CBSE Class 9 - English Language and Literature - Beehive - The Fun They Had (Chapter Summary and Character Sketch)(#eduvictors)(#cbseClass9English)

Beehive - The Fun They Had
(Chapter Summary and Character Sketch)

CBSE Class 9 - English Language and Literature

Author: Isaac Asimov 

- a famous science fiction writer. Many sci-fi movies are based on Isaac's stories (e.g. I, Robot) .The story 'The Fun They Had' was written in 1951. 

Chapter Summary:

The story is set in future, the year 2157, when children study at home using a mechanical trainer (robotic teacher).  They don't have traditional books and schools. The tale tells of an 11-year-old girl Margie Jones, whose neighbour Tommy find an actual book in the attic of his residence. Margie writes about it in her diary. This incident reminds Tommy that his grandfather used to tell about the school where the students were taught by human teachers.

Tommy and Margie start reading the book and find out lots of new information about the old education system. 

The book tells about a time when children of the same age used to attend school and learn in a group. Tommy and Margie realized that they do not have formal schools and human teachers. The next room to their bedroom is their schoolroom. They have mechanical or robotic teachers. The robotic teacher is programmed and adjusted according to the needs of each child. If there is any fault in a robotic teacher, it is fixed by a County Inspector. When Margie's performance is not up to the mark in geography, her teacher is readjusted.

While reading the book, Margie starts hating her school. She likes the old ways of teaching by human teachers. She finds it amusing and full of fun kids might be having while studying, playing together. 

Character Sketch of Margie:

Margie is an eleven-year-old girl who represents future students in the twenty-second century. She is a typical young girl who dislikes school which is highly personalised and includes a television and a mechanical teacher. She studies in the comfort of her home. Her homework is checked by her mechanical teacher, a computer, and she also gets lessons from it. Margie does not like her school because she is confined to a room and has to study alone at a fixed time every day. Margie is a curious girl. When she finds a real book in Tommy's hands, she is eager to know about its contents. In fact, she wants to read the book herself.

However, she is surprised that the book describes a school of the old times which had real men as teachers and classes were conducted in a special building. She is fascinated to learn that in those times the students of the same level studied together. She concludes that the old system was much better as the students had so much fun when they studied together and could help each other. It is through Margie that the author has projected a contrast between the schools of today and the schools of the future.

Character Sketch of Tommy:

Tommy, a young boy of thirteen years, plays an important role in the story as he is the one who finds a book about the schools from earlier times. The entire action of the story begins after that. He represents the students of the future era when the education will be absolutely mechanised and automated. Tommy is very curious. As soon as he discovers a real book, he starts reading it. However, he does not like the idea of printed books which, according to him, are a waste once they have been read. Compared to Margie, he is not as sensitive to the contents of the book. He has an air of superiority – he snubs Margie when she expresses her ignorance about old schools.

Tommy has been used by the author to contrast the school education of the twentieth-century with that of the twenty-second.

☞See also:

The Road Not Taken (MCQs)
The Road Not Taken (Summary)
The Road Not Taken (Q & A)
Ch2: The Sound Of Music (Q & A)
The Lost Child (Q & A)
Chapter 4 - Truly Beautiful Mind (NCERT Answers)
Chapter 5: The Snake and The Mirror (Summary and Q & A)
Chapter 7: Packing (Q & A)
Figures Of Speech
English (Lit.) Unit Test Paper I (2019-20)