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Fred as a Foil to Scrooge in A Christmas Carol
In Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Scrooge's selfish, cold, melancholy nature is contrasted with Fred, Scrooge's light-hearted nephew. At the beginning of the novel, Fred and Scrooge are complete opposites, but, as the novel progresses, they become more and more alike. Throughout the novel, Dickens uses Fred to show Scrooge's transformation from a cold, unfeeling man to a man of warmth and compassion.
The first time Fred is seen is on page 5 when he greets Scrooge with, "A merry Christmas, Uncle! God save you!" Scrooge's reply is "Bah! Humbug!" The statement Fred makes shows that he cares about even the coldest beings. Scrooge's reply shows that he is closed to joyous things and it also hints that he is not saved. From their first meeting in the book, their character differences are obvious.
During their conversation, Fred and Scrooge reveal their definitions of the word "good." Fred tells Scrooge, "There are many things from which I might have derived good by which I have not profited" This shows that Scrooge's definition of Good is money. Later on, Fred states that he has always thought of Christmastime "as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time." This defines Fred's "good" as kind, forgiving, charitable, and pleasant.
After Fred leaves, two gentlemen come to Scrooge and ask for money for the poor. His response is, "Are there no prisons? And the union workhouses? Are they still in operation?" One of the gentlemen replies, "They are. Still, I wish I could say they were not." Scrooge's remark shows that he doesn't care about poor people. He does not care if they live or die, just as long as he is comfortable. The two gentlemen are shocked by this.
At the beginning of Stave II, Scrooge lies awake considering that he could, "no more go to sleep than go to heaven." This shows that he probably isn't going to heaven.
On page 43, Dicken's gives a glimpse of Scrooge's warm personality that has been muted by the cold, horrible events that have happened to him. When he says, "Why, it's old Fezziwig! Bless his heart; it's Fezziwig alive again!" Scrooge uses the word "bless" to show that he cared for Fezziwig.
During the other stave’s scrooge is learning more how to be nice and care for others but he is still not at his full potential. Scrooge meets 3 ghost. Ghost of Christmas past, ghost of Christmas present, and ghost of Christmas yet to come.
In the beginning of the play in spite of being selfish Scrooge is also cheap, cold-hearted, and cruel. Scrooge behaves in this manner to his nephew, Fred. One way of proving this is when Fred said “Merry Christmas.” Scrooge replied salty saying “Humbug Christmas is just a time for spending and wasting money.” Not only he treats Fred badly but many more people. For instance take one of his quotes towards the Gentleman Visitor, “Are there no Jails for the poor, are there no
Here, Lt. Cross has burned the letters and photographs of Martha. This quote reveals much about not only Jimmy Cross, but also the other soldiers. Jimmy had been using the fantasy of Martha as an escape from the harsh realities of war. However, he became so engrossed with the fantasy of Martha that he started to neglect his duties as a leader. As a result of Jimmy’s negligence, Ted Lavender dies. Jimmy feels guilty, and decides to burn all the things related to Martha. However, Cross realizes he cannot make the guilt disappear by burning it. Even though the burning was just a gesture, it shows that Cross is ready to take responsibility of his soldiers and be a better leader. The quote is important because it conveys the adversity soldiers face when trying to deal with the realities of the war and the fantasies of comfort after the war soldiers dream of. O’Brien is trying to tell the readers that soldiers find the actuality of war quite obfuscated.
An example of this is shown in his bitter attitude towards the cheerfulness of his nephew Fred and by thinking Christmas a "humbug." And then, moments before he bitterly declines his nephew's friendly invitation to come dine with him, he says crossly to him, "'Every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.'" Lastly, an instance that illustrates the cold heart of Scrooge is when he speaks of the poor, "'If they would rather die, they better do it, and decrease the surplus population.'" By these demonstrations, Scrooge exposed the coldness of his own
In Conclusion, in the 1st Stave Dickens presents Scrooge as an evil, aged, prosperous man. As you read the Staves 2, 3 and 4, Scrooge’s behaviour, thoughts and attitude changes gradually. In Stave 2 a quote to show how shrude Scrooge is 'All he could make out was that it was still very foggy and extremely cold' this shows that Scrooge is an unpleasant ‘a covetous sinner’. This has an effect upon the reader as it shows how the cold weather can hurt and be distasteful to people just like Scrooge. Scrooge is described as the weather as he is like it; he hurts the people around him. Finally, in the 4th Stave he changes and he admits it, here is a quote “Spirit!'' he cried, tight clutching at its robe, “hear me! I am not the man I was.” This shows Scrooge is pleading that he has changed. I think he has transformed because of the experience he had by the four spirits.
Jimmy Cross was one of them. As his obsession with Martha grew, he no longer had his eyes on what was important like staying alive and protecting his fellow soldiers. One day outside of the village Than Khe, in mid-April, a soldier by the name of Ted Lavender was shot in the head. Jimmy feels great guilt over Ted’s death because he is responsible for the entire team of soldiers. Due to his obsession, he ended up losing a life on his team and it was a preventable death. This put a heavy guilt on his shoulders. When Martha told him that she did not really love him, he was crushed and realized what his obsession had done to Ted and what could have happened to the rest of the
In the beginning of the story jimmy cross was a dreamer and dreams about dating Martha. The author writes, "He would imagine romantic camping trips into the White Mountains in New Hampshire" (409) telling us about the small world of dreams jimmy has made in the surroundings of war. In the nights he holds the picture of Martha and rejoice every moment he spent with her. He keeps thinking about the little things which might have improved his chances with her. This is supported in the lines "He remembered kissing her good night. Right then, he should've done something brave. He should've carried her to her up the stairs to her room and tied her to the bed and touched that knee all night long." (411), this also supports his carelessness towards his duty and risking life of others with him.
Obviously, Scrooge had a bad life but, he fixed it .Luckily, not everyone has to go though this horrible time. Scrooge is just a character but, things like this are very realistic and can happen to people.This experience helped Scrooge so much and made him realize the meaning of life.This also got his life back on track. This is why present influenced Scrooge the most. Just imagine if this happen to people all the time, don't let it
On page 64, we see how Scrooge shows sympathy in the quote, “There was a boy singing a Christmas carol at my door last night. I should like to have given him something. That 's All.” After being shown a memory of himself as a boy, Scrooge regrets being harsh to the boy caroling and not giving him any money. Seeing his own sadness as a child made him realize it would have been nice to give the boy something to make him happy. He will probably do nicer things in the future because he now realizes that the boy would have been upset because of how Scrooge turned him away so harshly. He is changing his actions, and regretting bad actions in the past. He wants to fix what he did wrong, and he feels sympathy for the boy. People want to be shown compassion, so in the future if he helps people out and is kind, he will not be as isolated. Another quote to show how he becomes less detached from humanity is on pages 92-93, ‘”Spirit,” said Scrooge, “Tell me if Tiny Tim will live.” Scrooge feels sorry for Bob Cratchit because the spirit says if the future remains unaltered he will die. He feels upset that Tiny Tim will die, and sympathy for Bob because his son will probably die. He probably regrets not giving Bob more time with his son. He had made a comment earlier that if someone will die they better go and die to decrease the population, when the donation collector
His love for Martha was unhealthy and almost obsessive. He still remembers clearly "touching that left knee" of Martha's. Even out in the field he still reminisces how her knee felt. During a mission to destroy some tunnels, Cross imagines the tunnel collapsing on him and Martha. He also wonders if she is still a virgin or not and wonders why her letter are signed "love". This distraction and incompetence of himself lead to the death of one of their fellow soldiers, Ted Lavender. He has been shot and killed, partly because of Cross' lack of focus on the situation. He keeps to himself as he blames the incident on only himself. Shockingly, as they were waiting for a chopper to take his body away, he digs a foxhole. While sitting in the hole, crying, he was also thinking of " Martha's smooth young face, thinking he loved her more than anything, more than his men " at the same time. This abnormal love for Martha has defected his ability to perform his duties as a leader. Martha has possessed him so much that even "without willing it, he was thinking about Martha." This shows that he has lost control on where and when is the right time to think about things like that.
Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried many different items he received from the girl he loved while he was in Vietnam. Jimmy Cross carries a pebble that Martha sent him in a letter. Martha is the girl that Cross loves and writes to. Martha talks about how the pebble reminds her of Cross and decides to send it. The narrator says, "In the first week of April, before Ted Lavender died, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross received a good-luck charm from Martha. It was a simple pebble" (7). Martha knows that Cross needs something to hold on to for good-luck, so she decides to send him a pebble. Lieutenant Cross also carries
Unlike warfare machines, soldiers have feelings, and the feelings that they carry have their mass. In the story, the author states that items that soldiers carry in the Vietnam War are “intangible”, yet these intangible items have their tangible mass. Later the author adds on that solders carry the “greatest fear of blushing” and their “reputation”. (O’Brien 348) Each of the soldiers is afraid to be coward, and they would rather die from the enemy’s bare hands than die from dishonor. Yet this way, it motivates soldiers to continue to fight until the end, so they won’t easily give up fighting in the battlefield just as they fear to be called as “coward”. Furthermore, soldiers do not only carry their armed conflict, they also carry the feelings of love. In the story, it is stated that Jimmy Cross does not do what he supposed to be done as a first lieutenant when he and his team are operating in the mission. Instead, he is thinking of his love Martha deeply. Because of this, it causes one of his soldiers Ted Lavender died from their operation. (O’Brien 341) Jimmy Cross has a very profound feeling with a girl name Martha. Cross carries everything that Martha has sent him in the battlefield, such as Love letters and Good luck pebble. However, these things keep reminding Cross of Martha. And because of these items, these items become a distraction to Cross in the battlefield. Moreover, Ted
Tim O’Brien portrays himself as an author, narrator, storyteller, and character throughout twenty-two vignettes. Each perspective helps him achieve his purpose for writing the novel.
The purpose ofAffirmative Action is a simple one, it exists to level the playing field, so to speak, in the areas of hiring and college admissions based on characteristics that usually include race, sex, and/or ethnicity. A certain minority group or gender may be underrepresented in an arena, often employment or academia, in theory due to past or ongoing discrimination against members of the group. In such a circumstance, one school of thought maintains that unless this group is concretely helped to achieve a more substantial representation, it will have difficulty gaining the critical mass and acceptance in that role, even if overt discrimination against the group is eradicated. For this reason, more effort must be made to recruit persons from that background, train them, and lower the entrance requirements for them. (Goldman, 1976, p. 179) Proponents of affirmative action argue that affirmative action is the best way to corre...
The first significant alteration of Scrooge’s character occurred when he was a young man, as he became increasingly involved in the occupation of business, where wealth and assets are subjects of great examination and often possessiveness. Described and portrayed as an avaricious, bitter, and solitary man, Scrooge is introduced as critically immoral, occupied constantly by business. Christmas, as the faithful celebrate it, is referred to by Scrooge as a humbug, or fraud. On the topic of a merry Christmas, as his nephew related to it, Scrooge declared that an individual as poor as Fred has little or nothing to be merry about. In one of the most disturbing quotations from Scrooge, he casually remarks to two gentlemen requesting donations for the poor, “if [idle people] would rather die [than attend prisons and workhouses], they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population” (11). Scrooge accuses Bob Cratchit of being greedy for requesting Christmas as a day to retreat from work to be with his family, when in fact it is he who is greedy, essentially concerned with profits, not people. Orally, this point is perhaps best illustrated in the Past when the girl he once loved more than money, Belle, declared that, “a [golden] idol has displaced me” (37). Fully aware that Scrooge’s priorities are deranged, and he has been degraded to worship wealth rather than valuing the qualities of human love, Belle leaves him.