The Fun They Had Analysis

The story I would like to talk about is written by a well-known American science-fiction writer Isacc Asimov. Most of Asimov's popular science books explain scientific concepts in a historical way. The Fun They Had first appeared in a children's newspaper in 1951 and was Written by Asimov as a personal favour for a friend.

The story runs about future events. Two children, Margie and Tommy, who read a real paper book, that Tommy has found on the attic. Tommy tells Margie about schools of 90's and Margie wants to learn more about it, as she has never seen such a school. Margie has a personal mechanical teacher and she hates it. The rest of the day Margie's thought occupies the idea what the fun it would be to go to an ordinary school.

The text under analysis can be divided into 4 parts according to the number of participants. In the first part there are two participants: Tommy and Margie, who spend time together at the yard and read the book, also Tommy tells Margie about the old books. The second part is about Margie's complains about her mechanical teacher. Here we find three participants: Margie, her mechanical teacher and The County Inspector. In the third part there are again two participants - Margie and Tommy. Tommy tells about the rules of old schools. And in the final part there are two participants: Margie and her teacher, that she hates.

The general slant of the abstract can be characterized as humorous and a bit nostalgic. The atmosphere is created by the means of vivid dialogues in which colloquial words are used ("stupid", "gee" etc.). Besides the comparison is used to create a humorous effect ("She was eleven and hadn't seen as many books as Tommy had. He was thirteen."). The climax of the story is reached in the third part when Margie knows about how the process of education has been arranged centuries ago. It is reached with the help of simili ("my farther knows as much as my teacher", "A man can't know as much as a teacher.") Also for...