The Ministry for the Future

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

“Evaluation of the Facts”

In this activity, students will evaluate the factual basis of claims in Robinson’s book and reflect on how this evaluation impacts their understanding of and appreciation for the book as a whole.

Robinson’s novel offers some plausible-sounding solutions to climate change—but are they based in fact? In this activity, you will choose one of the key solutions presented in the novel and then create a presentation that evaluates its factual basis.

Choose a Claim

Review the text and choose one of the climate change solutions that it seems to endorse. Then, complete research into real-world facts that might shed light on whether this is or is not a realistic solution. The list below offers some angles to consider in evaluating various solutions. (You are not limited to this list; you may research any information you think is relevant.)

• How central banks work
• How currencies work
• How blockchains work
• How social media sites operate
• Data as an economic product
• The scientific feasibility of the glacier plan
• The scientific feasibility of the Pinatubo plan
• The difficulty of changing human values systems
• Scalability problems
• The relationships between governments and oil companies
• Design obstacles to environmentally friendly cities and farms

Create Your Presentation

Create a presentation that uses text and images to evaluate the realism of the solution you chose. Your presentation should comply with the following:

• Be 2-3 minutes in length.
• Offer both quoted and paraphrased material from Robinson’s book to support your interpretation of the proposed solution.
• Make a clear statement about how realistic this solution is.
• Offer support for your evaluation from reputable sources.
• Cite sources of all borrowed material—words, images, data.

Post-Presentation Reflection

After you share your presentation with your small group, write two paragraphs of reflection. In the first, explain what you learned from your peers’ presentations. In the second, explore how this activity impacts your understanding of and appreciation for Robinson’s book. Be sure to offer specific supporting details in each paragraph.

Teaching Suggestion: Students will need access to the internet in order to perform research and create their presentations. When they are ready to present their conclusions, you can control how long the small-group portion of the activity will take by reducing or expanding group size. After students have finished their reflections, you can extend this activity if desired by discussing with students the standard of accuracy books like Robinson’s, which present themselves as a kind of fiction-nonfiction hybrid, should be held to. You might introduce terms such as “verisimilitude” and “false document” as part of a discussion of the techniques Robinson employs in creating this hybrid form and ask how these techniques impact the reader’s expectations of accuracy.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students with visual impairments may not be able to complete this assignment as written. A reasonable alternative assignment would be to write several paragraphs of evaluation that convey the same information as required in the description of presentations above.

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

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

Scaffolded Essay Questions

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

1. The Ministry for the Future uses several different narrative perspectives to tell its story.

• What does this narrative strategy convey about the complexity of the climate change crisis? (topic sentence)
• Offer at least three pieces of evidence from different places in the book that substantiate your interpretation of the way that the shifting narrative perspectives contribute to the reader’s understanding of the complexity of the climate change crisis. Analyze each piece of evidence in support of your topic sentence.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, briefly connect the shifting narrative perspectives to the book’s thematic concerns with The War for Earth: Confronting Climate Change and The Death of Capitalism.

2. Ganymede, a 1952 sculpture by Hermann Hubacher, functions as an important symbol in this novel.

• What does the statue symbolize? (topic sentence)
• Discuss your rationale for this representation. Provide at least three pieces of evidence to support your interpretation.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, briefly explain how the symbol of the statue supports the book’s thematic concern with The War for Earth: Confronting Climate Change.

3. Several chapters in this text take forms like riddles or anthropomorphized narration by inanimate objects such as carbon.

• How does the inclusion of atypical chapters like these impact the novel’s tone? (topic sentence)
• Discuss your rationale in 2-3 points. Provide evidence from the text to substantiate your topic sentence.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, evaluate the appropriateness of these chapters in a novel attempting to make a serious critique of capitalism and global efforts to deal with climate change.

Full Essay Assignments

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

1. One of the most well-developed characters in The Ministry for the Future is Frank. How does the novel characterize him? How are his experiences and reactions meant to impact the reader? To what degree does Frank function as a kind of reader stand-in? Write an essay in which you analyze the intended impact of Frank’s character. Show how this supports one of more of the book’s primary thematic interests: The War for Earth: Confronting Climate Change, The Death of Capitalism, and Words Versus Actions. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the novel, making sure to cite any quoted material.

2. The phrase “It’s only fate” recurs several times in this novel. Who says this, and under what circumstances? Is this phrase meant to convey the same idea each time it is used? At other times, characters claim that there is “no such thing as fate.” What distinguishes these characters from those who seem to believe in fate? How do the novel’s plot details, characterizations, and language convey to the reader whether or not the novel as a whole is endorsing the idea of fate? Write an essay analyzing the novel’s stance on fate. Show how the idea of fate is intertwined with one or more of the book’s primary thematic interests: The War for Earth: Confronting Climate Change, The Death of Capitalism, and Words Versus Actions. Support your assertions with both quoted and paraphrased evidence drawn from throughout the novel, making sure to cite all quoted material.

3. As the narrator reflects on the COP process, they claim that “[w]ords are gossamer in a world of granite” (Chapter 70). What does this analogy convey about the relative power and permanence of words and actions? Does the novel seem to be positing a Words Versus Actions tension in which only one of the two has value, or is the relationship between words and actions portrayed as more complex than this? How do the novel’s plot details, characterizations, and language contribute to the reader’s understanding of this relationship? Write an essay in which you analyze this analogy in the larger context of the novel as a whole. Support your assertions with both quoted and paraphrased evidence drawn from throughout the novel, making sure to cite all quoted material.

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

Multiple Choice

1. Which is the most reasonable interpretation of Robinson’s reasons for setting the book in 2025?

A) This setting was distant enough to seem very futuristic when the book was written.

B) 2025 is a well-known tipping point for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

C) Setting the book in 2025 allows Robinson to ground the story in contemporary science.

D) This setting conveys how quickly climate change is becoming a serious problem.

2. Which is a statement supported by the novel?

A) The political power wielded by global elites means that ordinary people have no hope of effecting changes in climate policy.

B) The consumption patterns of ordinary people in wealthy nations make these people complicit in perpetuating climate change.

C) The desire of ordinary people in poor nations to improve their quality of life is the primary obstacle to solving the climate crisis.

D) The resistance ordinary people in wealthy nations show toward efforts to limit climate change is primarily rooted in racism.

3. Which is the most accurate characterization of the novel’s attitude toward ecoterrorism?

A) It is a logical tool to employ when time is running out for other kinds of solutions.

B) It is an emotional response to a problem better solved with rational, long-term planning.

C) It is founded in an immoral belief that it is acceptable to do wrong for the right reasons.

D) It is a crass attempt to use the environment as an excuse to act on antisocial urges.

4. Which of the following statements would Mary most likely agree with?

A) The rule of law must be protected as the highest moral value.

B) At this point in history, emitting carbon is a form of violence.

C) Leaders should not allow violence to be committed in their name.

D) As the climate crisis worsens, education will be a leader’s most important tool.

5. Throughout the novel, which is most clearly blamed for inequality and government instability?

A) The patriarchy

B) Christianity

C) American hegemony

D) Capitalists and oligarchs

6. Which of the following statements is most clearly supported by the novel?

A) Capitalism is incompatible with a healthy environment.

B) Technology will not contribute meaningfully to stopping climate change.

C) Capitalism creates the wealth required to fight climate change.

D) Technology has led to a net decrease in human quality of life.

7. Which of the following statements would Frank most likely agree with?

A) Morality is designed by elites to preserve the status quo.

B) Morality is an illusion designed to hide life’s pointlessness.

C) Devoting your life to a higher cause is a meaningless sacrifice.

D) Devoting your life to a higher cause is a noble moral choice.

8. Over the course of the narrative, how does the tone of the chapters narrated by philosophers and other theorists gradually change?

A) The tone becomes more personal and opinionated.

B) The tone becomes drier and more objective.

C) The tone becomes angrier and more hopeless.

D) The tone becomes more condescending and frustrated.

9. Which best describes the novel’s characterization of economists?

A) They are often unaware of the poor fit between their theories and reality.

B) Because their discipline is abstract, they are an often ignored voice of reason.

C) Their discipline is more rooted in inequality than most of them realize.

D) Their narrow focus on monetary systems blinds them to other kinds of exchange.

10. What is the narrative point of view of the novel’s “riddle” chapters?

A) Third-person omniscient

B) Third-person limited

C) Second person

D) First person

11. How does Mary’s morality change from the beginning of the novel to the end?

A) She becomes more inflexible and less able to tolerate morally ambiguous situations.

B) She becomes more dogmatic and less willing to consider other moral perspectives.

C) She becomes more tolerant and willing to understand the moral weaknesses of others.

D) She becomes more pragmatic and willing to accept that sometimes the ends justify the means.

12. Which part of Frank’s life does the most to help him overcome his mental distress following his near death in the heat wave?

A) His relationship with Syrine

B) His relationship with Mary

C) His work in Switzerland

D) His work in Antarctica

13. Which action most clearly demonstrates to the reader that Mary’s priorities have shifted and she intends to give her own personal life more of her attention?

A) Her flirtatious behavior toward Art during the airship tour

B) The day she spends in the Alps with Frank talking about animals

C) Her reflections at the Ganymede statue after Frank’s death

D) Her emotional reaction to Tatiana’s assassination

14. What is foreshadowed by Mary’s reaction to Badim’s “distant, intense, calculating, cold” eyes when they meet early in the novel? (Chapter 9)

A) Badim’s eventual replacement of Mary as the head of the Ministry

B) Mary’s need to be protected from information about the Ministry’s “black wing”

C) The revelation that Badim is the founder of the Children of Kali

D) The terror that Mary experiences when she is taken hostage by Frank

15. Which idea is most clearly conveyed by the inclusion of the Syrian refugee’s perspective?

A) The trauma of being a refugee can be eliminated by a caring host country.

B) Climate refugees are fundamentally unlike political and economic refugees.

C) Current systems for dealing with refugees do not offer refugees full human dignity.

D) The economic burden of climate refugees is likely to destabilize governments.

Long Answer

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

1. What thematic idea do Pete Griffen’s death and the riddle chapter about the sun have in common?

2. How do the Children of Kali illustrate the novel’s ideas about the power of words versus the power of actions?