Mark Twain and Industrial America: Explorations in A Connecticut Yankee

Connecticut Yankee and the Triumph of American Industrialism

Lesson Plan 1

The interior of the Electricity Building, Chicago World's Fair, 1893. Taken from http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/1893fair.html.

Objectives

After this lesson, students will understand:

the role that technology plays in Connecticut Yankee.
that late-nineteenth-century America was fascinated with the growing technology it saw emerging.

Students will know:

the characteristics and purposes of an exposition.
the ways that Connecticut Yankee can be considered to have many of the same purposes.

Students will be able to:

compare the tone of American expositions with the tone regarding technology in the novel.
describe the tone of celebration that changes throughout the novel.
represent that change in tone visually.

Materials

Resource Page 4
Access to Julie Rose's site, The World's Columbian Exposition.
Posterboard
Markers
Connecticut Yankee

Procedure

Step 1: Introduction

Summarize the information given on Resource Page 4, including an overview of the World's Fair, its purposes and intentions, and a brief description of the layout. In addition, define the term "exposition" for the students, elaborating that expositions were prevalent during the late nineteenth century in order to show the world America's prowess in technological development. Have students follow along on the Resource Page during the discussion.

Step 2

Give students time to take both halves of the tour of the 1893 Exposition. (Note: if the classroom does not have computers with Internet access, these pages can be printed and distributed to students.)

Step 3

As a class, discuss the layout of the exposition and the following questions. Why do you think the fair was laid out in the way it was? Can you develop any possible reasons for composing the Midway as it was? What was the purpose of all the shops on the Midway? How is the rest of the fair organized? How does the layout of the fair uphold its purposes and intentions? The primary purpose of the fair is for it to be a show of America's cultural and technological power.

Step 4

Discuss Hank Morgan as an inventor and showman. Have the class identify places in the novel where this part of his personality comes through. How does he showcase American inventions? Compare his flair with the tone of the World's Fair.

Step 5

Distribute posterboard and markers. In small groups of three or four, students should choose five instances in the novel where Hank employs technology that is unknown to the Britons. (The choices can be as major as the Valley of Holiness episode or as minor as the king and the dynamite bomb. Students may choose to explore the same instances, but there will be some variation.) On the posterboard, students should represent each instance visually as one exhibit in an exposition. Encourage students to arrange their "exposition" chronologically in terms of the novel -- for example, moving left to right with scenes from the novel's beginning to end. As they draw out the scenes, they should also list its characteristics:

Hank's motivation for using the technology.
How he performed or showcased that technology.
The scene's effect on the other people present during the event.
Hank's own reaction to its use.

Step 6

Groups should present their posters to the class and describe them. As a class, identify the chronological trend in the novel's attitude toward technology. Notice that the tone changes from celebratory to warning.

Step 7

Together, develop reasons for why this is so. List the reasons on the board. Then, describe how the novel differs from an exposition. Emphasize the difference in tone by the end of the novel, and how the novel proves that an exposition's celebration does not mean that technology will solve all of a culture's problems. Generalize to Mark Twain's own opinion on American industrialism: how it does not guarantee world supremacy or perpetual growth for America.

Follow-Up and Evaluation

Students can be evaluated on their poster projects and their participation in class and small-group discussions.