The Fun They Had

The Fun They Had Literary Elements

Genre

Short story, science fiction

Setting and Context

The story is set in the future in the year of 2155. The setting is unnamed but reminiscent of middle-class America.

Narrator and Point of View

The narration is third-person omniscient.

Tone and Mood

The tone is serious, taking on the perspective of an eleven-year-old child trying to understand the world around her. The mood, however, is playfully ironic.

Protagonist and Antagonist

Margie is the protagonist of the story. The antagonist is her mechanical teacher.

Major Conflict

The story’s conflict is between technological progress and Margie, or more broadly, human society.

Climax

N/A

Foreshadowing

N/A

Understatement

N/A

Allusions

N/A

Imagery

Margie's vivid imagination, in combination with Tommy's descriptions, conjure images of the schools of centuries past. She imagines these schools as full of community and excitement.

Paradox

N/A

Parallelism

N/A

Metonymy and Synecdoche

N/A

Personification

N/A

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