Mark Twain and Industrial America: Explorations in A Connecticut Yankee

Technology's Impact on Life and Culture
Lesson Plan 5

From the University of California edition, 1983.

Objectives

After this lesson, students will understand:

that the growth of technology in the late nineteenth century affected every level of life, from domestic to business.
that different societies will react differently to the same inventions.

Students will know:

the many implications of "training" as Twain defines it in Connecticut Yankee.
some major inventions of the late nineteenth century and what issues they raised for people of the time.

Students will be able to:

trace the use of particular invention through the novel and how Twain uses it to make larger generalizations about technology.
identify differences between Twain's America and sixth-century Britain that cause two different outcomes of the introduction of technology into a culture.

Materials

Resource Page 1
Pencil/pen and paper
Connecticut Yankee

Procedure

Step 1: Introduction
Ask students what images come to mind when they hear the term "Industrial Revolution." List these on the board. Have students brainstorm all the inventions they can think of that were possibly invented during that time period. Ask them when, specifically, they think these inventions entered the American consciousness. Who invented them? Direct students to Resource Page 1, and describe some of the major inventions of the American Industrial Revolution. Then ask students to identify offhand the places that these inventions appear in the novel.

Step 2
Divide students into four groups. Assign each group one of the inventions listed on the Resource Page. In their groups, students should read the online articles and identify some of the ways their particular invention made a mark on American society. Then, the students should look into Connecticut Yankee to find instances of their invention or technological development in the novel. (If students have a topic like "railroads," which only appears infrequently in the novel, encourage them to generalize to "forms of transportation" or a similar concept.)

Step 3
In those groups, students should use the Resource Page and the novel to answer the following questions:

How does Mark Twain use this invention in the novel?
How does this invention change life for the Britons?

Step 4
Groups then present their answers to the class as an introduction for a large-group discussion.

Step 5
As a class, discuss the following questions:

In general, what differences do you see between how technology affected the Britons of the novel and people of Twain's time?
Why would Twain have chosen sixth-century Britain as a setting for his novel? How does it comment on America of his time?
Throughout the novel, Hank Morgan keeps referring to "training" as the source of the Briton's assumptions about themselves, their culture, and his own technology. But Hank is also under the influence of "training." What assumptions does Hank work under regarding technology and "progress" that the Britons do not share? How, then, is he conditioned to see technology in a different light than they are?

Step 6
Students should answer the final summative question in writing at the end of the class period: Do you think, if Hank's technology had not been destroyed, that it would have changed society for good in the way that he hoped, or is the destructive ending to the novel simply inevitable? Support your answer with examples from the text, the online readings, and the class discussion.

Follow-Up and Evaluation

Students can be evaluated on their participation in class discussion, their answers to the group questions, and their end-of-class writing assignment.