Flatland

Summary: This story is told from the point of a view of a square. This square lives in a world called Flatland. In this world, there are no colors only black and white. The women are segments and the men are polygons. The more sides a man had, the more power and higher status he had in society. The highest leaders in society were circles, who had so many sides you could not tell were they connected. This gave them the appearance of a circular shape. This society had strict social status. Some stores were only for certain polygons. The square thinks this world is all there is, and he’s happy with that. Until one day he runs into a segment. Of course, he believes this segment to be a woman, because in his society it would be. But this segment was actually a man, the king of Lineland to be exact. In Lineland, the segments never move, don’t pass each other, and can only see the back point of the person in head of them. The narrator talks to this king and tries to explain Flatland to him. But, the King cannot wrap his brain around the idea of a 2nd Dimension. It doesn’t seem logical. Defeated, the narrator goes back home. That night, he’s visited by a sphere. The sphere tries to explain to the narrator about the 3-D world, however, just like the king, the narrator could not wrap his mind around another dimension. So, angrily the square tries stabbing the sphere but that has no effect. The sphere has no other choice but to bring the square into this 3-D world, there the square learns many mathematical wonders as well as the lesson to always keep an open mind.
 * By, Edwin A. Abbott **

Reason for choosing this book: This book, although it’s not the most interesting to read, has many important aspects that could improve society. First of all, it explains in depth many geometrical concepts and equations, as well as, relates them to real life. So, in the future, if ay of that knowledge had been left behind, this book could bring those geometric concepts back into society. Also, this book shows a society that is warped. Women are treated with little respect and are assumed to be dumb. However, the narrator explains that women are equal, and could be just as smart if they were educated. This brings up a concept that took our society many years to develop. The concept of, “Every man (or women) is created equal.” Some people today still have trouble treating everyone the same and not judging them. And I know that will be an issue in the future. So, hopefully this book will help people see that potential, people of any kind can bring. Finally, this book had one major theme, “Keep an open mind.” The narrator couldn’t comprehend the idea of a 3 dimension until he saw it with out own eyes. But sometimes, we aren’t lucky enough to be able to see it. Sometimes we have to believe in things that we cannot see. And that is an important lesson people will get when they read this story.

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