Hawkins-Day 1

Marcia Hawkins-Day

Prof. Michael Miron

Sophomore Seminar

21 February 2019

Flatland Response

As I read the Flatlands novel, many of the thoughts which ran through my head consisted

of how similar the events in this book were to historical events of the past, which I believe was

part of the author’s intent in writing this short novel.

In the beginning, my thoughts surrounded the culture in the Flatland universe. For

example, early in the novel the culture in Flatland was described in a way that indicated to me

that it was very controlled, regulated, and restricted by its social hierarchy and the top leaders in

its hierarchy. There was a specific point in the book in which the square was describing how the

Flatland society accepts the systematic killing of infants whose angles don’t meet a certain

degree. As I was reading this my brain compared the Flatland culture to that of Nazi Germany (in

World War II) and other dictatorships throughout history. I compared this to a genocide and just

like in Nazi Germany most people, like the square, accepted it and saw nothing wrong with it.

With it being Black History Month, I also couldn’t help but see the similarities between

this story and the civil rights movement. These thoughts began to emerge as I read about the

isosceles class and how they began to increase in population as well as their influence. Which

eventually led to them advocating for the equality of all classes (shapes). Just as in the civil

rights movement, the leaders in power tried to subtly (or not so subtly in some civil rights
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moments historically) use their influence to keep the lowest class down and prevent them from

gaining their rights or full freedom in order to maintain their position of power. Fortunately for

the African American population, the civil rights movement was eventually successful, and we

were able to secure our rights. Unfortunately for the lower classes of Flatland (isosceles triangles

and women) their revolt wasn’t robust enough and therefore did not outlast the influence of the

circles.

Overall, I personally enjoyed this book more than I expected myself to. I felt the concepts

surrounding shapes and their existence in different dimensional universes to be clever and

interesting. However, I was left somewhat unsatisfied by the ending. I feel sad that the Square

will most likely live out the rest of his life believing that his knowledge of Space land and the 3rd

dimension was waste. I suppose I’d just like a happier ending but I understand that realistically,

not every ending is a happy one.