27 pages • 54 minutes read
The Fun They Had
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Consequences of Technological Advancement
At its core, this story is a thought experiment about the potential consequences of a future defined by technological advancement. Margie’s internal struggle is defined by technological forces she takes for granted—specifically the mechanical teacher—until she and Tommy read through the book. As a child, Margie is unable to articulate why school and the mechanical teacher are failing to meet her needs; she only knows that she is frustrated and unfulfilled. She recalls “hoping they would take the teacher away altogether” (126) because, on an unconscious level, she understands that it is not meeting her needs.
The book, on the other hand, offers her the direct experience of a different, older kind of technology, providing an unwitting contrast to learning on a computer. Because its subject matter is also about school, the book provides her some information and context for how things were done differently. As she reads and considers this new information, Margie implicitly realizes that she is lacking experience with peers and adults who could provide her the support and connection that the mechanical teacher never will. It is not just the mechanical teacher itself that is impersonal and unable to meet other needs. Its existence has removed the perceived need of other humans to participate in Margie’s life, as in the case of her mother.
Asimov’s claim is not that technology is inherently negative and destructive; if anything, he is careful to present the new model of education and the technology that enables it in this story as neutral. The mechanical teacher is not designed to be a tool that harms children or changes society for the worse. Developed under the premise that “each kid has to be taught differently” (127), the mechanical teacher prioritizes the individuality of each child with the aim of providing equitable, accessible education. However, in practice, the school-at-home model and the fully computerized lessons do not account for all the needs children have when it comes to education and socialization. Asimov’s exploration of this theme indicates a need for human diligence and discernment in balancing pragmatic and humanistic goals when implementing new technologies and embracing the new possibilities they present.
Isolation and Loneliness
Margie is a lonely child. All the relationships depicted in “The Fun They Had” are defined by a little girl’s desperate need for connection and acceptance. Margie’s father is not mentioned in the story, so if he is physically present in her life, it can be assumed that his influence is remote and impersonal. Her mother is present, but her relationship to Margie is defined by disappointment and failure. Margie’s mother has high expectations for her daughter’s performance in school and appears to have no reservations about the efficacy of the mechanical teacher model of education. This is evident when Margie recollects her mother being the one to tell her that “a teacher has to be adjusted to fit the mind of each boy and girl it teaches” (127).
Margie knows she is letting her mother down when her mother must call the County Inspector to modify the mechanical teacher to a lower age level, further alienating Margie from her mother’s approval and acceptance. Margie’s mother appears to feel little need to participate in Margie’s life with the parental support one would expect. She leaves Margie’s supervision to the mechanical teacher to such a degree that Margie does not even see her mother as someone to whom she can voice her concerns or from whom she should expect support.
The closest person to a friend Margie has is Tommy. Two years older than her, he is not exactly a peer, and he lords the age difference over her with an air of superiority. He calls Margie “stupid” and subtly threatens her with taking away access to both his company and his book. Margie tolerates these slights and does her best to mitigate her words and behavior to avoid upsetting him. She needs his company desperately. For a child as lonely as she is, a companion who treats her with rudeness and condescension is better than no companion at all.
Despite Tommy’s attempts at casual indifference, he is in the same position as Margie. They are both children without access to other groups of children who would provide them with more suitable friends and playmates. They are both children whose lives are dominated by an impersonal mechanical teacher that, in striving toward a golden ideal of individualized education, crosses the line from individualization into isolation and alienation. The feelings of loneliness this instills in the children define the story’s central exploration of how technology can undermine people’s ability to form social bonds and experience human connection.
Nostalgia for the Past
Tommy’s discovery of the book develops themes of nostalgia and the preservation of knowledge. Taking place in the year 2155, the story establishes early on that society has progressed to exclusively use computers for education (using the mechanical teacher) and “telebooks” for reading on the television screen. The book presents a contrast between these forms of storing and accessing information and sets the foundation for evaluating broader comparisons and contrasts between the future and the past. From Margie’s childish perspective, these comparisons are simplistic and idealistic, with the past always representing something better than her present experiences.
For instance, the mechanical teacher frustrates and bores Margie. The book, as the mechanical teacher’s analog in the past, is the opposite of this, representing opportunity and excitement. The preservation of knowledge and Margie’s feelings about accessing it differ completely from the present form to the past form, indicating that she does not actually dislike learning but dislikes a particular form of learning. This is further explored as Tommy tells Margie what he knows about education in the past and as they read the book, which is about the subject of school. Margie compares schoolrooms full of children to her solitary schoolroom at home. Her fascination with a human teacher, when compared to her impersonal mechanical teacher, implies that the past is preferable to the present.
This nostalgia is not without irony. In many cases, both Tommy and Margie have assumptions about the past that are factually incorrect and highlight the naivete underscoring their nostalgia, such as when they assume that books must have been disposable after each reading. Their perception foreshadows the irony at the story’s end, which directly connects to the story’s exploration of the past and nostalgia. When Margie thinks about school in the old days, she cannot imagine that students in the past would also have taken school for granted: “Margie was thinking about how the kids must have loved it in the old days. She was thinking about the fun they had” (127). The irony of Margie’s nostalgia is that kids in the past often hated school, just like she does. This indicates that nostalgia for the past is always more defined by the present than the past. Assessing the past with any real accuracy is not the point; the past really only exists to represent the hope for something better than the present.
Unlock all 27 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
Related Titles
By Isaac Asimov
