The Earth Gets Bulldozed and Hilarity Ensues: An Argument for Douglas Adams in ELA Classrooms

The Earth Gets Bulldozed and Hilarity Ensues: An Argument for Douglas Adams in ELA Classrooms

Humor in the classroom is not the first place that I go when thinking about what to teach my future students. Bucher and Hinton point out that when students read humor “they may just be escaping from the ordeals they perceive themselves experiencing in their everyday lives” (173). In classrooms across the nation, adolescent students deal with adult issues, and part of our jobs as teachers is to provide a shelter for them to escape to, if just for a short period of time. Many students and adults read books as a means of escape, and humorous books can be both entertaining and thought-provoking. In addition to teaching students foundational critical thinking skills, teachers can use Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to bridge the gap between the ELA classroom and environment studies issues, and to satisfy 8th grade Common Core requirements

The plot and themes found in The Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy deals with content that allows students to critically think about the way their own world works. From the beginning of the novel, the reader is introduced to Arthur Dent, a boring and unassuming man who steps outside of his comfort zone by protesting the imminent destruction of his home to make room for a highway. He pits himself against big business in an attempt to save his home, to which he is understandably attached. Arthur fails, as the entire planet is destroyed for a universal highway, but survives due to the kindness of Ford Prefect who whisks him onto a spaceship through the use of a dish towel. The rest of the book deals with Arthur’s and Ford’s adventures navigating the universe. Arthur, a generally boring man until he meets Ford, deals a lot with identity issues, and tries to make sense of the universe in the aftermath of earth’s destruction. Though he is a middle-aged man, but teengers will relate to the multiple identity crises that Arthur works through during the course of the novel. Students will also enjoy the comedy of the novel. Teachers can use the dry humor and sarcasm to teach rhetoric and explore linguistic devices that Adams uses to develop his characters. Adams also deeply explores issues surrounding the ideas that people have about intelligent life forms. At one point, Ford explains very condescendingly to Arthur how humans interpret some of the most intelligent beings, mice and dolphins, as simple-minded and lacking in a full range of emotion.

Adams explores environmentalism and the role that humans play in their own destruction extensively during the course of the novel. Probably the most easily accessible environmentalist idea that stems from the novel is the treatment of earth animals by human beings. In the book, dolphins are the most intelligent beings on earth. The dolphins try again and again to tell humans that the world is about to end, but humans are too arrogant to heed the warnings from perceptually lesser lifeforms. Teachers can use the idea of intelligent dolphins to connect to the current controversies surrounding SeaWorld and captive sea mammals. Teachers can use the idea of intelligent lifeforms to begin a conversation about the ethical treatment of animals, or even relate human arrogance back to sociopolitical arrogance throughout history. Historically, ethnic minorities were treated as lesser lifeforms, and this book can begin conversations about those ideas. The hyper-intelligent warrior mice can also help students to understand arrogance. The mice, so intent upon getting their answers have no qualms with dissecting the humans, who they perceive as lesser lifeforms. More importantly, the mice have a Fall, and realize the folly of their arrogance. This novel has so much going on that challenges the ideas of human rights and intelligences that teachers could spend entire units relating these ideas to real world instances of imperfect perceptions leading humans into folly.

Finally, Douglas Adam’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy can work in the 8th grade ELA classroom to satisfy common core standard ELA.8.R.C3.1 which states that students will “analyze the extent to which a filmed or live production of a story or drama stays faithful to or departs from the text or script, evaluating the choices made by the director or actors. CCSS RL.8.7” (West Virginia Department of Education). Douglas Adam’s novel was originally a radio series aired in 1978, Adams then made the radio series into a book series in 1979, and in 2005 Garth Jennings directed the movie version of Adams’ work. The state standard focuses on the choices that directors and actors make in interpreting text to stage. What is interesting about Adams’ work is that the first time it was translated into a different media, the media was translated by him. This allows teachers to add another dimension to the state standards by analyzing the changes that Adams made to his own work by taking it from the radio and putting it into novel format. Students would be able to evaluate author's intent as well as director intent and determine what the choices made by those people say about the time period or the content.

Douglas Adams work is appropriate to teach in the 8th grade because teachers can use it to teach basic ELA themes, use it to address environmental studies issues, and use it to satisfy Common Core State Standards. In addition to being relevant in so many classroom contexts, the novel also works to build vocabulary and give students a messy plot that they must work to put together. In my opinion, though, it is the hilarity of the book that will draw readers. This book is a laugh out loud text that students will be excited to read, and I feel that it is important for us as teachers to give students the opportunity to escape reality for a little while and just laugh.

Works Cited

Adams, Douglas. The Hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy. London: Pan Books, 1979. Print.

Bucher, Katherine and Hinton, Kaa Vonia. Young Adult Literature: Exploration, Evaluation, and Appreciation. 3rd ed. Boston: Pearson, 2006. Print.

West Virginia Department of Education. 8th Grade ELA Next Generations CSO’s. n.p. n.d. 11 June 2015. Web. http://wveis.k12.wv.us/Teach21/public/ng_cso/NG_CSO.cfm?tsele1=1&tsele2=9