Player Piano

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Vonnegut Engineering 101”

In this activity, students will use visual-spatial learning to design a Vonnegut-esque machine, considering the machine’s purpose, its potential long-term consequences, and the novel’s themes.

Player Piano describes a world in which machines have taken over most of the jobs formerly done by people. In this activity, work with a small group to design a machine that can perform a job normally done by a person (or multiple people). Include in your design:

• What job or jobs the machine will perform
• What the machine looks like (e.g., dimensions, design, appearance)
• What the machine will cost to manufacture and maintain

Once your machine is designed, brainstorm a list of long-term effects and consequences of the use of the machine (or many of the machines) in the workplace. You might, for example, list positive effects and negative consequences in a 2-column chart. Are there more positives or negatives? Considering the lessons learned by certain characters in Player Piano, evaluate the worth of your machine. What are the risks? How can they be avoided?

Each group will present their machine to the class and explain with rationale whether it is better, worse, or similar to the machines in the novel in terms of impact on humans. It may be beneficial to offer your points on a visual aid or slide.

When each group has had a chance to speak, discuss as a class the potential overall pros and cons of mechanization. Are advances in knowledge and technology always a benefit?

Teaching Suggestion: Students may find it helpful to learn about and discuss different types of machines and different approaches to machine design before beginning to work on this assignment. Computational design, for example, uses advanced computer processing to solve problems, and biomimetic design takes inspiration from nature.

Differentiation Suggestion: To encourage student agency and for students who would benefit from an opportunity in visual art, some students may prefer to create a visual representation of their design; these students may contribute their visual representation to their group or provide their descriptions aloud when the group presents their design to the class.

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Throughout the novel, Paul Proteus struggles with feelings of disconnection and lack of agency.

• How are Paul’s feelings of disconnection driven by his lack of agency? (topic sentence)
• When is Paul stripped of his agency before he can act? Choose the 3 instances that best support your topic sentence to analyze and discuss.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, speculate as to why Paul may have such a hard time finding agency. What is the overall message conveyed by his struggle?

2. Several characters in the novel, including Anita and Kroner, are fascinated with antiques.

• How are antiques used as a meaningful motif in the novel? (topic sentence)
• Discuss the role of antiques in the novel in support of your topic sentence, explaining what antiques represent to the different characters.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, evaluate the irony associated with antiques in the novel, especially the irony of Kroner and Anita’s fascination with them.

3. The few female characters of the novel, including Anita and Katherine Finch, have very little choice and control.

• Collectively, what is the role of women in the novel? (topic sentence)
• Discuss the female characters of the novel with regard to the way their decision-making is marginalized in the novel. Use text details and quotes to support your ideas.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, reflect on why Vonnegut chose to represent women in the novel the way he did.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. Chapter 32 of the novel describes Paul’s treason trial. Analyze this scene carefully, considering the arguments made by the prosecution and by the defense. In a 3-paragaph essay, explain why Paul takes the course of action he does. Is he a sympathetic character in this chapter? Are his goals and motivations valid and moral? Why or why not?

2. The Shah of Bratpuhr addresses the supercomputer EPICAC XIV as a god. How is the computer (and technology in general) like a god in the novel? Analyze and discuss this question in a brief essay. How is the computer not like a god? What is the significance of the Shah’s conclusion that the supercomputer is a false god?

3. The novel ends with the people of Ilium eagerly setting out to repair and rebuild the very machines they have destroyed. What overall message is conveyed by this ending? Are the people of Ilium destined to repeat the same mistakes once more? What does this ending say about human nature? Address these points in a brief essay with text details.

Multiple Choice and Long Answer Questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, exams, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. What is the literal translation of Takaru, the word that the Shah of Bratpuhr uses to refer to American citizens?

A) Human

B) Citizen

C) Average man

D) Slave

2. Where does Paul encounter the player piano after which the novel is named?

A) Kroner’s house

B) A bar in Homestead

C) The Ilium Works

D) At a university

3. Which of the following quotes best illustrates Anita’s agency (or lack thereof)?

A) “[H]er strength and poise were no more than a mirror image of his own importance, an image of the power and self-satisfaction the manager of Ilium Works could have, if he wanted it.” (Chapter 4)

B) “He knew with all his heart that the human situation was a frightful botch, but it was such a logical, intelligently arrived-at botch that he couldn’t see how history could possibly have led anywhere else.” (Chapter 10)

C) “People in his land sleep with smart women and make good brains cheap. Save enough wire to go to moon a thousand times.” (Chapter 11)

D) “Just because they were born in the same part of the world as I was, that doesn’t mean I have to come down here and wallow with them.” (Chapter 18)

4. Why does Paul like Finnerty?

A) Finnerty is rich and powerful.

B) Anita does not like Finnerty.

C) He is attracted to Finnerty’s rebellious nature.

D) Finnerty is clean-cut and suave.

5. How does Paul beat “Checker Charley”?

A) The machine malfunctions.

B) Finnerty tampers with the machine.

C) He destroys it with a baseball bat.

D) He forfeits the game.

6. Why does the Shah regard EPICAC XIV as a false god?

A) Because the Shah is an atheist

B) Because the Shah only regards his God as the true god

C) Because it cannot answer an ancient riddle that God is supposed to answer

D) Because the Shah says that a computer cannot be a god

7. Why is Kroner’s love of antiques such as record players ironic?

A) Kroner is an opponent of mechanization.

B) Kroner hates music.

C) Kroner is such an adamant evangelist for mechanization.

D) Kroner is not a good engineer.

8. Why does Paul buy a farm?

A) Because he wants to mechanize it

B) Because he thinks it will be a good investment

C) Because he is attracted to the simple way of life a farm represents

D) Because he wants to give Anita the antiques from the farm

9. Which of the following quotes best illustrates the general feeling of the people living in Homestead?

A) “I’m no good to anybody, not in this world.” (Chapter 17)

B) “If only it weren’t for the people […] always getting tangled up in the machinery.” (Chapter 34)

C) “You don’t matter…you belong to history now.” (Chapter 29)

D) “Democracy owed its life to know-how.” (Chapter 1

10. In what way does Paul treat Anita cruelly?

A) By not allowing her to take the antiques from his farm

B) By refusing to let her have a job

C) By abusing her

D) By making her feel less intelligent and less important than he is

11. In what way can the novel be interpreted as an allusion to the confrontation between the white man and the Indigenous Americans?

A) By emphasizing the uneven distribution of land, resources, and livelihoods sparked by mechanization

B) By recalling that many of the people of Homestead are Indigenous Americans

C) By recognizing that most of the machines are built on land that once belonged to Indigenous Americans

D) By understanding that the Meadows was once an Indigenous American reservation

12. Which high-ranking engineer quits his job because of Paul’s letter?

A) Baer

B) Kroner

C) Shepherd

D) Finnerty

13. What does the prosecutor at Paul’s trial argue is the true motivation for Paul’s treasonous actions?

A) Feelings of inadequacy

B) Hatred of his father

C) Boredom

D) Anger at his wife

14. What does Finnerty mean when he says in Chapter 34 that “If it weren’t for [people], earth would be an engineer’s paradise”?

A) In an engineer’s paradise, machines must be maintained, manufactured, and even designed by other machines.

B) Humans destroy machines, so an engineer’s paradise cannot have any humans.

C) If humans did not exist, machines would not be necessary.

D) Humans are inefficient, so an engineer’s paradise is a world without them.

15. In what way does the revolution get out of hand in Ilium?

A) People destroy buildings and infrastructure instead of the machines.

B) Many people are killed.

C) The revolutionaries destroy all machines, including basic ones.

D) The revolutionaries burn the whole city to the ground.

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. In the novel, why are members of the “Reeks and Wrecks” generally represented as being unhappy?

2. What is Paul’s role in the Ghost Shirt Society? How does this role reflect his larger role in the novel?