American Literature / Unit 11 AML 1016 short lesson, about 20 seconds
*A Connecticut Yankee* and the Satire of Progress
Captions available
The idea
A nineteenth-century mechanic wakes in King Arthur's Britain and sets about modernizing it with factories, newspapers and gunpowder, and the experiment ends in slaughter. The book begins as a joke against chivalry and turns into a doubt about technology and about the people it is supposed to serve.
In practice
A Yankee, a round table, and a massacre.
Where people slip
The satire turns on its hero.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it