"Flatland Discussion Questions"
1. How does the image of a penny on a table help readers visualize Flatland? This is because he wants us to picture their world by giving us an example of how everything looks in flatland.
2. How do the shapes of Flatland’s inhabitants reflect their social status? While more sides you have you are in a better social position so if you are a pentagon you are much better than a triangle. Sides are like money in this case.
3.Flatland’s citizens can recognize another person’s status immediately by his or her shape. Compare this with the ways people in our society recognize others’ status. Shapes work like money, or education; even as clothes In real world you can identify really easy people's social classes. If you see someone with loose and dirty jeans and a huge sweartshirt tyou would automatically make a stereotype of his social class. That happens in flatland looking at someones sides would tell you a lot about them.
4. Why is recognizing another person by sight a difficult task in Flatland? because there isn't a 3rd dimension and all you can see is a line you this makes it difficult to recognize.
5. Describe three methods that an inhabitant of Flatland can use to recognize another inhabitant. A way Flatlanders can distinguish their social class is by hearing. They have their hearing sense so much people identify them by just hearing their voices. 2nd method is by feeling the edges of the others. This sounds cheesy but in flatland it isn't. You can feel the edge of the other and tell which class is, although this is confusingsometimes you can get confused. Last is by sight which is being possible by a kind of fog and because of the lenght of the sides you'll be able to tell someone how many sides he/she has.
6. Do you think Abbott created Flatland in order to satirize modern society or to model a utopian world? Explain your answer this could be a way of indirectly explaining how the people today are classified using a metaphor being the sides.
7. How does the Universal Colour Bill affect life in Flatland? The universal colour bil lead to a fight and only the chief circles knew the art of paiting.
It states woman would be painted half green and half red where they have their eyes and mouth. This also happens in priest because then they would get confused.
This makes controversy because you would confuse women and priests and this is for sure no good.
8. How is “Chromatic Sedition” finally suppressed? What kinds of real-world events does this episode satirize? The author is trying to make a symbol of the goverment in this part of the book how everything works and making us a reference of the goverment but in a flatland way. How they are concerned about the bill is like a new law here in real world or a reform to make it apply better.
9. How are Flatland and Lineland similar? How are they different?
In both worlds are made of less than 3 dimensions.
Lineland is only one dimesion and flatland is two, this makes people different because tin flatland they can move around the surface while in lineland they dont; In flatland people have shapes while in lineland they don't.
10. Why does the narrator have difficulty explaining the two-dimensional world of Flatland to the King of Lineland?
Because its the same if they explain us how the 4th dimension work, we could not imagine how could there be another way of thinking. For us it has always been always 3 dimensions. That happens to the king it is out of his capacity to think of another way his world is not. the natrator explained very good how flatland was and he made very important points for getting the idea even though the king was not opening his mind to believe what he said. It was out of his mind thinking he could se a complete line and the edges of a figure.
11. Why do you think Abbott introduces Lineland to the reader before the visitor from Spaceland arrives?
The narrator made this introducing in this order to make it like fit better going from one dimension to three so this makes a little of more sense. How is this aumenting of dimensions going steady . This helped us, the readers, get the idea one by one of how the 3 worlds and their dimensions work.
12. How does the Sphere finally help the narrator understand the nature of Spaceland and three dimensions?
He did kind of a montessori style way of learning, not just listening of some explanation, but actually doing something to learn which was going into Spaceland and actually looking at it by his own. If he didn't do that it would be imposible for him to understand how was it just as the king of lineland.
13.How does the character of the narrator change after he visits Spaceland?
He is the First Flatlander knowing what is a 3 dimensional world like. He feels superior than even the mega sided polygons. Cause he has seen Every posible dimension World.
14. How do the inhabitants of Flatland respond to the narrator’s tales?
He tries to tell his grandson who would not create an scandal if this is heard. Unluckily for him his granson Just laughted at him at he drew his Grandpaas a crazy guy. Of course he couldn't imagine what our Spaceland is. The respond of the author was to keep it in secret till he wrote this book... Flatland.