Chapters 1-4
1. How does the image of a penny on a table
help readers visualize Flatland?
It helps because you can see the way flatlanders see each other or objects. When you put the penny on the table and look from above you see a complete circle. As you descend to the edge of the table you begin to see the penny like an oval. When you look at it from the edge you can see a straight line, and this is the way flatlanders view one another. It really helps readers visualize how a two dimensional universe would be, because height is nonexistent in Flatland.
2. How do the shapes of Flatland’s inhabitants
reflect their social status?
They affect a lot their social statuses. Women are straight lines, they can be of different social classes depending on who they marry and their ancestors. The soldiers and lowest classes of workmen are isosceles triangles, two equal sides and a third short side, this helps them fight, because their angle is so acute that it can destroy any other person (like a sword). The middle class consists of equilateral triangles, and they are respectable tradesmen. Professional men and gentlemen are squares and pentagons; they are mathematicians, physicists, lawyers, etc. Then the nobility consists of several sided polygons, like hexagons, heptagons and so on. Then, there are the circles which are the highest class of all, they are polygons with so many sides that they make a circle, they are the priests, the most perfect circle is the King or Chief Circle. The more angles and sides they have the higher their status and quality of life is.
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.
In Flatland, if you have more sides and angles then you are considered to be from a high social class and also a well educated and smart person. If you have few angles and sides, then you are considered of a lower class. Therefore you are unimportant and stupid, but a great fighter.
This can be compared to people in our modern and real world. People recognize each other’s statuses by the clothes they wear, the way they talk (words they use, their pronunciation, topics of conversation), the way they walk, the things they use (cell phones, cars, technology), and where they live (not just the house also the neighborhood). All this variables differ in social classes and they mainly depend in your education, like in Flatland how polygons studied sight recognition and isosceles couldn’t afford it. This is like in our society, because if you study a career, then you have more possibilities to get a job and progress. Also iscoseles triangles could be like “cholos” because they are considered (no offense) not very well educated people and dangerous, because they carry knifes and are great fighters.
1. How does the image of a penny on a table
help readers visualize Flatland?
It helps because you can see the way flatlanders see each other or objects. When you put the penny on the table and look from above you see a complete circle. As you descend to the edge of the table you begin to see the penny like an oval. When you look at it from the edge you can see a straight line, and this is the way flatlanders view one another. It really helps readers visualize how a two dimensional universe would be, because height is nonexistent in Flatland.
2. How do the shapes of Flatland’s inhabitants
reflect their social status?
They affect a lot their social statuses. Women are straight lines, they can be of different social classes depending on who they marry and their ancestors. The soldiers and lowest classes of workmen are isosceles triangles, two equal sides and a third short side, this helps them fight, because their angle is so acute that it can destroy any other person (like a sword). The middle class consists of equilateral triangles, and they are respectable tradesmen. Professional men and gentlemen are squares and pentagons; they are mathematicians, physicists, lawyers, etc. Then the nobility consists of several sided polygons, like hexagons, heptagons and so on. Then, there are the circles which are the highest class of all, they are polygons with so many sides that they make a circle, they are the priests, the most perfect circle is the King or Chief Circle. The more angles and sides they have the higher their status and quality of life is.
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.
In Flatland, if you have more sides and angles then you are considered to be from a high social class and also a well educated and smart person. If you have few angles and sides, then you are considered of a lower class. Therefore you are unimportant and stupid, but a great fighter.
This can be compared to people in our modern and real world. People recognize each other’s statuses by the clothes they wear, the way they talk (words they use, their pronunciation, topics of conversation), the way they walk, the things they use (cell phones, cars, technology), and where they live (not just the house also the neighborhood). All this variables differ in social classes and they mainly depend in your education, like in Flatland how polygons studied sight recognition and isosceles couldn’t afford it. This is like in our society, because if you study a career, then you have more possibilities to get a job and progress. Also iscoseles triangles could be like “cholos” because they are considered (no offense) not very well educated people and dangerous, because they carry knifes and are great fighters.
Chapters 5-8
4. Why is recognizing another person by sight
a difficult task in Flatland?
They all see each other as straight lines because that´s the only way they can view one another because they are two dimensional. So, if every person in Flatland looks like a straight line (because that’s the only point of view this people get of each other) then, it is very difficult to tell one person from another.
5. Describe three methods that an inhabitant
of Flatland can use to recognize another
inhabitant.
By hearing: each class has a different tone of voice (also the people in each class have a different voice so they can distinguish their friends). But it is difficult to recognize people with this method because lower class (isosceles triangles’) vocal organs are more developed, so they can fake being a higher class person.
By feeling: the flatlanders touch each other and determine the other person’s social class. One lies still while the other touches one of his angles. Then the other one does the same. This way they can know if one is a square, hexagon, circle, etc.
By sight recognition: in the countries where there is fog, when flatlanders see each other’s angle they can determine their configuration by seeing how light diminishes around it. People with fewer angles (lower classes) will be brighter because their angles are more acute and light shines brightly on their vertex then diminishes rapidly to the sides. When there is a higher class polygon their angles are more obtuse, so the light shines brightly on their vertex and diminishes slowly to the sides.
6. Do you think Abbott created Flatland in
order to satirize modern society or to model
a utopian world? Explain your answer
He created Flatland to mock modern society, because he keeps saying how everyone discriminated people and placed them in social classes. He also explains how they thought the lower classes and women were less. That’s how it was during the times he lived and sometimes nowadays. It is not a utopian world because that world wasn’t ideal.
Chapters 9-12
7. How does the Universal Colour Bill affect
life in Flatland?
It has its pros and cons. People are able to recognize each other easily and therefore sight recognition isn’t used anymore. Also lower class people start demanding for more rights. Women and priests would have to be painted the front red (mouth and eye) and the back green. Women were made of a line and priests of a circle (a line that formed a circumference). It affected life in Flatland because depending on the way you were looking at them, a woman could pretend to be a priest. Women looked like a line painted half red and half green, when priests where in a certain position they could also be half red and green. Then, women would be able to hear all the important secrets that were originally for the priests and everything would be chaos.
8. How is “Chromatic Sedition” finally suppressed? What kinds of real-world events does this episode satirize?
An isosceles painted himself with several different colors and appeared to be a dodecagon. He kept pretending and got married to a respectable Line, when she found out her husband was an isosceles poser, she committed suicide. Women then realized that they weren’t the only ones that could fake being priests, also lower class people could fake being of the high class. Everyone freaked out because now their society classes would be destroyed and the monarchy would end. Women also thought they wouldn’t be able to marry respectful men anymore, and they would be left in shame. The Circles were always against this bill. So they made a plan and called a big assembly chromatists were massacred by the women (remember that they were lines and therefore great fighters). After this, the bill was finally abolished and color was nonexistent, except for learning purposes.
The book’s massacre to the event of the Bloody Sunday of November 13, 1887, where the unemployed British gathered to protest against the government and it ended up in a fight that lead to injuries and death. I also relate it to the arranged marriages; they were very common back in Victorian times (sometimes even now) because then the couple’s lands would unite and make them richer. The line that married the isosceles did so because it was for her and her family’s convenience because she would then rise to a higher class position. I also think it’s like when women couldn't vote, because the lines at first wanted the bill to succeed but they couldn’t do anything in favor of the bill, they had no voice and no opinion.
4. Why is recognizing another person by sight
a difficult task in Flatland?
They all see each other as straight lines because that´s the only way they can view one another because they are two dimensional. So, if every person in Flatland looks like a straight line (because that’s the only point of view this people get of each other) then, it is very difficult to tell one person from another.
5. Describe three methods that an inhabitant
of Flatland can use to recognize another
inhabitant.
By hearing: each class has a different tone of voice (also the people in each class have a different voice so they can distinguish their friends). But it is difficult to recognize people with this method because lower class (isosceles triangles’) vocal organs are more developed, so they can fake being a higher class person.
By feeling: the flatlanders touch each other and determine the other person’s social class. One lies still while the other touches one of his angles. Then the other one does the same. This way they can know if one is a square, hexagon, circle, etc.
By sight recognition: in the countries where there is fog, when flatlanders see each other’s angle they can determine their configuration by seeing how light diminishes around it. People with fewer angles (lower classes) will be brighter because their angles are more acute and light shines brightly on their vertex then diminishes rapidly to the sides. When there is a higher class polygon their angles are more obtuse, so the light shines brightly on their vertex and diminishes slowly to the sides.
6. Do you think Abbott created Flatland in
order to satirize modern society or to model
a utopian world? Explain your answer
He created Flatland to mock modern society, because he keeps saying how everyone discriminated people and placed them in social classes. He also explains how they thought the lower classes and women were less. That’s how it was during the times he lived and sometimes nowadays. It is not a utopian world because that world wasn’t ideal.
Chapters 9-12
7. How does the Universal Colour Bill affect
life in Flatland?
It has its pros and cons. People are able to recognize each other easily and therefore sight recognition isn’t used anymore. Also lower class people start demanding for more rights. Women and priests would have to be painted the front red (mouth and eye) and the back green. Women were made of a line and priests of a circle (a line that formed a circumference). It affected life in Flatland because depending on the way you were looking at them, a woman could pretend to be a priest. Women looked like a line painted half red and half green, when priests where in a certain position they could also be half red and green. Then, women would be able to hear all the important secrets that were originally for the priests and everything would be chaos.
8. How is “Chromatic Sedition” finally suppressed? What kinds of real-world events does this episode satirize?
An isosceles painted himself with several different colors and appeared to be a dodecagon. He kept pretending and got married to a respectable Line, when she found out her husband was an isosceles poser, she committed suicide. Women then realized that they weren’t the only ones that could fake being priests, also lower class people could fake being of the high class. Everyone freaked out because now their society classes would be destroyed and the monarchy would end. Women also thought they wouldn’t be able to marry respectful men anymore, and they would be left in shame. The Circles were always against this bill. So they made a plan and called a big assembly chromatists were massacred by the women (remember that they were lines and therefore great fighters). After this, the bill was finally abolished and color was nonexistent, except for learning purposes.
The book’s massacre to the event of the Bloody Sunday of November 13, 1887, where the unemployed British gathered to protest against the government and it ended up in a fight that lead to injuries and death. I also relate it to the arranged marriages; they were very common back in Victorian times (sometimes even now) because then the couple’s lands would unite and make them richer. The line that married the isosceles did so because it was for her and her family’s convenience because she would then rise to a higher class position. I also think it’s like when women couldn't vote, because the lines at first wanted the bill to succeed but they couldn’t do anything in favor of the bill, they had no voice and no opinion.
Chapters 13-15
9. How are Flatland and Lineland similar? How are they different?
They are different because they are in different dimensions, Lineland is one dimensional and Flatland two dimensional. In Flatland, the inhabitants can move around (north, south, east, and west), some are polygons, their women are lines, they have one eye, one mouth, and only one mate. In Lineland, people are either points or lines of different sizes, their women are points, have two wives per man, they have two eyes, and an incredible sense of hearing.
They are similar because they are both ignorant that greater dimensions exist. They think that their dimension is the whole universe but it’s not. They both have violent reactions to people that speak about a bigger dimension, when they hear about this their first reaction is to execute them. People in both dimensions are very stubborn about their beliefs, and are close minded. They both are also monarchies and they treat women as lesser beings.
10. Why does the narrator have difficulty explaining the two-dimensional world of Flatland to the King of Lineland?
He has difficulty explaining because Lineland is one dimensional so linelanders move in a straight path and are all either straight lines or points. They can only move northward or southward. So when the square says there are other directions in which someone can move the King doesn’t believe it because his world is one dimensional and whatever the Square says is against his beliefs. The King can’t imagine moving in any other way than north and south because he has never experienced or heard something like this before. The Monarch is also very hot-headed so the Square has a greater difficulty explaining this to a person that wants to kill him each time he speaks.
9. How are Flatland and Lineland similar? How are they different?
They are different because they are in different dimensions, Lineland is one dimensional and Flatland two dimensional. In Flatland, the inhabitants can move around (north, south, east, and west), some are polygons, their women are lines, they have one eye, one mouth, and only one mate. In Lineland, people are either points or lines of different sizes, their women are points, have two wives per man, they have two eyes, and an incredible sense of hearing.
They are similar because they are both ignorant that greater dimensions exist. They think that their dimension is the whole universe but it’s not. They both have violent reactions to people that speak about a bigger dimension, when they hear about this their first reaction is to execute them. People in both dimensions are very stubborn about their beliefs, and are close minded. They both are also monarchies and they treat women as lesser beings.
10. Why does the narrator have difficulty explaining the two-dimensional world of Flatland to the King of Lineland?
He has difficulty explaining because Lineland is one dimensional so linelanders move in a straight path and are all either straight lines or points. They can only move northward or southward. So when the square says there are other directions in which someone can move the King doesn’t believe it because his world is one dimensional and whatever the Square says is against his beliefs. The King can’t imagine moving in any other way than north and south because he has never experienced or heard something like this before. The Monarch is also very hot-headed so the Square has a greater difficulty explaining this to a person that wants to kill him each time he speaks.
11. Why do you think Abbott introduces Lineland to the reader before the visitor from Spaceland arrives?
I think it's because the Square thought he knew everything there was to know about dimensions and considered everyone in Lineland ignorant for not knowing the possibility of another dimension existing. When the Square explained to the Monarch the second dimesnion the Monarch really struggled to comprehend and reacted badly. So when the visitor form Spaceland came, the Square feelt ignorant, just as the Monarch did. I think Abbott intended to show the readers that there is much more to know than what we think and we should expand our boundaries of thought.
Chapters 16-18
12. How does the Sphere finally help the narrator understand the nature of Spaceland and three dimensions?
He grabs the Square and takes him to the third dimension, upward. The Square is finally able to see the Sphere’s circumference and starts to believe. Then the Sphere takes the Square to the top of Flatland and every house, flatlander, and objects are displayed from above. He is finally able to comprehend the third dimension by the Sphere's analogies and teaching methods, and he learns the phrase "not northward, upward" which seems to be the best description of this new dimension.
13. How does the character of the narrator change after he visits Spaceland?
He says that understanding the third dimension isn’t that difficult and now that he knows he can tell everyone. He also expands his mind and wonders about the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh dimension with figures greater (more majestic) than the last. He becomes more accepting of his and others realities, and by this he is more open minded.
Chapters 19-22
14. How do the inhabitants of Flatland respond to the narrator’s tales?
First, the Square tells his hexagonal grandson. But his grandson simply laughs thinking his grandpa is joking because he is saying illogical things. Then, at a meeting of the Local Speculative Society the Square tells everyone to become a believer of the third dimension. They respond badly and he is immediately arrested. Then, he is imprisoned along with his brother. He was been in jail for seven years and he has not convinced a single flatlander about the existance of the third dimension.
I think it's because the Square thought he knew everything there was to know about dimensions and considered everyone in Lineland ignorant for not knowing the possibility of another dimension existing. When the Square explained to the Monarch the second dimesnion the Monarch really struggled to comprehend and reacted badly. So when the visitor form Spaceland came, the Square feelt ignorant, just as the Monarch did. I think Abbott intended to show the readers that there is much more to know than what we think and we should expand our boundaries of thought.
Chapters 16-18
12. How does the Sphere finally help the narrator understand the nature of Spaceland and three dimensions?
He grabs the Square and takes him to the third dimension, upward. The Square is finally able to see the Sphere’s circumference and starts to believe. Then the Sphere takes the Square to the top of Flatland and every house, flatlander, and objects are displayed from above. He is finally able to comprehend the third dimension by the Sphere's analogies and teaching methods, and he learns the phrase "not northward, upward" which seems to be the best description of this new dimension.
13. How does the character of the narrator change after he visits Spaceland?
He says that understanding the third dimension isn’t that difficult and now that he knows he can tell everyone. He also expands his mind and wonders about the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh dimension with figures greater (more majestic) than the last. He becomes more accepting of his and others realities, and by this he is more open minded.
Chapters 19-22
14. How do the inhabitants of Flatland respond to the narrator’s tales?
First, the Square tells his hexagonal grandson. But his grandson simply laughs thinking his grandpa is joking because he is saying illogical things. Then, at a meeting of the Local Speculative Society the Square tells everyone to become a believer of the third dimension. They respond badly and he is immediately arrested. Then, he is imprisoned along with his brother. He was been in jail for seven years and he has not convinced a single flatlander about the existance of the third dimension.