written by Isaac Asimov CHARACTERS Margie Character Analysis

written by Isaac Asimov

� � � CHARACTERS Margie (Character Analysis) Margie is the 11 -year-old protagonist of the story and a friend of Tommy’s. The third-person-limited point of view is filtered through her childlike innocence and curiosity. Margie is a curious girl who is constantly asking questions and wanting to be around other people. This personality may account for her recent poor performance in her fact-based and passive geography lessons; Margie seems to crave an education that is interactive, engaging, and involved other people, but this vision is incompatible with her computerized and individualized model of education. In particular, she longs to be around other children her age— hence her constantly hanging around Tommy and dreaming of how fun it would have been to attend school with a whole neighborhood of children —but instead she’s forced to sit alone in the schoolroom in her house, day after day, watching a computer screen talk at her. Margie is also a highly imaginative child, as evidenced by her ability to picture historical scenes from Tommy’s oldbook about schools from many centuries ago. After reading through the ancient book and learning about the ways of the past, Margie loses herself in her imagination, envisioning what it would be like to be a student hundreds of years ago and dreaming of “the fun they had. ”

Tommy is Margie’s 13 -year-old friend who finds an extremely old book in his attic, complete with wrinkly, yellowing pages. Although Tommy shares the book with Margie and helps her understand how the schools of the past functioned, he finds Margie’s extreme enthusiasm and constant questions annoying and naïve. He frequently condescends to her, sometimes going to far as laughing in her face and calling her stupid for not knowing as much as he does about the world. He’s also arrogant: when Margie remarks that a human couldn’t possibly be a teacher and know as much as their mechanical teachers, Tommy haughtily declares that his father knows “almost as much. ” As he’s two years older, he also tries to act nonchalant in front of Margie—like noncommittally answering “Maybe” when Margie asks if they can read together after school—which is a sharp contrast from Margie’s unbridled curiosity and enthusiasm.

The County Inspector is a mechanic who fixes Margie’s mechanical teacher when the lessons are too difficult for her. He is described as a “round little man with a red face and whole box of tools with dials and wires. ” Although he is just the repairman, he has a level of empathy and understanding that the mechanical teacher does not and actually seems to be exactly what Margie needs in an educator. He understands that the lesson is too difficult for Margie and adjusts it accordingly to the appropriate level, making sure to still encourage Margie so that she doesn’t feel like a failure. He also has an emotional warmth that Margie’s computerized teacher lacks. Besides showing the drawbacks of technological progress on a social and emotional level, the role of the County Inspector also suggests that even though the story’s futuristic society relies on computers, these machines are not autonomous and are still maintained by humans.

Margie’s Mother / Mrs. Jones is Margie’s mother. She expects Margie to succeed in her education and is disappointed when Margie has difficulties with her geography lessons. From the “sorrowful” look on her face, it seems that Mrs. Jones sees calling the County Inspector to reprogram the mechanical teacher as a mark of Margie’s failure as a student. Mrs. Jones strongly believes in the mechanical teacher’s ability to teach child individually and keeps Margie to a strict school schedule.

Introduction This is a very light story. It is set in the future. It will make all of you love school. This story is regarding school life and how those children who do not got to school, miss school. The setting of the story is in the future when perhaps, there will be no school, no books. Now how those students will miss going to school and will feel that their ancestors that is the present generation- you all, had fun going to school, meeting and helping each other. In the end we come to know that this is an imagination of a young girl named Margie who comes to know that their ancestors used to go to school, all the children used to study together. She feels that they all had a lot of fun when they went to school. So, when we read the story we feel that school life is very good, and we are fortunate that we have real schools where we go, meet friends and get a chance to study together.

The short story ‘The fun they had' written by Isaac Asimov deals with a boy and a girl, Tommy and Margie, who find out something about school in the past time. On 17 th March 2155 , Tommy, a thirteen year-old boy, finds a' real book' which has been printed on paper. He is at the house of Margie, an eleven year-old-girl. they both take a look at it together. The book is real. Ly old and pages are yellow and crinky. In the year 2155, this kind of books do not exist anymore. In this time words are moving on a television screen. These television contains over a million of books. That is the reason , why Tommy thinks that they are much better.

He has found an old book in the attic of his house. While reading, Tommy says that it is about school. Margie hates school and cannot understand why someone would write about it. . she was having problems with learning geography from her 'machanical teacher'. It was black, large and had a screen on it. It teaches the students, give them exercises and ask them questions, all in a special room in their own house. It can also calculate the marks in no times. Margie hates the slot where she has to insert her homework or test papers. Once the geography sector of her mechanical teacher was graded too quick, so that her marks got worse and worse. The County Inspector rebuilt it after one hour. He was really nice to Margie. she hopped that her mechanical teacher would be away for a long time.

Tommy says that the book which he has found, is not about their type of school, it is about school centuries ago. They find out that students back then had a man as a teacher who taught the girls and boys, gave them homework and asked them questions. They had a special building, All the children went to the same school and they learnt the same thing, if they were the same age. At first, Margie does not understand how a person could be a teacher and how the students were thought a same thing because her mother says that education must fit each child's mind, but nevertheless in her opinion, these schools are funny and she wants to read more about it. then it is time for Margie and Tommy for their school. Margie goes to the schoolroom in her house, where the mechanical teacher stands. It is already on because the lessons are always at regular hours. She was thinking about the old school system and how much fun the children must had learning and spending time together.

THINKING ABOUT THE TEXT � Pg no. 10 � Q 1 & II to be done in the textbook itself

THINKING ABOUT THE TEXT Pg no. 10 QIII & IV to be done in the notebook *sample answers of QIV provided in the following slides

IV. Answer each of these questions in two or three paragraphs (100 – 150 words). 1. What are the main features of the mechanical teachers and the schoolrooms that Margie and Tommy have in the story? A. Margie and Tommy were taught by mechanical teachers. They had large black screens on which the lessons appeared. The lessons were followed by questions. The students had to insert homework and test papers in the slots provided. They had to write down the work in a punch code which was a computing language. The mechanical teacher checked the papers and gave them marks within a few seconds. These classrooms were in the student’s home itself. Every student studied from his respective mechanical teacher. Each teacher was adjusted according to the level of the learner. They did not have classmates. They studied various subjects like Geography, History and Mathematics. Margie studied everyday at the same time except Saturdays and Sundays. Her mother said that she would learn better if she studied that way. The learning process was mechanical, dull and boring for them.

2. Why did Margie hate school? Why did she think the old kind of school must have been fun? A. Margie hated school because it was not fun. There was a mechanical teacher and the learning process lacked life. It was like a machine carrying out the usual working, there was nothing new, no fun or laughter. Margie’s mechanical teacher was giving her tests in Geography and she was performing bad at them. Later it was discovered that the teacher had developed a fault due to which it was giving her tests of a higher level. Margie’s mother called the County Inspector. He opened the teacher, found the fault and rectified it. Margie disliked the teacher and hoped that he would not be able to repair it. She hated inserting the homework and test papers into the slot provided. She thought that the children in the past must have had a lot of fun when they went to school with fellow children. She found it amazing that all the children studied together, the same things and could discuss studies and help each other with the homework too. As the teachers were people, they would not behave like machines. The human aspect of education in the past made her feel that the school of the past were fun.