Question: What is the plot of the story that involves a society struggling to maintain its way of life while dealing with complex relationships and the influence of outsiders?

Answer:
qds-lb-writing-099be7bcf434f75d.elb.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/?uid=fbb302599a4a417fbc34eb1b65558c19
The Ignoble Savages by Evelyn E. Smith details the tale of a race on the brink of extinction and their strange attempt to save themselves. Snaddra is a rainy planet with a mud surface. Due to the harsh weather, the Snaddrath chose to build their cities underground. Their civilized culture allowed for excellence in the metal industry and architecture, however, their isolation caused for poor education and expensive trade deals. In the face of crisis, the Bbulas Plan emerged, a plot to move their capital aboveground to convince visiting Terrans of their primitive nature and need for help.
It begins with Skirru, an architect-turned-beggar, arguing with his former fiance, Larhgan, who is now the High Priestess. Their new jobs forbid marriage between the two, so Larhgan returns his grimpatch with regret. Bbulas, the new High Priest, watches gleefully, as he was in love with Larhgan all along. After much fighting, they levitate to the surface of the planet and wait for the Terrans to arrive. Now covered with huts, the new caste system emerges. Skirru is upset about his current position and feels ill. The woven metal clothes he was given to wear did not shield him from the light, so his green skin starts fading to yellow.
The Terrans arrive, Raoul and Cyril, to analyze the planet. Skirru begs in front of them, and they give him a chocolate bar, a delicacy on Snaddra. He eats it quickly, grateful for the treat as it restores health to sick Snaddrath. He remembers a pair of shoes he once got and dashes belowground to get them, returning with booted feet. Able to walk easier now, he follows the Terrans to the temple, where Bbulas and Larhgan are waiting.
Raoul eyes the female Snaddrath hungrily. Cyril reminds him that they are there to investigate, not fraternize with the natives. Once there, Larhgan welcomes them with a long speech Bbulas wrote. Bbulas invites the Terrans to a rain dance, which they laugh at seeing as the planet is covered in mud. Bbulas recovers quickly and claims it’s a ceremony to stop the rain. Already, his plot to save his planet is falling apart. Raoul quickly notices that the beggar, Skkiru, is wearing mudshoes, which makes no sense.
Bbulas changes the subject and points them towards their hut, evidently the nicest one on Snaddra. He runs to Skkiru and angrily confronts him about his footwear.

Answer:
	The beings of Snaddra are hosting two Terrans who are coming to study their culture. The interest of the Terrans is extremely important because the planet’s population and natural resources are wasting away; they need the attention and resources that an anthropological study can provide. Bbulas, the Planetary Diletantte went to a Terran university on another planet after being selected for his highest intelligence score in the group tested with him. As Diletantte, he has been called upon to help solve the planet’s dilemma of saving itself. His plan, accepted because there were no better plans, involves restructuring the society and culture of the planet into one that he says the Terran anthropologists will find more intriguing than their real culture. He explains that this is because Terrans are most interested in societies that are different from their own, rather than like their own as Snaddrath really society is. He uses lots to assign roles in the society and ends up as the high priest, and the high priestess is Larhgan, a female he has been interested in for a long time but who was engaged to Skkiru. Skkiru has drawn the lot of a beggar and can no longer be engaged to Larhgan, and at the beginning of the story, he finds out that the changes Bbulas has instituted are actually going to be permanent. Bbulas threatens to make Skkiru a metal worker, the lowest position in the social hierarchy, if he doesn’t cooperate. Larhgan is sad that she will not be able to marry Skkiru and says she will not marry anyone at all but just devote her life to religion.
	When the Earth ship arrives with the Terrans, everyone goes to the surface to welcome them even though it is cold and raining. There is a reminder for everyone except beggars to wear shoes. They hold a welcoming ceremony, and the Terrans notice Skkiru, the beggar, so he begs from them. They aren’t sure what to give him, so they give him chocolate which is a real treat because Bbulas has closed all the chocolate shops. One Terran, Raoul, notices how beautiful Larhgan is, and the other, Cyril, reminds him they cannot establish friendships with the native females because it would prevent them from being objective. The Terrans thank the Shadds for their welcome and tell them they hope their stay will be pleasant and profitable. They intend to study the Shadds without doing anything to disturb their culture.
	The Shadds desperately need the Terrans’ interest. The Shadds’ natural resources are nearly depleted, and their population is decreasing. The culture is getting close to being unsustainable. It can grow rice and catch fish but has to purchase all other food and fiber products from other planets, which is very expensive. Shadd doesn’t attract any tourists, so they are banking on the Terrans to help.

Answer:
Skkiru, who was once a great architect of Snaddra, must now pretend to be a beggar. His fiance, Larhgan, will play the role of High Priestess, and she must separate herself from him. In this make-believe world created by Bbulas, the Planetary Dilettante, the couple will never be able to see each other again. Bbulas has given out roles to each citizen of Snaddra, and the entire planet is depending on the scheme. Two anthropologists from Terran (Earth) have been invited to research the fake society in hopes that their attention will bring good fortune. Snaddra’s various life forms are nearing extinction, and they have few natural resources left. The planet is not attractive to tourists, and it’s too far out of the way to make trade routes profitable.

Skkiru blames Bbulas for his breakup with Larhgran. Bbulas has always had feelings for Larhgan, so Skirru believes he put them in different castes on purpose. Bbula defends his choices as necessary for society’s survival, and Larhgan agrees. She loves Skkiru, but she cannot put her own relationship before her people.

Skkiru hates the Terrans and has zero interest in living above ground like they do. He has never stepped foot on the surface of Snaddra, but everyone is being forced above ground. The Terrans’ ship comes into view, and everyone rushes to put shoes on. Although beggars are not allowed to wear shoes, Skkiru puts some on anyway. The underground city must be kept a secret from the Terrans. Bbulas’s plan involves looking primitive in order to gain sympathy.

Skkiru is instructed to go to the field and look hungry. Two Terrans, Raoul and Cyril, leave their ship and approach a group of Snaddrath dressed in costumes singing songs. As soon as Raoul sees the female Snaddraths, Cyril sees a change in his face, and warns him that they must maintain objectivity. Then, Raoul and Cyril point their attention towards Skkiru. They would like to offer the poor beggar man something, but they’re not sure what. Raoul suggests a chocolate bar, and Skkiru eagerly accepts. His joy is fleeting, however, when he lays eyes on Larhgan, standing in her beautiful high priestess outfit, welcoming the Terrans with a speech written by Bbulas. He has never felt so lowly in his life. Skkiru hopes that he will have a chance to make something of himself and demonstrate his worthiness to Larhgan. The Terrans are infatuated with romance, after all.

The Terrans thank the Snaddrath for welcoming them, and they learn that they are invited to view a rain dance. Raoul questions why the Snaddrath would ever want more rain when it’s already muddy, and Bbulas changes the plan and explains that the rain dance is to make the rain stop. When Raoul and Cyril are led to their huts, Bbulas finds Skkiru and yells at him for putting on shoes. He reminds Skkiru to let him do all of the thinking.

Answer: The story begins in the middle of a discussion amongst Bbulas, Larhgan, and Skkiru. The three are Snaddrath of the planet Snaddra, and were preparing for the arrival of Terrans. Skkiru is upset; he is a beggar, but only by Bbulas' design: the society had been restructured to be more primitive for the sake of the eyes of the Terrans. Skkiru had been engaged to Larhgan, who would now serve as high priestess, but this difference in social status meant they could no longer be affiliated. They discuss some of the confusion and issues surrounding the plan, and all head outside when they hear the announcement that the Earthmen had arrived. It turned out that the Snaddrath lived in underground cities, but built some buildings above-ground where they would convince the Earthmen they actually lived. When they got to the surface, they saw the procession greeting the visitors, and started trying to navigate the huge amounts of mud on the surface. The Snaddrath could self-levitate, but didn't want to give this ability away so they made slow progress walking. Skkiru ran off to find his mud-shoes, and met everyone else at the ship. The Earthmen (the cultural ruling race) were talking about previous situations on other planets, not knowing that the Snaddrath could actually understand them. They offer Skkiru some chocolate, which he takes (it increases the body's resistance to weather, and was a delicacy). As this continues, Skkiru reflected on the rapid loss of population and resources on the planet and how the Terran visit has affected his planet. For instance, metal-working was the largest industry, so Bbulas made them the lowest caste when reorganizing the society, which Skkiru thought was an easy way out of a chance to be more creative. Eventually interacting with Larhgan, the Terrans express gratitude for the welcome they have received and expresses interest in learning from the Snaddrath, enjoying their stay, and to not affect the society as much as possible. Skkiru found humor in this, as the presence of the Earthmen is the only reason their society is structured the way it is currently. The Terrans are invited to a raindance, which confuses them, until Bbulas catches himself and says it's to stop the rain, not to get more. Skkiru continued to reflect: he hadn’t been able to live well and to save, so he didn't have savings. He was willing to play this game to avoid discovery of the truth by the Earthmen, with the careful systems of tabus to keep the visitors from discovering the underground cities, in part because he didn't want to leave Larhgan. The story ends with Bbulas yelling at Skkiru for having retrieved mudshoes and tells him not to think.


Question: What are the Terrans doing in the strange society of Snaddra? What is the significance of their visit?

Answer: The visiting Terrans, Cyril and Raoul, are visiting Snaddra to survey and analyze the native culture. Evidently, Terrans do this on planets across the universe, immersing themselves in the culture only to leave however many days, months, or years later with a full-fledged report. Their visit is significant because it may give the Snaddrath a chance to revitalize their economy and people. Due to their current lack of resources, muddy surface, and planetary isolation, the Snaddrath are facing extinction. They hope that by presenting themselves as a primitive civilization, the Terrans will be more inclined to establish trade with them and give them an economic boost.

Answer: The Terran visit is of great significance to the Snaddrans. The Snaddran population is dying, and most of its resources are depleted. So Snaddra needs Terrans to be interested in their planet and civilization in order to secure assistance that will help them survive. The Terran anthropologists are coming to Snaddra to study the culture and ways of life of the natives. Bbulas believes that the Terrans will not be interested in the Snaddrans’ real society because it is too much like their own; therefore, he has orchestrated a plan that completely changes the society and the way they live in hopes of attracting the interest of the Earthmen who are visiting. The Terrans, on the other hand, believe that they will enjoy their stay and profit from their study of the Snaddrans and claim they can do so without disturbing their culture.

Answer:
The Terrans are on Snaddra to get a better understanding of the planet’s culture. Raoul and Cyril are anthropologists, and they have previously studied primitive cultures on other planets. They are not interested in studying societies that are very similar to their own. Instead, they prefer to look at cultures that are less advanced than the Terrans’.

The Terrans came to Snaddra after they were invited by Bbulas. Bbulas is the Planetary Dilettante, and he has been tasked with the difficult job of saving the planet. Snaddra is struggling without resources and no way of attracting tourists. Rice is the only vegetable that will grow there. Bbulas’s plan is to hide the Snaddrath’s underground cities and force the citizens to play roles in a caste system. They hide their technology and wear costumes and make up ceremonies in order to give the Terrans what Bbulas believes they want to see. Raoul and Cyril promise to be objective observers who do not meddle in the Snaddrath’s daily routines.

Bbulas has prepared for the Terrans’ visit by building a hut for them and forcing some of the citizens to learn a rain dance. When Raoul questions why they would ever want more rain because it’s already very wet and muddy outside, Bbulas thinks quickly and explains that the rain dance has the power to make the rain stop. In truth, the Snaddrath have never lived on the surface of the planet, so they understand very little about weather patterns.

Answer: The Terrans are visiting Snaddra as part of a research mission. They are the "cultural ruling race", which means they have a lot of social influence in the sector, but they have not learned from many of the other races in the area. They want to enjoy their stay but also to gain something from it, but are careful to note that they have to be cautious in their relationships with the women who are native to the planet. It was apparently a long journey for them, and quite an expensive one at that, so they hope to make the most of their stay, even though they are not aware that they have walked into a fake version of the society they intend to study. They do not intend to affect the society they are visiting, but do not realize that they have done so in large ways already: in cultural influence, exports, and rice as a plant grown there to begin with. Perhaps one of the biggest influences is that of the restructuring of part of the Snaddrath society so that the Snaddrath think they will be more appealing to the Terrans as a focus of study.


Question: Describe the inhabitants of a planet called Snaddra, where societal roles have shifted dramatically in an attempt to survive under unusual circumstances.

Answer:
The natives of Snaddra are a very civilized race, progressing beyond what life on Earth is like now. They live underground, due to the terrible weather on the surface of the planet, and have built extensive cities and tunnels. They designed flying cars to use on the surface, and they have the capability to levitate.
Their outward appearance is somewhat humanoid, though there are some very distinct and different features. For one, the natives have antennae, as well as green skin. When healthy, their skin is a beautiful emerald green color, but if they grow ill it will become more yellow. The Snaddrath also have three eyes, requiring spectacles to have three individual lenses. When upset, anxious, or provoked, they have a tendency to twirl mid-air. If a Snaddrath falls in love with another, they give their lover their grimpatch, a beautiful bauble, to indicate their dedication. Many Snaddrath work in the metal industry since some of the few resources left on the planet are minerals.

Answer: The natives of Snaddra look very much like humans, except they have antennae, three eyes, and earflaps that they can open and close. Snaddrans have two hearts, and their essential organs are placed differently from humans’. They speak Snadd but also learn English as their third language. They are intelligent and civilized, with a president, parliament, and a local university. When upset, they turn a triple somersault in the air and coil their antennae to insult another Snaddran. They can move by floating or self-levitating. Snaddrans form relationships much the same way that humans do, falling in love and marrying. They have emotions including love, sadness, jealousy, and pride.

Answer:
The natives of Snaddra are under great stress. They are deeply concerned about their survival and are willing to do almost anything in order to save themselves. The creatures live underground and have never been to the surface of the planet. However, Bbulas’s plan involves proving to the Terrans that they are a primitive population with very little going for them, so they create a less advanced society above ground. Bbulas actually wears contact lenses, but in the new down-and-out society he has created, he cannot be seen wearing them. He must put on glasses in order to convince the Terrans that Snaddra is not a place of great wealth. All of the citizens are forced to dress in carefully crafted rags by society’s most notable tailor, and the costumes are deeply uncomfortable in the rain and wind on the surface of the planet. This is especially true since the people have never been exposed to the elements before. Bbulas, however, wears warm underskirts under his robes. He believes it’s important to keep imports like certain types of clothes secret from the Terrans.

The Snaddraths do not actually live in huts, but Bbulas had some built in order to convince the Terrans that they have very little technology and are in need of more advanced peoples to teach them their ways.

At one point, Skkiru remembers that the libel laws in Snaddra are very severe, so he can not openly criticize Bbula or his master plan without facing severe punishment. The planet’s government has a very top-down approach to ruling. The parliament selected Bbulas to be the only person in his generation to get a Terran education on another planet, and they have left the survival of Snaddra completely up to himi.

Answer: The natives of Snaddra are an advanced species who live in underground cities on a planet whose surface is extremely muddy and rainy. They have antennae, three eyes, and emerald green skin which becomes more pale if they are sick or malnourished. They are humanoid but have their organs in different places from Terrans. They have interesting reactions to food, such as chocolate helping provide resistance to weather. They are able to levitate on their own, but also have developed technology like air-cars and spaceships, and fourth-dimensional reflectors that can serve as walls. We know that they are an advanced species despite what the Terrestrians encounter because the Snaddrath have re-invented their society to be more primitive than they actually are. The reasoning behind this is that they want the Earthmen to take an interest in them, but if most civilized societies are about the same, they have to be a more primitive society for the Earthmen to care enough to want to learn more. The primary trade on the planet is metal work, and the lack of natural resources means that the Snaddrath have to rely heavily on trade with other planets in the system, especially for things like fabric. It is not only the level of resources that is dwindling, but the population as well. They have strong education systems of their own, and easy access to library resources, but they send one person per generation off-world to get a Terran education. The Snaddrath are considered more emotionally driven than humans, at least in that the focus of their education does not include as much on emotional regulation, so there are visible temperament differences between these groups.


Question: Describe the setting of the story, which involves a society grappling with its identity and survival in a challenging environment, Snaddra.

Answer:
Snaddra is a planet leagues away from many other solar systems. Its isolation and general lack of resources has left the planet as a whole in a terrible situation. Snaddra has two seasons: wet and wetter season. Raining practically every day, the surface of the planet is covered in mud. Because of the muddy surface and difficult weather, the Snaddrath have built cities underground and truly thrived there. Skkiru, one of the main characters, is an architect, and supposedly helped to build underground buildings and cities. Their futuristic lifestyle is threatened, however, by a lack of resources. The only crop that can grow on Snaddra is rice, brought in by Terrans, and much of the native animals and fish are dying out. The one commodity and resource left is minerals. However, the constant importation of foreign goods depleted their economy, leaving the Snaddrath between a rock and a hard place.
Bbulas, the Planetary Dilettante, developed the Bbulas Plan to save Snaddra from ruin. He designed a whole aboveground world, new garbs for citizens, as well as an entirely new culture. He believes, as does most of Snaddra, that a primitive culture will draw Terrans in more than an equally advanced and civilized one. So, the story mostly takes place on the surface of Snaddra, now covered in huts.

Answer: On Snaddra, it rains almost all the time, and the surface is covered with thick, deep, murky mud. The temperature is uncomfortably cool. They have advanced technology in their air-cars. In addition to a president and parliament, the natives have a Planetary Dilettante. This civil-service position is filled by a Snaddran who has the highest intelligence score on a competitive examination. The winner attends university on Gambrell, which is the nearest planet with a Terran League University, to receive a Terran education. This is so expensive that only one person per generation can be awarded this opportunity. The Diletantte’s role is to help the planet in times of emergency. Presumably, the Diletantte’s superior intellect and education enable him to determine the best ways to handle the emergencies that arise. Snaddrans live underground, perhaps because of the unpleasant conditions on the planet’s surface where it rains almost constantly, and the ground is all mud. Snaddra’s population and natural resources are quickly dwindling, and its main natural resource has been minerals. Life forms on the planet are on the verge of extinction, and the only food the planet produces is fish and rice. Other foods and materials must be imported from other planets, which is extremely expensive because Snaddra is not located along direct trade routes. The planet also doesn’t attract tourists. The society has just been transformed in preparation for the arrival of the Terrans who want to study them. Now the society features a high priest and priestess. All the metal workers have been made outcasts, and beggars are just slightly higher than the metal workers.

Answer:
Snaddra, the planet where the story takes place, is in deep trouble. The Snaddrath who live underground, are forced to take a chance on the Planetary Dilettante’s plan to save the society.
The population of Snaddra is decreasing rapidly, there are almost zero natural resources left, and creatures from other planets are not interested in visiting Snaddra for tourism or trading purposes. Food and other resources have to be purchased from other planets, and that is a highly expensive endeavor. Metal-working is the most important industry they have, yet metal-workers are looked at as the lowliest of the Snaddraths. Instead of being thankful for their hardest and most important workers, they treat them very poorly.

When Raoul offers Skkiru a chocolate bar, he happily accepts the gift. This is because chocolate is only available in very expensive shops, and Skkiru has had very few opportunities to taste the delicacy.

The surface of Snaddra is virtually untouched because all of society lives in underground cities. When the citizens embark on their new mission to convince the Terran that they live primitive lives on the surface, they are wholly unprepared to deal with the rainy and windy weather. The nonstop precipitation means that everyone is standing in mud, and their costumes do not adequately protect them from the harsh conditions.

Answer: Snaddra is a muddy and rainy planet with limited natural resources, and a race of people who live in underground cities. There is so much mud that neither the Terrans nor the Snaddrath can move very quickly on the surface. The depleting resources of the planet means that there are only a few things that can grow on the surface, rice and fish. Rice is itself an import from Earth, and a lot of resources are acquired through trade. The Snaddrath people live in underground cities, but they have erected buildings on the surface as well for the sake of their plan to convince the Earthmen of their facade.


Question: Who is Bbulas, and what unfolds for him throughout the narrative involving a society grappling with its new way of life?

Answer:
Bbulas, a Snaddrath, was chosen as a young boy to attend a Terran school on Gambrell. This Terran League University was far too expensive for any Snaddrath to afford, not only due to tuition costs. The travel expenses alone were outrageous. And so, only one student per generation would receive funds to attend. Since Bbulas was schooled there, he has more Terran tendencies than his brethren, such as his ability to not show emotions or keep from whirling when upset.
After attending university, he was selected to work as the Planetary Dilettante. This selection process involves testing Snaddrath in a variety of subjects. Evidently, Bbulas’ scores were the highest, so when President Luccar declared a state of emergency, he chose Bbulas to fix the situation at hand.
Bbulas designed the Bbulas Plan to solve Snaddra’s economic downfall. His ultimate goal was to entice Terrans to come to Snaddra and support the planet with foreign trade. In order to do so, he decided to completely redesign their entire culture and move their capital aboveground. Bbulas believes that Terrans will be more likely to help if Snaddra is primitive in nature.
The story begins with an argument between Skkiru, Larhgan, and Bbulas. Bbulas elected himself High Priest in the new world, and the lots elected Larhgan to be the High Priestess. Skkiru, her fiance, was to be a beggar, sot hey could no longer be together, much to Bbulas’ delight.
After passively threatening Skkiru, the three rise to the surface and ready themselves for the Terrans’ arrival.
Bbulas welcomes the Terrans at the temple and invites them to a stop-the-rain ceremony. He sends the Terrans to their hut and then becomes upset at Skkiru for wearing mud shoes when he is supposed to be a beggar.

Answer: Bbulas is the Planetary Diletantte who has just overhauled the Snaddran society in preparation for the Terrans’ study. He has done away with the president and parliament, replacing them with himself as high priest and a female high priestess. He has created elaborate rules and a new social hierarchy with all the roles assigned by lots, although some Snadds doubt the fairness of the lot-drawing. He has also made the Snadds move from underground to above ground even though the surface of the planet is covered with thick mud from the constant rain. Bbulas considers himself superior due to his education and thinks he is talented in multiple ways, including speechwriting and even building shelters. He anticipated the Terrans’ interests and makes sure the females are scantily clad and rewrites the words to their popular songs to make them less suggestive in case the Terrans have learned any Snadd. The majority of the Snaddrath voted to adopt Bbulas’s plan because no one else had come up with a better one.

Answer:
Bbulas is a pompous and conceited man, and he fancies himself very important. He was chosen by the government as the only person from Snaddra to get a Terran education on the planet of Gambrell. Not a single citizen can afford the expenses associated with interplanetary travel, so Bbulas’s opportunity is looked at as once-in-a-lifetime.

Bbulas takes advantage of his position as an elite. Although he claims that in the program he created, each individual’s position was selected randomly, he openly acknowledges that he was the only person who could possibly pose as the high priest. When Skkiru complains about having to pose as a beggar when he was once a successful architect, Bbulas immediately threatens to turn him into a metal-worker, a member of the lowest caste system, instead. He is completely unconcerned about the breakup of Skkiru and Lahgran’s relationship and simply reminds Skkiru that he must make sacrifices for the good of the planet. Skkiru knows that Bbulas has had his eyes on his fiance for quite some time, so it’s no surprise that Bbulas have given her a role where he will get to spend loads of time with her.

Skkiru definitely doesn’t approve of Bbulas as the Planetary Dilettante and believes he passed the examination because the exam itself was deeply flawed. He believes someone with more charm and adaptiveness should be in charge of society’s survival, and he isn’t impressed with Bbula’s grand scheme to win over the Terran anthropologists. When he hears Lahrgran making her speech as High Priestess, he instantly recognizes that Bbulas was the speechwriter and complains that it’s far too long and involved. Bbulas is undeniably interested in hearing himself speak and truly believes that it is he alone who can save the Snaddrath from a terrible fate.

Answer: Bbulas is a member of the Snaddrath race, the group of people who live on Snaddra. He has a particular role in the society as the Planetary Dilettante, which means he is the one person in his generation who was afforded an off-world education where he could learn from the Terran style system, which focuses more on emotional regulation than the native training. He was educated on Gambrell, a nearby planet which has a Terran League University. The government can only afford to send one person per generation to receive this kind of schooling so it is considered a high honor. The Dilettante is the one on standby for when there are emergencies, and the President decided that the arrival of the Earthmen was such an emergency. In order to prepare for the arrival of the Terrans, he set up everything necessary to fool the Terrans into thinking the Snaddrath were more primitive than they actually were. He was the one who restructured society so that the metal workers were the lower class, as they were the most populous group of people, and assigned Skkiru the role of a beggar which forced him to break off his engagement with Larhgan as she was assigned the high priestess role. This is especially angering to Skkiru because Bbulas assigned himself the high priest role. Skkiru is frustrated with Bbulas for making him a beggar and also disappointed because he thinks he could have been more creative in his set-up of a new society, especially being as intelligent as he was. He used blueprints from a Terrestrial magazine to build some of the above-ground features, instead of designing his own, for instance. At the beginning of the story, he is bickering with Skkiru about the fact that Skkiru is now a beggar, and all of the issues that come for Skkiru with that. He eventually led Skkiru and Larhgan to the surface of the planet when they received notice that the Earthmen had arrived, and focused on greeting these visitors. After a procession is completed, at the end of this excerpt of the story, he is yelling at Skkiru in an attempt to show his power over him, insisting that Skkiru not think for himself and just abide by the guidelines Bbulas puts forth.


Question: What is the plot of the story involving a peculiar family that encounters unexpected challenges and a mysterious alien presence on a strange planet?

Answer:
 Grampa Peppergrass is an inventor, creator of the gravity polarizer and the space flivver, which have earned him one hundred million dollars. But he invested much of his earnings in perpetual motion machines and longevity pills. Now, the Peppergrass family travels to different planets, searching for radioactive metals that they can exploit to make themselves a fortune. The family consists of four generations of men and their spouses. Apparently, Grandpa, who is 90-years-old, is a widower. His son, Fred, is 60 and married to Joyce. Their son Junior, 35, is married to Reba; they are parents of an eight-year-old genius son known as Four.
	The flivver they travel in was purchased by Grampa, who gave ⅙ ownership to each of the family members. The flivver’s landing is unusually bumpy because the gravity polarizer failed. Through the view screen, they see that the planet has meadows, woodlands, plains, and lakes, and Four announces that it also has fauna before he rushes out the air lock to check it out. The ship has already ascertained that the air is almost like that on Earth, and there are no micro-organisms. When Four returns to the flivver accompanied by the native fauna, Fweep, he announces they are friends. The creature looks like a transparent blob and likes to sweep. Four is curious about what Fweep does with the sweepings since the outer inch or so of his body turns cloudy but clears afterward.
	After Fred and Junior use their scintillation counters to search for heavy metals, they return to the flivver to report there aren’t any, just low-grade iron. The group mulls over what could be making the planet so heavy if it doesn’t have heavy metals, but no one has the answer.
Junior and Fred tell the rest of the family that the gravity polarizer isn’t working and that without it, they will not be able to lift off. Reba looks on the bright side and says they can have more children instead of stopping at one child, as is currently the dictated number on Earth. In the meantime, Four returns from an excursion searching for the center of gravity for the planet and announces that it changes because of Fweep’s presence. The little guy is a circular polarizer, making the planet heavy and preventing their gravity polarizer from working. Fweep is also radioactive and has impervious skin. Joyce is furious that Fweep is making them stay there, and when Grampa jokingly, or as a test, suggests leaving Four behind with Fweep, she immediately goes along with it. Four offers to stay behind with Fweep, who is lonely and likes having a friend so much it doesn’t want to lose Four. Grampa announces that the problem isn’t one that their computer can solve; instead, it’s a logic problem like the ones Four told him earlier.

Answer:
A small, weird spaceship crashes into a meadow with four generations of the Peppergrass family inside. The men are Grampa, (Young) Fred, Junior, and Four. There are two women: Four's mom Reba, and Junior's mom Joyce. There is bickering, as Joyce doesn't think Grampa has spent his money well, and they argue about the role of gravity in their crash, which happened on a search for heavy metals to bring back to Earth.
The air should be safe to breathe, and they spot both plants and animals, so Four wants to rush outside. Junior pulls Fred into a private conversation explaining that something went wrong and their ship now won’t move. When Four gets back, he brings with him a creature named Fweep: a gelatin-like orb about two feet in diameter that is raspberry in color. When he moves across the tile, he cleans it, picking up what he passes over. Joyce is appalled but Reba insists Four should be able to have a friend, so Four focuses on learning how Fweep's ability works. The ship shook when Grampa patted Fweep, and the family discussed a plan. The polarizer on the ship is broken so they might not be able to go anywhere. Grampa insists it can’t be broken, Junior responds that polarization doesn’t work here, so Fred insists on an explanation from Grampa about how gravity polarization works. Joyce insists Grampa doesn't actually know, and expresses her frustration that they aren't just getting rich from finding uranium. They figure they could build a community on the planet, but having more than one child per family is against their laws. As they argue about options, Four uses another contraption to try to find the planet’s center of gravity. The center of gravity shifts when Fweep leaves - he is a circular polarizer, making the planet heavy, conflicting with the linear polarizer of the spaceship, which is why it can't move. Joyce tries to poison Fweep with rat poison but it can’t hurt him, he doesn’t consume what he picks up but rather uses matter to create radioactive substance: this means he has a lot of mass, and it was him their equipment picked up on, not uranium. They talk about how to turn off his gravity, but they don’t know how, and figure he might be immortal. Fred tries to calm Joyce down but she suggest that they appeal to Fweep to let them go. Four says he’d asked already, but Fweep doesn’t want his only friend to leave. The question arises: what if Four stays behind? Junior is found yelling at a computer and doesn’t want Four to stay behind, he refuses to leave his son on a strange planet. Grampa insists that Junior’s computer work won’t help them because it is not a scientific issue, but rather a moral and logical one. The story ends with Fweep and Four coming back from playing in the meadow with the family ready to discuss options.

Answer:
Four generations of the Peppergrass family approach a new planet. They are riding a flivver, a spaceship that was poorly constructed for very little money. The flivver descends on the new planet, stops abruptly before impact, and lands and rocks back and forth in a grassy meadow.

Grampa, the patriarch of the family, gets upset because his logic puzzle, a pircuit, is disrupted by the harsh landing. When his family members tell him to work on his game, he reminds them that he’s the one that invented the gravity polarizer and the flivver. He also boasts that he made one hundred million dollars doing it. Joyce points out that he spent most of the money, and now the family is stuck searching various planets for uranium.

Four, an eight-year-old boy, leaves the ship and returns with a creature that looks like a two-foot sphere made of raspberry flavored Jello. Almost simultaneously, Junior, the pilot, discovers that the polarizer stopped working, and now the flivver won’t move at all. Joyce, Four’s grandmother, tells him to get the blob away immediately, but Four has already named it Fweep because that’s the only word it has said thus far, and he likes it. Fweep begins sweeping the floor, and his body picks up all of the particles that he passes through. When Grampa reaches down to pet the alien, the flivver physically shakes.

Fred reveals that the tests show that Fweep’s planet has no uranium or other heavy metals that would be valuable to the Peppergrass family. They have a difficult time understanding why the planet is so heavy without those resources, and they are all disappointed that the new land will not bring them wealth. They have spent a year on the flivver and they have very little to show for themselves. Worst of all, they are now stuck on Fweep’s planet. After a short discussion, it becomes clear that although Grampa created the polarizer, he has very little knowledge about how it works and how to fix it.

Four discovers that Fweep’s planet has a shifting center of gravity because Fweep himself is a circular polarizer. He is the force that makes the planet heavy. Joyce tries to feed Fweep poison so that the family can leave, but Fweep has zero enzymes and no nervous system. He’s a radioactive being, but it’s unclear what makes him that way. There is no way to kill Fweep because his skin is thicker than lead, and he doesn’t breathe. Four believes he is the only one of his kind and that he is immortal. He reveals that he has been communicating with Fweep, and Fweep has told him that he will not let his family leave because he wants to be Four’s friend. The family considers leaving Four on the planet alone, but his mother won’t have it. Four leaves to play in the meadow with Fweep, and the other family members are left to come up with a solution to the problem.

Answer:
The Peppergrass family is made up of Grampa, their son Fred and his wife Joyce, their son Junior and his wife Reba, and their son Four. The Peppergrass men all looked alike and were currently onboard their Grampa’s flivver which they each hold a share in. Due to Grampa’s poor spending choices, they are currently broke and searching the universe for rare finds or radioactive materials to sell back on Earth. Their rocket, the flivver, lands on this new planet suddenly, as the polarizer gave out when it neared the surface. The men quickly go to investigate it, while Four decides to explore the new planet after looking out the window and discovering both flora and fauna. After reassuring his mother, Four rushes outside, while Junior and Fred discuss the polarizer issue.
Four returns soon after with a gelatinous, dark pink blob with a mouth that calls itself Fweep. His family reacts somewhat negatively, but Four claims that Fweep is his friend. Reba allows Fweep to say and dismisses Joyce in the process. Fweep sweeps and absorbs matter and particulates into his body. He starts cleaning the floors of the spaceship leaving nothing behind.
Grampa and Reba share a quick conversation about her choice to marry Junior. Four attempts to understand Fweep before talking with Grampa about his puzzle circuits. Fweep momentarily absorbed Grampa’s hand before spitting it back out. The flivver shook as it did so. Despite having a similar atmosphere to Earth, this planet was extremely heavy, making it impossible to take off of. They toss around ideas, then come to the conclusion that there’s something different about the gravity here. Four discovers that Fweep is the center of gravity after traipsing all across the planet trying to find it. Fweep is a circular polarizer, not a linear polarizer, so he makes the planet heavy and impossible for the polarizer to work.
Joyce attempts to poison Fweep sometime later, but it doesn’t work. Four reveals all that he’s learned about Fweep and the way it works. After a quick outburst from Joyce, Four says that he’s able to speak to Fweep. Fweep doesn’t want to let them leave because Four is his friend. Joyce suggests leaving Four behind so the rest can leave, which Reba takes great offense to, though Four agrees with Joyce. Grampa and Junior attempt to solve their issue logically while Four and Fweep play outside.


Question: Describe the setting of the story involving a family's unexpected journey to a mysterious planet with peculiar gravity and strange inhabitants.

Answer:
The first setting mentioned in the story is the flivver, a bullet-shaped spaceship that lands vertically on the blunt end. It is made of sheet metal and insulation board. Fully equipped, a flivver sells for $15,730. The flivver has a large central cabin with the pilot’s chair; the control stick is situated between the pilot’s knees, and there is an on/off button for the gravity polarizer. It is also equipped with a computer named Abacus that analyzes data that fed into it. Flivvers have their own power plants that operate their lights, air and water recirculation systems, and food and clothing synthesizers. It also has a storage battery. Off of the central cabin, there are several private rooms. The flivver is owned jointly by the Peppergrass family; Grandpa bought it the ‘23 model and gave everyone ⅙ shares. The flivver also carries devices that can analyze the air and detect microorganisms.
The other setting where the story takes place is on a planet much like Earth, with a diameter smaller than Mercury’s but a gravitational pull as strong as Earth’s. The Peppergrass family calls the world Fweepland since “Fweep” is the sound/word the one organism there says. Fweepland’s air is within 1% of Earth’s air, and there are no microorganisms present. Fweepland features a beautiful landscape with a peaceful green woodland, grassy plains, a meadow, and a blue lake. The only organism they encounter is Fweep, a friendly blob-shaped creature that sweeps over debris and picks it up. The Peppergrass family hopes to find radioactive or heavy metals on the planet, but their scintillation counters only detect low-grade iron. Four points out that while it doesn’t have the metals they are looking for, the planet is very valuable as real estate. Interestingly, the planet’s center of gravity shifts wherever Fweep goes. A day on Fweepland is 16 Earth hours, as that is the length of time it takes for one rotation of the planet.
The story presumably takes place sometime in the 22nd century as Grampa references Einstein’s work “two hundred years ago.” There are some references to life on Earth at this time. Families are only allowed one child; if they have more, they are exiled from civilization. We can also assume that others are traveling into space since Grampa became wealthy from his invention of flivvers and gravity polarizers. People on Earth are trying to lengthen their lives, hence Grampa’s efforts to create longevity pills and his hundred-year contract with the Life-Begins-At-Ninety longevity company.

Answer: There are two settings directly important to the story: one is the planet which the Peppergrass family calls Fweepland, and the other is the spaceship that took them there. Inside the small spaceship are a number of computers that the family interacts with (ones that run puzzles are called pircuit, and the computer that runs the ship is called Abacus). There are personal rooms for the members of the family, and an area to pilot the ship from. Outside of the airlock is the planet the Peppergrass family finds themselves on after the crash: Four refers to it as Fweepland, after the creature he meets who he calls Fweep because "fweep" is the only word the creature seems capable of saying. It has beautiful grassy meadows, one of which was the location of the crash. There are various plants and animals on the planet, but one unique creature named Fweep seems to stand on his own.

Answer:
“The Gravity Business” takes place on the flivver, a spaceship which Grampa designed, and Fweep’s planet. The flivver has been the Peppergrass’s home for about a year at this point. Although Grampa had millions of dollars not that long ago, he spent it all on frivolous inventions, and the family is now forced to search uncolonized planets for uranium or other expensive heavy metals. It is clear that the family members are getting on each others’ nerves after spending so much time together cooped up in a crude contraption that was built for only $15,000.

Fweep’s planet is very similar to Earth, the original home of the Peppergrass family. It is smaller than Mercury, but it has almost the same level of gravity as Earth. The surface is covered with grass and white flowers. Because the planet is unusually heavy for its size, the family believes they may find heavy metals there. However, their instincts are wrong, and the reason the planet is heavy is because Fweep, an alien creature, is polarizing the gravity. At one point, Reba points out that the land is beautiful and fertile, and it really isn’t the worst place to get stuck.

Answer:
The Gravity Business by James E. Gunn takes place on a deserted planet called by the crew the Land of the Fweep or Fweepland. The planet is beautiful, featuring woodlands, prairies, and a blue lake. This green meadow is untouched by any humanity, meaning no buildings, structures, or paved roads. Four is shocked to discover that this planet has both flora and fauna. Each day lasts only 16 Earth hours, significantly shorter than Earth days.
The flivver on which they travel is cramped and bullet-shaped. Its relatively ugly figure is unlike any other rocket ship, but it gets the job done. Built with the polarizer discovered by Grampa, this ship is their last hope in making any money to retire and settle down.
As well, the society in which they lived before only allowed one child per couple, suggesting overpopulation.


Question: Who is Fweep, and what is his significance in the narrative involving a family's unexpected journey on a peculiar planet?

Answer:
Fweep is significant because he is the only creature living on Fweepland. He is a blob-shaped, raspberry-colored, gelatinous, transparent creature who sweeps up the debris that he runs over and engulfs it in his body. After he sweeps up particles, the outer inch or two of his body turns cloudy, then slowly clears. It seems he also absorbs substances from human contact since he follows a crooked path and hiccups after Grampa, who has been imbibing, pats him. He has a pseudo-mouth and makes the sound, or says the word, “Fweep.” His skin is impervious, and he has no enzymes or nervous system, so rat poison has no effect on him. Fweep immediately befriends Four.
	When Four explores Fweepland to identify its center of gravity, he discovers that it shifts because Fweep is a circular polarizer. Fweep is what makes the planet so heavy and prevents the flivver’s gravity polarizer from working so the family can leave. Fweep is slightly radioactive and likely immortal and incapable of reproduction since there is no need to reproduce. Because he has circular polarization, linear polarization is uncomfortable to him, so Fweep turned of the flivver’s gravity polarizer just before they landed. Fweep wants to be helpful, but he doesn’t want Four to leave since Four is the only friend he has ever had. Fweep was lonely before he met Four. Fweep will let the Peppergrass family leave only if Four stays with him. Fweep is responsible for the family’s landing on Fweepland and their predicament of being unable to leave.

Answer: Fweep is a creature that Four finds when the Peppergrass family lands on an unknown planet. He is a gelatin-like orb about two feet in diameter that is raspberry in color, and has something resembling a mouth. However, he has an interesting ability in which he picks up particulates on the ground by rolling around. He calls this sweeping, and we find out later in the story that he is able to convert the materials in what he picks up to create radioactive matter. Because of this ability, he has a very high mass which the Peppergrass family misinterpreted as heavy metals as they were scanning the planet, which is what drew them to the planet in the first place. Fweep is also responsible for the ship's crashing: because of his mass, Fweep is a circular polarizer, which conflicted with the linear polarizer of the spaceship. Fweep and Four become instant friends when they meet, which adds another layer of complication to the relationship that the family has with Fweep. He could let the family return home, which they can't do under his gravitational pull, but Fweep does not want to let the family go if that means that Four would leave him, and Four is his only friend. This presents a moral conundrum to the family: they could return if they leave Four on the planet, but they do not want to leave a family member behind.

Answer:
Fweep is a pink colored blob, and he’s about two-feet wide. He looks like gelatin, and he picks up dust and particles as he moves across the floor of the flivver. The outer couple of inches of his body become cloudy when he does this, and then they clear again. Fweep gets his name because when Four first meets him and brings him back to the flivver, the only word he says is “Fweep?” He is trying to ask Four if he should sweep the spaceship. He wants to be helpful because he has no other friends or family members on his planet.

The family has a difficult time figuring out why their ship’s polarizer won’t work, and Fweep ends up being the culprit. Fweep is a circular polarizer, and he is the reason that the planet is so heavy. He is a being entirely different than anything living on Earth. Four believes he is immortal because he appears to be the only one of his kind. As far as they know, he cannot be killed because he has zero enzymes, no nervous system, his skin is impenetrable, and he doesn’t breathe. Junior uses a special tool to test Fweep’s radioactivity levels, and he finds that the creature is radioactive, although it’s unclear how or why.

When the family’s flivver lands, Fweep does not like the feeling of linear polarization, so he neutralizes it. This causes the spaceship to abruptly fall to the ground. After he meets Four, the eight-year-old genius of the family, he decides that he wants to be his friend. Four asks Fweep if his family can leave the planet, and Fweep tells him he doesn’t want his friend to leave. He enjoys sitting in Four’s lap and even learns the word “fwend.” Fweep won’t allow the flivver’s polarizer to work, so the family cannot leave. He won’t allow the polarizer to work because he wants to stay friends with Four. When the story abruptly comes to an end, the Peppergrass adults are trying to figure out how to solve this problem.

Answer: Fweep is a gelatinous life-form, unlike anything the Peppergrass family has ever seen before. Fweep is slightly radioactive after having absorbed much of the radioactive substances found on this planet. He can also convert ordinary matter into a radioactive substance. Fweep is unstable, unshootable, and unable to be poisoned. Fweep does not breathe, so he is unable to be suffocated or drowned. As well, Fweep may be immortal, since there are no other of his kind. Since he’s the only one of his kind, he’s very lonely and latches onto Four as soon as he arrives. Fweep controls the gravity of Fweepland, and uses circular gravity not linear gravity. His powers are extraordinary and completely unknown.


Question: Who is Four, and what is his significance in the story that revolves around a family exploring a mysterious planet with unexpected challenges?

Answer: Four is the highly intelligent, eight-year-old youngest member of the Peppergrass family. Although he is the youngest, he is the one who figures out the answers to why Fweepland is so heavy and how Fweep disables the flivver’s gravity polarizer. As a child, he is more impulsive than the adults, for example rushing outside to meet Fweep when the others stay back, but this enables him to solve problems and answer questions faster. On the other hand, his lack of experience prevents him from solving the ultimate problem of how to leave the planet, but his riddles and comment that creating a puzzle means you already know the solution trigger an idea for Grampa that may help solve the family’s dilemma. By befriending Fweep so readily, Four discovers that Fweep is responsible for the planet’s “fake” heaviness and the failure of the flivver’s gravity polarizer. He also studies Fweep and determines his significant characteristics such as his impervious skin, lack of enzymes, and radioactivity. While the adults discuss and bemoan the fact that they cannot leave Fweepland, Four goes out and tries to identify the planet’s center of gravity and therefore discovers that Fweep affects the planet’s gravity and that he is a circular polarizer. At the end of the story, Junior even relies on Four to find out why the computer won’t work. Not only is Four a problem solver and investigator, but he is also logical and selfless. He realizes that Fweep doesn’t want him to leave and is willing to stay behind with Fweep so that the rest of his family can leave.

Answer: Four is the youngest of the Peppergrass family, the son of Junior and Reba. He is eight years old, and due to his unusual upbringing living on a ship with his family, does not have many friends of his own. When the family crash-lands on a planet, he discovers a creature who he calls Fweep and the two instantly become friends. Four seems to understand the creatures when he talks, and can interpret his requests. Four is a curious child, and wants to solve the problem of why the ship can't go anywhere after it crash landed, so he took Fweep on an adventure to find the center of gravity of the planet. It is Four who discovers that Fweep is the center of gravity, and it is the fact that this point shifts that makes the gravity (and thus, the polarization) so unpredictable. It is also Four who aims to learn more about the planet outside of the ship, and not just about the problems on the ship itself, and it is this perspective that drives any progress they made. Besides learning about the moving center of gravity, he learns about the way Fweep picks things up as he rolls over them, and investigates how he converts matter and what his outer shell might be contributing to the distribution of energy. After discovering that Fweep is responsible for the gravity of the planet, things get more complicated. Four is at the center of a moral conundrum at the end of the story: if the family wants to return home, they have to appeal to Fweep, who controls the polarization on the planet. However, Fweep's terms are that Four would have to stay behind, because he does not want his only friend to leave.

Answer: Four is an eight-year-old genius and a member of the Peppergrass family. He is pale, has a thin face, and acts much, much older than he is. His mother is Reba and his father is Junior. His parents are concerned about his lack of friends and socialization. He truly acts like an adult, and it seems as though he never got to have a normal childhood. When his Grampa struggles to figure out his logic puzzle, Four solves it for him in mere moments. He then comes up with another puzzle for his Grampa to solve, and he even offers to build him a pircuit board with a few parts that he has laying around the flivver. Four is very excited to meet his new friend Fweep, and it’s clear that he does not want to immediately come clean about Fweep being the reason the family’s spaceship can’t take off. Since he has had so few friends in his life, the pink blob that follows him around means a lot to him, especially since he actually tells Four that he wants to be his friend. If it were up to Four, the family would probably stay on Fweep's planet and colonize the fertile land. However, several of the family members are completely against this idea, and Reba refuses to leave her son behind so that the spaceship can take off again. They are in this conundrum when the story ends.

Answer: Four is the youngest of the Peppergrass men and perhaps one of the smartest. Despite his young age, he is very intelligent and understanding of the world of rocketships and interplanetary travel. His mother, Reba, worries after him, especially since he doesn’t have any friends to play with or a school to attend. He creates games for his Grampa to solve and puzzle circuits as well. However, when they land on this new planet, he quickly makes a friend in Fweep. After discovering that the planet’s gravity is attached to Fweep and therefore circular, he effectively discovered the true issue at hand. It was not the polarizer that was keeping them trapped, it was Fweep. Four nobly offers to stay behind with Fweep, so the rest can leave and Fweep won’t be lonely. All Fweep wants is a friend, and Four is happy to be that friend.


Question: Describe Joyce and her role in the story, which revolves around a family navigating challenges on an unfamiliar planet and dealing with an unusual alien entity.

Answer: Joyce is Junior’s mother and Fred’s wife and is nearly sixty years old; she is still in good shape: slender, elegant, and attractive. However, she is described as having ice water instead of blood in her veins because she is such a cold-hearted woman much of the time. Joyce creates most of the tension in the story; she is frequently at odds with Grampa and says whatever she thinks, no matter how rude or hurtful it is. She presents as a spoiled, self-centered woman who only wants lots of money. Grampa’s inventions made him a multimillionaire, but she accuses him of wasting the money on new inventions and making it so that they had to travel the galaxy searching for uranium and other habitable worlds. When Grampa tells her he has set some money aside and she’ll be sorry when he’s dead, she responds that he’ll never die. And she knows he bought a hundred-year contract with the Life-Begins-At-Ninety longevity company. Joyce is eager to get her hands on some of Grampa’s money and resents that he is using some of it to carry out his research. When Four brings Fweep aboard the flivver, she is thoroughly disgusted and insists he take it back out; when Reba stands up for Four and Fweep and calls Joyce Grammy, Joyce is furious and goes into her private room. Later, she even tries to poison Fweep by leaving rat poison on the floor. When the men return from checking Fweepland for heavy metals or radioactive elements, she eagerly comes out of her room and immediately asks if they had found any uranium, radium, or thorium. Their negative answer again draws her ire and shows her greed. She complains to Fred that they are all supposed to get filthy rich finding radioactives and retire on Earth as billionaires. She resents the year they have spent looking for radioactives. When she learns that Fweep is the reason they can’t leave the planet, her first reaction is to kill him, and when she learns that killing him isn’t possible, she readily and seriously agrees to Grampa’s joke that they should leave Four behind so the rest of them can leave. Again, Joyce only wants what is best for her, and she is ready to kill or abandon anyone who stands in her way.

Answer: Joyce is the mother of Junior, an almost-60-year old woman who is very cold and bitter in most of her interactions with the rest of the family. She constantly berates Grampa for how he spends his money and what he may or may not understand about science, especially the polarizer. She is appalled when she encounters Fweep for the first time, but Reba stands up for Four and Fweep and reminds Joyce that she can always go to her room to stay away from it. Joyce just wanted to gain money by finding radioactive material on their journey, but getting rich seems to be her only goal so she is not entertained by the interesting distractions that the rest of the crew find endearing or curious. She makes fun of Grampa for happening upon the right configuration to build a successful polarizer and says his skill and scientific knowledge had nothing to do with his "accidental" success. Joyce is the only one who is potentially serious about leaving Four behind on the planet in return for the ability to leave, and people do not usually stand up to her--when Reba stands up for Four's right to have Fweep as a friend, the rest of the family is surprised, and even in awe. Joyce even tries to poison Fweep by leaving out rat poison before she learns that he cannot be affected by it. In general, she is angry or hysterical and is always antagonistic, and acts as the main source of conflict in the family.

Answer: Joyce is Grampa’s wife and Four’s grandmother, but she refuses to be called by that name. Although she is almost sixty years old, she is still thin and beautiful. However, she is also very difficult to get along with. She openly blames her husband for spending all of their money and essentially ruining their lives, and she tells the rest of the family members his secret about purchasing some type of contract that will extend his life. When Grampa tries to explain how the polarizer works, Joyce immediately pipes up and tells everyone that he is just a tinkerer and has no idea what he’s talking about. Despite the fact that he invented the polarizer and the flivver they are using to travel, she gives him zero credit. Joyce hates living on the flivver and traveling to all sorts of different planets to search for heavy metals. She would much rather be on Earth. When she meets Fweep, she is disgusted and wants him as far away as possible. After she finds out that Fweep is the reason the ship is stuck on the unknown planet, she actually tries to feed the alien rat poison, but it doesn’t work. Joyce would most likely leave Four, a young child, behind to fend for himself on a planet he’s never before visited, but her daughter-in-law Reba will not allow the family to take off without Four.

Answer: Joyce is Fred’s wife and prone to tantrums. She is often upset when things don’t go her way and more blunt than may be considered socially acceptable. For example, she is the first to suggest that they leave Four behind so the rest can escape, much to Reba’s horror. As well, she’s upset when Fweep is first introduced to the family circle, especially since his presence forces her to retreat. Joyce often causes conflict, tension, and drama throughout the story with her survivalist attitude and unfortunately unpleasant attitude.


Question: What is the plot of the story that revolves around a man's frustrating day as he attempts to propose to his girlfriend, only to find himself caught in a bizarre situation involving a spy and an elevator malfunction?

Answer:
      It was one of those days when everything that could go wrong, goes wrong. Edmund Rice, the main character, has decided to propose to his girlfriend, Linda on the day when the story takes place, but at breakfast, he broke his egg yolk; he had a stuck zipper; he had feedback in the aircon exhaust; and his window stuck at full transparency. On top of all that, the elevator is late. Edmund’s girlfriend is a dispatcher for ore-sled robots; when one doesn’t return on time, they know that the robot has been been captured and therefore blown itself up. As a result, Linda is a real stickler for punctuality because if Edmund is late, as he was once before, she goes into hysterics thinking that something horrible has happened to him.
     When the elevator doesn’t come, Edmund goes back to his apartment to call Linda to let her know why he will be late, but she has set her phone not to accept calls since she was expecting Edmund to come propose to her. Edmund decides to complain to the Transit Staff, who give him the official statement that the elevator is disconnected, but when Edmund explains that the late elevator is ruining his life, the operator takes pity on him and secretly tells him there is a spy on the elevator who won’t get off, and the Army might have to starve him to make him exit. Finally, at 10:15, Edmund thinks of taking the stairs, but when he does, the spy intercepts him, forcing him at gunpoint back to Edmund’s apartment. At this point, Edmund gives up on reaching Linda.
     The spy tells Edmund he doesn’t want to hurt him and begins a conversation, asking what Edmund does for a living. Because Edmund doesn’t want the spy to know that he teaches gymnastics and knows wrestling, judo, and karati, he lies and tells him he is an ore-sled operator, figuring he can pull off the ruse since he knows a lot about Linda’s job. This piques the spy’s interest, and he asks what Edmund knows about the radiation level of the ore-sleds when they return. Edmund says they don’t check for radiation before de-radiating the sled; there’s no point. The spy is irritated that Edmund doesn’t even care about the radiation level outside the Project and compares the Projects to caves.
The spy goes on to tell Edmund he isn’t a spy, that he is an atomic engineer from a Project 80 miles north. He traveled to Edmund’s Project on foot without any kind of radiation shield to prove that the radiation level is so low that it is safe for people to leaves the Projects. He is trying to get the word out, but people don’t believe him because their Commissions tell them the radiation level is still high and that it isn’t safe to go outside. Edmund thinks the man is a lunatic and doesn’t believe any of the ludicrous claims he makes.

Answer:
Edmund Rice lives in one of the Projects and has finally decided to propose to his girlfriend for a Non-P marriage. He set the time with her before, 10 o’clock sharp, and prepared himself that morning. He steps outside his apartment with a few minutes to spare but soon realizes that the elevator isn’t working. He waits for a minute or two, starting to freak out, then rushes inside to call Linda and warn her. She hates tardiness because of her job as an ore-sled dispatcher, and he didn’t want to upset her on the big day. Her landline was disconnected for privacy’s sake, so he couldn’t let her know. He runs back to the elevator and keeps trying, but to no avail. Officially late, he goes back to his apartment and calls the Transit Staff. A young woman picks up and robotically tells him that the elevator will be back in service soon. He yells at her, eventually explaining why she has ruined his life, and she responds sympathetically, clearly a romantic. She leans forward and tells him the truth: there’s a spy in the elevator. He is in shock, but she explains the whole situation and how they’re worried they’ll have to starve him out. Finished, she hangs up, and Edmund runs back to the elevator in the hopes that they successfully removed him.
He is saddened to find it still not working, so he decides to take the stairs, which no one does. A few landings down, he sees a door with faint lettering on it, explaining that this once led to the elevator shaft. He wonders briefly why no one is guarding it, and then suddenly the spy comes out of the door. The spy holds a gun up to his head and tells him to stay quiet and take him back to his room. They return to the 153rd floor, and Edmund harbors him in his apartment. The spy asks for a cup of Chico coffee, which saddens Edmund as he only gets two cups a day. Edmund lies about his identity and pretends he’s an ore-sled dispatcher, like Linda. He is, in fact, a gymnast instructor with martial arts abilities, but he wants to have the advantage of surprise should the situation take a violent turn.
They chat while Edmund makes him the coffee, and the spy grows agitated and manic. He tries to explain to Edmund that he’s not really a spy. He actually came from another Project 80 miles away on foot. He is the proof that the radiation levels outside have dramatically decreased, making it safe for humans to go outside again. However, the Commission doesn’t want the world to know that as then they would quickly go out of business. The spy reveals he’s an atomic engineer, and the story ends on a slight cliffhanger.

Answer: In the years following World War III, atomic radiation and rapid population growth had led nations to develop vertically rather than horizontally, and people lived together in massive high-rises called Projects where they could live, work, and play while never having to go Outside and face the dangers of radiation. Only ore-sleds and spies leave the buildings--the ore-sleds to gather essential raw materials impossible to produce in the Projects, and the spies to visit other Projects to learn about potential attacks on their home Project. Edmund Rice is a gymnast instructor who lives on the hundred fifty-third floor of one of these Projects. He plans to propose Non-Permanent marriage to his girlfriend Linda, who is an ore-sled dispatcher obsessed with punctuality. The morning of his planned proposal, set for 10:00 sharp, Edmund goes to the elevator to travel down to Linda's hundred fortieth floor and discovers the elevator is unresponsive. He continues pressing the button to no avail. He runs back to his apartment to alert Linda and discovers her phone has a "privacy disconnection" notice, probably placed because Linda expected Edmund's proposal. When the elevator continuously fails to arrive, Edmund calls the Transit Staff to inquire what is going wrong. The staff person informs him that a spy has penetrated the Project force-screen and is barricading himself in the elevator. Using manual controls, the spy wields the elevator like a projectile weapon against any soldier that approaches. Stunned, Edmund makes a last-ditch effort to reach Linda. He uses the stairs, an option he hasn't taken since he was a young child. A few flights down, he sees an emergency exit from the elevator, and the spy emerges from it. The spy holds him at gun point and leads him back to his apartment, where the two men share a coffee. The spy reveals he is not a spy at all; rather, he is a trained atomic engineer who claims radiation levels have reduced to such an extent that people may now safely venture Outside. The reason this is not common knowledge is because the Commission suppresses the truth so that is may keep making money from the continued operation of the Projects.

Answer:
Some time after the year 2100, humans live in vertical buildings called Projects that are completely isolated from each other and nations unto themselves. Decades ago, the Ungentlemanly Gentleman's War involved so much atomic bombing that the radiation levels outside are said to be too unsafe for humans. The Projects are all suspicious of each other, supposedly sending spies out to see whether attacks are being planned. There hasn’t been an attack in decades, and the external threats largely just exist as fears in the minds of the people.
Edmund Rice leaves his 153rd floor apartment in his Project at five minutes to ten to propose to an ore-sled dispatcher who lives on the 144th floor that he is deeply in love with named Linda. He plans to propose a Non-P marriage (Non-Permanent, No Progeny) since neither of them are genetically desirable enough to have children in their society, and he knows that Linda wants to keep her independence. The ten o’clock time of the appointment is significant because Linda is so punctual that Edmund believes she will not marry him if he is late. However, the elevator is not working and does not respond to pressing the button and kicking the door. Becoming frantic, he runs back to his apartment and calls Linda, but she does not answer. She likely disconnected her phone because she wanted to have no interruptions when Edmund arrived. He furiously calls the Transit Staff to file a complaint, and tells the woman that his life has been ruined. She feels bad for him and tells him secret information that there is a spy in the elevator and that the Army thinks they may have to starve him out. Edmund then realizes he can take an ancient thing called the stairs. He rushes to the staircase even though it is already quarter past ten and races down. He spots a door to the elevator shaft on the landing between the 150th and 149th floors, and a man -the spy- bursts out of it. The spy uses a gun to threaten Edmund and forces him to take them both back to hide in Edmund’s apartment to lose the Army that had been racing up the stairs behind them. In the apartment, the spy asks Edmund to make him a cup of coffee and begins a conversation, acting like a maniac in Edmund’s perception at times. The spy reveals he is an atomic engineer who worked on the reactor in his own Project. He calculated that the radiation from the war decades ago must have subsided, and it would be safe for humans to leave the Projects and resume progress on other advances like space travel. The Commission would not let him test the theory, so he risked his life by traveling outside to determine if it was indeed true. His survival of the crossing is proof that the radiation is low enough for humans to survive outside, and Edmund can hardly believe what he is hearing.


Question: Who is Linda, and what is her significance in the story about a man's frantic day as he tries to reach a pivotal moment in his relationship while facing unexpected obstacles?

Answer:
     Linda is the woman to whom Edmund intends to propose. She is the reason Edmund is trying to get on the elevator and why he ultimately decides to take the stairs, leading him to meet the spy. Linda’s job as an ore-sled operator has left her high-strung when it comes to punctuality. She sends robots out with ore-sleds, and when they don’t return on time, they know that the robot has been captured and has blown itself up to prevent other Projects from learning their technology secrets. Once when Edmund was late for a date with her, Linda worked herself into hysterics, and when he did show up, she refused to speak to Edmund for four days.
	Edmund has spent months building up the courage to propose to Linda, and the day he plans to do it, everything goes awry, making him run late. But he still reaches the elevator in time to reach Linda’s place thirteen stories below his level on time, except the elevator doesn’t come. The longer he waits for the elevator car, the more anxious Edmund grows, knowing that Linda will be so upset if he is late he won’t get to propose.
	Edmund loves Linda and would like to have a permanent marriage, but he realizes that Linda enjoys her freedom and independence too much to agree to a permanent marriage. Edmund will settle for a Non-P marriage with her: Non-Permanent, No Progeny.
	Linda anticipates Edmund’s proposal when he calls that morning to invite himself to her apartment. He can tell by her smile on the phone. In preparation for the proposal, Linda has set her phone to PRIVACY DISCONNECTION to prevent their proposal from being interrupted, but this also means that Edmund cannot reach her to let her know he is running late and why. Edmund is convinced that she won’t speak to him again after being late for the proposal and certainly will not accept his proposal. In a last-ditch effort to reach Linda, Edmund decides he can take 208 stairs to reach her, even though he hasn’t taken the stairs since he was 12 years old. This decision, of course, puts him in the path to run into the spy.
	Finally, Linda’s job helps Edmund believe he can overtake the spy if he can catch him off guard. Edmund knows enough about her job to talk about it with the spy, keeping his knowledge of wrestling, judo, and karate secret until he can make his move.

Answer:
Linda is Edmund Rice’s fianceé-to-be and current girlfriend. They have been together presumably for quite some time, as he knows quite a bit about her. Her one flaw, as he likes to say, is her absolute adherence to punctuality. Edmund recalls when he was late to meet her by a few minutes, and she broke down in tears thinking he had died. Her adherence comes from her job as an ore-sled dispatcher; when an ore-sled doesn’t return, it means the sled has been captured or destroyed. Linda is a very independent woman and, according to Edmund, would never into a long-term marriage, only a Non-P marriage (Non-Permanent and No Progeny).
Linda is significant to the story because she provides the basis for conflict. Edmund is on his way to propose to Linda when he realizes the elevator is stuck. He realizes he will be late and freaks out, which leads him on the path to running into the so-called spy.

Answer: Linda is Edmund Rice's girlfriend who works as an ore-dispatcher at the same Project where Edmund lives. She lives on Floor 140 while Edmund lives on 153, and he frequently visits her using the local elevator. Due to the nature of her work, Linda has developed an obsession with punctuality, and she cannot handle the smallest deviation from set appointment times. Once, she and Edmund had first started dating, Edmund arrived at her apartment five minutes late to find Linda in complete hysterics; she thought Edmund had been killed. When Edmund explained he had simply been late, she didn't speak to him for four days. This explains Edmund's panic when the elevator fails to arrive the morning he plans to propose to Linda at 10:00 precisely. Linda anticipates the proposal, so she switches her phone to "privacy disconnection" mode in order to prevent them from being disturbed when Edmunds pops the question. Although Edmund will not admit that he loves Linda in more than a Non-Permanent way, he understands that Linda cherishes her freedom and independence, so he plans for his proposal to be of the Non-Permanent, No Progeny variety.

Answer:
Linda is an ore-sled dispatcher, and after three years working in the profession has become quite obsessed with punctuality. If the ore-sleds aren’t on time, nobody waits for them. They are assumed to be blown up or captured by other Projects. She does not accept tardiness with ease, and once gave Edmund Rice the silent treatment for four days when he was late to meet her. She is in a relationship with Edmund, and expects that he will propose marriage to her when he tells her he has something important to talk about.
She is significant to the story because her punctuality places great stress on Edmund when he knows he will be late. This causes him to frantically panic when the elevator is not working, and resort to using the stairwell to attempt to meet with her before their relationship deteriorates beyond repair. Linda’s reaction to tardiness is very strict, evidenced when Edmund describes to the Transit Staff when he files a complaint about the elevator that they have ruined his life and that Linda will no longer speak to him or even consider marrying him. Because Linda means so much to Edmund, he continues to try to get to her even when he knows he is over 15 minutes late. Trying the stairwell as his final effort to be with Linda causes him to run into the spy escaping the elevator shaft, which is the climax of the story. It is not revealed what happens between Linda and Edmund in the end.


Question: In a story about a man's chaotic day filled with personal mishaps and an unexpected encounter, describe the physical and social settings of the story.

Answer:
The story takes place some time after the year 2100, after World Wars I, II, and III have been fought. Due to the population explosion, by 2000, everyone lived in Projects. These Projects are vertically expanded buildings housing people on floors numbering up to two hundred; the Projects are self-contained and self-sufficient. The people in them do not have to go outside where they fear radiation from atomic bombs used in the wars still exists. The Projects provide restaurants, shopping centers, baby-sitting services, dry cleaners, schools, churches, factories, etc. Food is grown hydroponically. The Projects are protected by force screens that deflect the radiation and all have their own armies that are supposed to protect them from spies from other Projects.
	The Projects have advanced technology. Telephones have visual capability that allows callers to see each other; this is how Edmund knows that Linda anticipates his proposal. They have robots that mine and collect ore using ore-sleds. The robots are equipped to self-detonate if they are captured.
	The Projects are suspicious of each other because so many treaties were broken during the Ungentlemanly Gentleman’s War, so Projects aren’t willing to expose themself to the possible dangers of reaching out or allying with other Projects. The Army practices Eternal Vigilance and Instant Preparedness in case of danger, allowing the people in the Projects to just live their lives.The Treaty of Oslo provides a sense of safety because it means that Projects will not be bombed in case of war.
	Socially, not all marriages are intended to be permanent, especially if the couple is not genetically desirable. There is a Non-P marriage option in this case: Non-Permanent and No Progeny. In Non-P marriages, people contract to marry for a short term, such as one or two years. People are also scared of strangers; hence, the man in the elevator is deemed a spy before anyone even speaks with him.

Answer:
The Spy in the Elevator by Donald E. Westlake takes place in the century after the year 2000. After the third of the Ungentelamnly Wars, AKA World War III, Earth was scorched and full of radiation. The remaining population moved into self-sustaining Projects that feature 200+ floors of residential housing, churches, gyms, cafés, and even a hydroponic farm in the basement. Humans were locked away due to the deadly levels of radiation outside due to the tactical atomic bombings. Each Project defends itself with an Army and various equipment as no one is sure whether or not another Project will attack.
The Project that Edmund Rice and Linda live in has 200 floors and features all the normal amenities. The elevator, however, is the main source of travel, and no one uses the stairs anymore. Edmund’s room is modest, and he receives a small supply of food daily to prevent any waste.

Answer: The Projects had been developed as a result of population booms and the Treaty of Oslo following Word War III, cheekily called the Ungentlemanly Gentleman's War by Edmunds Intermediate Project History teacher Dr. Kilbillie. Prior to 1900, everyone lived in small, one-to-five-story homes. By the year 2000, everyone lived in the giant high-rises called Projects, also known as apartments or co-ops. The Projects were several hundred stories tall and were essential compact nations that included restaurants, shopping centers, baby-sitting services, dry cleaners, etc. Eventually, the Projects became self-sustaining and added schools, churches, factories, robot ore-sleds, etc. The Treaty of Oslo disallowed deployment of strategic atomic weapons and only permitted the use of tactical weapons, which resulted in the world's current state of omnipresent radiation. In the years since, no one has left the buildings to go Outside, except the ore-sleds that seek out raw materials and the spies that invade the protective force-screens to seek out information about potential attacks from other Projects. The residents have developed a level of comfort with life in the Projects, even though they are only allotted a certain amount of food each day and can never leave. Later, the "spy" posits that the residents are being fed lies by the Commission, which runs the Projects and profits from their operation.

Answer:
After the year 2100, humans live in Projects, which are self-sufficient vertical buildings that essentially govern themselves. Raw materials come in and out on ore-sleds and the humans in the Projects have no contact with the outside world. Vertical living became the norm because population explosion meant there was no more horizontal space for people to expand into. Then, with the onset of nuclear warfare in the Ungentlemanly Gentleman's War, the only safety for the public was to stay inside their residence in the Projects because of the Treaty of Oslo, which stipulates that in this era of atomic weapons, civilians are not to be targeted.
There has been so much atomic bombing that the radiation levels outside are said to be too unsafe for humans to endure. The Projects are suspicious of each other planning attacks, and there is high alert for spies from nearby projects infiltrating the building. The people within the Projects live in fear of atomic attacks, though they do not question the accuracy of what they have been told. There hasn’t been an attack in decades, and this threat is largely now just a fear in the minds of the people. They go on with their daily lives, not checking to see if the radiation from the outside remains too high to go outdoors, but just believing what they are told.
In one Project, on the 153rd floor lives Edmund Rice in a nicely appointed apartment building, with a video calling service he can use to dial other residents and the building Transit Staff, and he receives allotted rations of food just as all of the other residents do. The love of his life that he wishes to propose Non-P marriage to, Linda, lives on the 144th floor of the same building. There is a local elevator that serves the higher floors that Edmund frequently uses, though it is out of order due to a spy jamming its controls and hiding inside it. There is a stairwell next to the elevator, and on a landing between the 150th and 149th floor there is a small door to the elevator shaft.
The spy - an atomic engineer from a neighboring Project - has discovered that the radiation is actually low outside and it is now safe for humans to venture out. However, for Edmund and many others, the Project is all that they know, and the idea of going outside is radically against what they have been conditioned to believe.


Question: What is the significance of the unexpected situation with the spy in the elevator?

Answer:
The spy thwarts Edmund’s planned proposal to Linda, but on a larger scale, he threatens the entire way of life in the Projects. The spy in the elevator isn’t really a spy, but the Army claims he is. It is in the interest of the Army and the Commissions of the Projects for people to believe that the radiation level outside the Projects is too high for people to survive because keeping people fearful keeps them in the Projects and needful of the Army and Commission. The people in the Projects are taught to be fearful of other Projects who might come and try to learn their secrets, military, technology, or otherwise. The Army is trying to capture the spy who has holed himself up in the elevator and is planning to starve him out if necessary. The spy uses logic to try to convince Edmund that he isn’t really a spy, that the Projects don’t really need to worry about spies, and that the Projects aren’t really needed at all.
	The spy is actually an atomic engineer from a Project about 80 miles north of Edmund’s. He suspected that the radiation levels after the atomic war have dropped low enough to be safe for people to go outside the Projects. When he asks his Commission to be allowed to study this, he is refused. The Commission knows that if people can leave the Projects, there would be no need for the Commission. To secretly test his theory, the spy left his Project and walked all the way to Edmund’s project without a radiation shield. He is fine, and he is trying to convince the people in the Projects that it is safe to go outside; he compares the Projects to caves and the people to cavemen. He claims that the Projects are stunting society’s progress by keeping everyone “locked down.”

Answer: The first conflict is caused by the spy in the elevator, as he prevents Edmund from visiting and therefore proposing to Linda on time. This causes a chain of events that leads to their eventual meeting and Edmund’s partial captivity. While he harbors the alleged spy in his room after running into him on the stairwell, the spy reveals that he is not a spy at all. He came from a Project 80 miles away and walked to this one on foot. He claims the radiation levels are back to a healthy level and that they have been for years. He believes that the Commission is hiding the truth from people, because, if they knew, the Projects would go out of business, as people are not allowed to leave them for their own health and safety.

Answer: When Edmund realizes the unmoving elevator is going to make him late for his proposal to Linda, he calls the Transit Staff. The staff person reveals to Edmund that a spy has barricaded himself in the elevator and with the help of manual controls is using it as a projectile against anyone who tries to get near him. Edmund had heard of spies going between Projects to try to learn information about any planned attacks, but he is surprised and scared to discover that a spy has managed to penetrate his Project's force-screen. He wonders what this will mean for the overall safety of the Project, but he doesn't dwell on this too long because he still needs to get to Linda. He makes his way down the stairs and encounters a small door, which turns out to be an emergency exit from the elevator shaft. The spy opens the shaft and orders Edmund to lead him back to his apartment at gunpoint. In the apartment, the spy demands coffee, and the two men talk. Edmund claims to be an ore-sled dispatcher, and the spy inquires if the dispatchers check radiation levels when the sleds return from a supply run. Edmund scoffs at this idea, claiming that there would be no point in doing so since the radiation is purged prior to entering the force-screen. The spy reveals himself to be an atomic engineer and tells Edmund that the Project defenses, as well as the claims of toxic radiation levels Outside, are nothing more than a smokescreen, a way to keep the residents of the Projects content to live inside and never venture out. He posits the Commission is responsible for this deception because they want to continue profiting from the operation of the Projects.

Answer: The spy is discovered on the 147th floor of Edmund’s building, and runs into the elevator before the Army can catch him. The spy plugs the manual controls of the elevator so that he can’t be caught, and runs the elevator up and down the shaft if anyone tries to enter the car through the shaft. After he bursts out of the elevator shaft door into the stairwell and forces Edmund to take him back to his apartment to hide, we learn the real story of the spy. He is actually an atomic engineer from another Project where he was in charge of their reactor. He thought the radiation from the war decades ago would likely be so low now that it would be safe for humans to leave the Projects and go outside. However, the Commission would not let him test the theory, so he risked his life to travel to a nearby Project to find out for himself. Because he survived the crossing outside, it is now safe for humans to resume activities outside. This is very significant, because Edmund’s conditioning has him believe that there is no reason to question why they can’t go outside and that there is not going to be a life outside the Project. The spy gives Edmund a reason to believe that what he has been told by the Commission is untrue. Also, the ability of the spy to penetrate so deeply into the project undetected is a significant concern to Edmund, who considers the reliability of the safeguards to keep the people safe from outside enemies.