Class 9th Eng. CBSE (Bee Hive)Ch-1 The Fun They Had,, Theme Message Characters explanation,Summary

Prose (Beehive)

The Fun They Had by Isaac Asimov

          

Character sketch Of Margie

Margie- A 11 year old little girl living in the 22nd century and has a habit of writing diaries. She hates virtual school and her mechanical teacher but is interested in knowing the olden era of school,a friend of Tommy..Margie is a curious girl who is constantly asking questions and wanting to be around other people.

Character sketch Of Tommy 

Tommy is Margie's friend, who is older than her, being thirteen years old. He often answers Margie's questions in an all-knowing tone because he has seen more tele-books and he has more knowledge about how the school was “centuries ago”. Tommy was fascinated with the past, particularly the way education used to be

Theme 

The theme of the story “The Fun They Had” is transformation by technology. The whole story focuses on two eras: One is the Digital Era in which Tommy and Margie live and the other is the Normal Era, about which they learned through their grandparent's diary.

Detailed Summary of the Chapter

In this chapter, the writer gives a vision of schools of the future. He conveys it through the imaginary story of two children named Margie and Tommy. Margie is eleven years old and Tommy is thirteen. The time of the action is placed in the year 2157.

 Real Book Tommy Found 

On the night of 17 May, 2157, Margie wrote in her diary that day Tommy had found a real book. It was a very old book printed on paper. Margie's grandfather had once told Margie about such books. He had said that in the time of his grandfather, all stories were printed on paper. The old dusty book was found in the attic of Tommy's house. Its pages were yellow and wrinkled. It appeared very funny to the children when they turned to the page before. It had the same words on it that it had when they read it for the first time. Tommy thought that such a book was just a waste. One could throw it away after reading it. The television screen, on the other hand, could have on it millions of books. Thus, it could not be thrown.

 The County Inspector Of Margie s School 

Tommy told Margie that the book was about school. Margie hated school. Her school was in her own house. Her schoolroom was right next to her bedroom. A mechanical teacher taught her. The teacher had been giving her test frequently in Geography. Margie was performing worse in each test. Her mother was very unhappy. She called the County Inspector to see what was wrong.

The country Inspector was a red faced, round little man. His box was full of tools with dials and wires. He smiled at Margie and gave her an apple. Then, he took the mechanical teacher apart. Margie had thought that the County Inspector would not know how to put the mechanical teacher together again. But he was well versed in everything. Now the big screen of the mechanical teacher was on again. It showed all the lessons and the related questions.

Margie didn't dislike answering the questions. The part the hated most was the slot where she had to put her homework and test papers. She had to write them out in a punch code which she had learned when she was six-years old. Then the mechanical teacher calculated the marks in no time. The inspector had patted Margie's head. He told her mother that it was not the little git's fault. The geography sector was geared a little too quick. Now, it was adjusted to the level of an average 10-year-old child Margie's over-all pattern was quite satisfactory Margie had been hoping that he would take away the mechanical teacher altogether so she was disappointed. The same thing had happened with Tommy's teacher also. It was taken away for nearly a month because the history sector had blanked out completely

 Tommy's Perception Of Old School

Margie asked Tommy why anyone would write about school. Tommy told her that it was a different kind of school that was mentioned in the book. It was the old kind of school they had many centuries ago. Tommy told Margie that those old schools had a teacher who was a man. Since, Margie had never heard of something like that before, she said that a man couldn't be as smart as a mechanical teacher. She also said that the idea of having a man at her house was strange.Tommy laughed hearing this. He told her that teachers didn't teach in the house of a child. They had a special building where they went to teach. And all the students went there to learn. Tommy told Margie that all children of the same class were taught the same thing.

A New School For Margie 

They had not even finished half of the book, when Margie's mother called for her as it was time for Margie's school, probably Tommy's too Margie went into her schoolroom. The mechanical teacher was on and waiting for her. It was always on at the same time every day, except Saturday and Sunday. Margie's mother had set regular hours for Margie to study. She said that little girls learnt better if they studied at regular hours. The mechanical teacher instructed Margie to put her previous day's homework in the proper slot. Margie did this with a sigh.

Margie Thinks Of Old School's Fun

Meanwhile Margie was still thinking about the old schools they had when her grandfather's grandfather was a little child. She was thinking of the fun the children had in those old schools. All the children from the whole neighbourhood went there, laughing and shouting together. They went home together at the end of the day. They learnt together and hence were able to help each other with studies. Thus, Margie kept thinking about the fun children had in those schools of old days.

       CLGautam

English Confluence

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