Write with a Point

Welcome, and thanks for reading! Each week at Write with a Point, I share two suggestions on how I’ve taught (or would teach) a specific short story, along with some additional information about the text. Let’s get right to it.

1. Basic information about the text:
2. A quick summary of “Time Enough at Last”:
3. Why You Should Teach “Time Enough at Last”
4. Two no-prep lesson plans for Venable’s great short story:
   1. Option One: A textual analysis that compares the themes of the story:
   2. Option Two: A writing (or jigsaw) activity focused on the character’s effect on theme, plot, and more.
5. Additional teaching suggestions:
6. A final word:

Basic information about the text:

Author: Lynn Venable
Genre: Science Fiction
Textual Connections: Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum” is referenced in Venable’s tale. The Twilight Zone episode “Time Enough at Last” is a remake of the story. Robert Burns’ poem “To a Mouse” is referenced in the Twilight Zone’s closing narration. Ray Bradbury’s story “There Will Come Soft Rains” deals with similar themes.

A quick summary of “Time Enough at Last”:

The bookish Henry Bemis can’t find the time to read anything (not even a newspaper) even though his only ambition is to read a book; his work, wife, and social life keep him too busy. Then, one day, as he’s hiding away in the vault at Eastside Bank & Trust (where he works), an atomic bomb destroys the city. Now, with “time enough at last,” he scrambles over rubble and debris to get to the public library where, “like a starving man in a delicatessen,” he builds a pile of books and settles in to read. At that moment, however, as the ruble of the building continues to settle, Henry is thrown off balance and his glasses fall to the floor—shattering the lenses and his hopes.

Why You Should Teach “Time Enough at Last”

Two no-prep lesson plans for Venable’s great short story:

Option One: A textual analysis that compares the themes of the story:

With a shorter short story like this, I usually like to read the text together as a class. This ensures that every student is familiar with the story. If you’d rather have your students read this for homework the night before, that’s fine too. Just consider using the extension activity at the end of this teaching strategy.

Before class, write the opening epigraph on the board: “The atomic bomb meant, to most people, the end. / To Henry Bemis it meant something far different—a thing to appreciate and enjoy.” As class begins, tell students that this quote comes from today’s story and that Henry Bemis is the main character. Ask them things like:

• What do you think this means?
• What do you think will happen in the story?
• Why would an atomic bomb be something to appreciate? Or even enjoy?
• What’s your impression of Henry Bemis based on this quote?

When you’re ready, read the story as a whole class or split students into reading groups. Tell students to focus on Henry’s time as they read—where it goes, why he doesn’t have any, etc. (If you’re reading this together, you can pause after the second paragraph, fourth paragraph, and his flashback later in the story to ask students, “Where does his time go?”)

After reading, ask students the following questions. (You can split them into groups or have them answer individually.)

• What plans does Henry make in the story? List any and all that you see. (For teacher reference, this can include his plan to read in the vault, his plan to read before guests come, his plan to go to the library over Agnes, his plan to read at the library.)
• What consumes Henry’s time? Are they good or bad things? (For teacher reference, this can include his work, his wife, driving to work, thinking about reading, television, games with friends, etc.)
• What does Henry want/need in order to read? (For teacher reference, this can include silence, solitude, glasses, books, etc.)

If you’re discussing these questions as a whole class, have students verbally share examples/evidence from the text with their answers. If students are in small groups, have them write down their evidence. After about ten minutes, write student answers on the board, separated into three columns (one for each question).

From there, have students review the quotes that you wrote down and ask them the following questions. Be sure to have them write down their answers as complete sentences. (Again, this can be done individually or as a group.)

• What does the first column of quotes suggest about the value of plans?
• What does the second column of quotes suggest about how we spend our time?
• What does the third column of quotes suggest about solitude, silence, or books?

Once students have had time to write down their answers, ask them to share their thoughts. Each sentence will be a potential theme statement for the story. Once students share, you can let other students/groups ask follow up questions or share contrary ideas. To emphasize this, you can have other students/groups vote on whether they agree or disagree with the theme statement suggested. If they disagree, have them explain why. (I’ve found that there are a number of potentially conflicting theme statements that come from this story, which is why I love to teach it! It really engages the students and generates good conversation.)

If you have extra time, would like to assign homework, or want to extend your lesson by another day, you can have students write a paragraph describing how the story would be different or similar if it was set in the modern day. It’s very interesting to see how the “distractions” of modern life compare with those in the story, and questions of “where does our time go?” often generate very interesting answers.

Option Two: A writing (or jigsaw) activity focused on the character’s effect on theme, plot, and more.

Henry Bemis can be a divisive character. He cries over books but not his wife, for example, and he characterizes the dead bodies around him as “lumps of unpleasantness.” At the same time, however, he feels trapped, challenged, and can’t seem to get the only thing he really wants, some time alone with a book. Students tend to pick up on both of these “sides” to the character, and it makes for an engaging study.

To begin, I’d repeat the same activity mentioned in the first lesson idea: Do a quick character analysis based on the epigraph at the beginning of the book, asking questions like:

• What do you think will happen in the story?
• Why would an atomic bomb be something to appreciate? Or even enjoy?
• What’s your impression of Henry Bemis based on this quote?

From there, I’d read the story, telling students to focus on Henry’s “ambition,” the challenges he faces, and his reactions to the events following the explosion.

When you’ve finished reading, give students a few minutes to write down everything they know about the character, providing supporting evidence from the text. Let students share their thoughts while you write their answers on the board, then repeat the question: “What’s your impression of Henry Bemis now?” (You can let students vote if they like or dislike him, if you’d prefer.) You can also ask similar questions:

• Do you think Henry is a sympathetic character? Why or why not?
• Do you think Henry’s ambition is decent/good? What about how he pursues it?
• Does Henry value reading too much? How should you balance your values?

From there, you can do one of the following:

1. Ask students to take what they’ve learned about Henry and write a theme statement for the story. (This can be done individually or in small groups.)
2. Ask students to discuss and/or write down the ways Henry’s motivations shape his interactions with other characters in the story. (This can be done individually or in small groups.)
3. Ask students to discuss and/or write down the ways Henry’s motivations help develop the plot of the story. (This can be done individually or in small groups.)

If time allows, you can have students answer more than one of these questions.

Alternatively, you can run this lesson like a jigsaw activity. In other words, after reading the story, divide students into groups of three. Let each group write down everything they know about the character. After the groups have shared their answers with the class (and you’ve written the answers on the board), have each group member find two members from other groups and answer one of the three questions. After a few minutes, the original groups will reform, and the members will share the answers they formed with the other groups. That way, each student will focus on one question, but they’ll ultimately learn about all three.

Additional teaching suggestions:

• This story pairs nicely with Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum” or Ray Bradbury’s “There Will Come Soft Rains.” If you teach either of those stories, consider pairing this with them, focusing on theme comparisons in the two. For Poe’s story, questions about time, life, and death make for great comparisons; you can also talk about what the allusion adds to Venable’s story. For Bradbury’s story, compare how the authors (who both wrote in the 50s) were approaching the issues of their day, the atomic bomb, and the desolation that comes with war.
• If you’d rather teach the story a different way, you could always focus on the literary elements within Venable’s story—it’s full of them! There’s foreshadowing, allusions, repetition, irony, figurative language, and more. You can even ask students how the length of the story (its brevity) reflects the themes and questions addressed in the text itself.
• More popular than the story itself is its counterpart in the Twilight Zone. Regarded as the most memorable episode in the show’s five seasons, it makes for a great comparison. You can show it before or after the story. It’s a great way to “analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two different artistic mediums, including what is emphasized or absent in each treatment,” all according to Common Core standards (CCSS.ELA.Literacy.RL.7). You can end the comparison with this question: “Is there an irony to the fact that this particular story was made into a television episode? Why or why not?”

• If you want, you can find a printable, teacher friendly version of this blog post on my Teachers Pay Teachers store, Write with a Point. You can also find other teaching tools available for purchase there.

A final word:

Generally, I figure that if you’ve found your way to this blog, you’re familiar with the story. Because of that, I don’t spend much time discussing what I think of as “SparkNotes” details—things like themes, character development, literary devices, or important quotes. Instead, I focus on the tangible questions and activities you can bring into your classroom. That said, if you have questions, please feel free to leave a comment. Also, if you have other teaching suggestions, I’d love to hear them!

Thanks again for reading.

Nate Geeting