1. What is the theme of this fiction?

In this allegory, Leacock presented us a "New Society" where there is no hunger, no disease, no death, no crimes, no gender equality, no natural disasters. But life is dull, empty, meaningless, and people are miserable.

2. Find more information about the following aspects of the world described in the story.

The overall structure of the article:

I. The narrator plunged into ________ to witness its marvels. (paras. 1-6)

II. What the narrator witnessed there helped him make up his mind to ______________________. (paras. 7-78)

  A. He was ______ at a few of the marvels. (paras. 7-28)

  B. He felt ______ at the Conquest of Nature. (paras. 29-55)

  C. He began to ______ whether the Conquest was a blessing. (paras. 56-66)

  D. He finally became ______ at all the marvels and ______ the world of marvels. (para. 67-78)

III. The narrator woke up to find himself in his hotel room. (paras. 79-81)

Think about the following questions. We'll discuss them in class.

1. Why did the narrator want to visit the future?

2. How did the narrator fall into sleep?

3. In what way might visiting the future in sleep be “straight suicide”?

4. What is the narrator’s profession? How do you know?

5. What do people often dream of? Do you have the sense of time in our dreams?

6. What kind of a man did the author see when he reopened his eyes centuries later? Why is it that the narrator seemed unable to determine his age?

7. What did time mean to MIA? 

8. Why was it odd that the narrator’s first question was about MIA’s clothes?

9. Why did people in MIA’s world wear clothes made of asbestos?

10. Why was the narrator on a platform in a museum?

11. What did the narrator see when he came onto Broadway? How did he feel?

12. In what more ways was MIA’s world different from the narrator’s world?

13. How did the narrator feel when he saw and heard about those differences?

14. How did work disappear?

15. How had the narrator felt about fashion before this trip and how did he feel about it now?

16. Do you believe man will eventually conquer nature?

17. Do you believe there will be one day when work is completely eliminated?

18. In what ways was MIA’s world different from the narrator’s world?

19. How did the narrator feel when he saw and heard about those differences?

20. How did people in MIA’s world avoid getting “broken”?

21. What do you think was “wrong with it all”?

22. In what more ways was MIA’s world different from the narrator’s world?

23. How did the narrator feel when he saw and heard about those differences?

24. What might be wrong with the way of education in MIA’s world?

25. What might be wrong when women and man all look alike?

26. Why did the narrator want to have back all the undesirable aspects of his old life?

27. Why was someone crying angrily?

28. How did the narrator get back to his hotel room?

29. Would he feel happy to be back? Why?