metaphor is used when he says that some people flounder at the journeys start. So we see that the author tries to make us ready for the future accidents, and to show us the difference between the past wrapped in the dark cloud of Destiny and the future.
The second part was written in the form of a dialogue between the patient and our hero. We can see the despair of a stranger, because he uses short, sharp sentences, to emphasize it the author told us that they had a forcible ring. The visitor seems to be very tired of life, he is passive, but he wants to change something in it, that is why to show us the antagonistic character of the visitor, the author uses an oxymoron bright dark eyes.
The third part is lyrical, and a bit romantic. In the third part, our main character comes to Seville, and tries to find that stranger. He lived in an ordinary Spanish house, his room was littered with papers, books, medical appliances and lumber but he was really happy. It could be seen from his description: a dissipated, though antirely sympathetic appearance, and of course from his murmuring Life is full of compensations.
The story tells us about different events, which followed one another: I heard a ring bell at the door; I led him into my sitting room; achieved this feat; he reached out for his hat; he left me; many years later; I happened to be in Seville, etc.
The text is a descriptive one; there are many descriptive signals: a modest apartment, a total stranger, an apologetic laugh, a cursory glance, a little man, a wonderful life, trifling indisposition, a squeamish patient, a dim recollection, a Spanish woman and others. Descriptive words make the text expressive and vivid.
The author employs many contextual synonyms, which make the language expressive: dangerous, hazardous; unwillingly, forced; confused, embarrassed; a total stranger, a perfect stranger; alter, change; twinkled, shone.
By this story, the author shows us that our life is full of compensations. Taking the risk, you lose something but also you can find something, which could be really important for you.
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