A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
In the book ‘ A Christmas Carol’, Dickens describes the poor, how they
were treated unfairly and how they were thought as animals rather than
human beings. Dickens portrays the rich as ignorant and selfish people
that think they are bigger than the world itself. Charles Dickens new
a lot about poverty, as his parents were not earning enough money to
pay of debts, which meant that Dickens himself had to leave school at
the age of 12 to work in a factory. He had a terrible experience; he
had felt what it was like to be poor, to have no hope for the future
and worked long hours in a dirty factory.
Charles dickens used Scrooge to symbolize the minority of the
population that are inconsiderate & rich. Scrooge was a mean man, who
made people work hard and lived for profit, ‘ but he was a tight
fisted hand at the grindstone’. Ebenezer Scrooge was a cold hearted,
emotionless and pessimistic man that was very lonesome but was not
bothered about this situation. Scrooge had a lifeless source of
friendship, money! As long as he had money, along with power, he was
happy in his miserable home all alone, ‘secret and self contained and
solitary as an oyster.’ Scrooge was a strong minded man who would
rather see poor and destitute people in jail,’ if they would rather
die they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.’
Scrooge had a clerk called Bob Cratchit, who even thought gets treated
unfairly by Ebenezer, still has some respect for him. Mr Cratchit was
one of the poor people described in the novel, along with his family,
but one thing he was rich in was happiness. Bob earned 15 ‘bob’ a week
but was a cheerful man all his life because of his wife and kids. This
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...way they act, so they should be a given a chance to prove themselves.
Also the morale is that happiness is everywhere where you believe it
can be, no matter how poor or rich you are, no matter how ill or well
you are, you can bring happiness, not only for yourself but for others
as well. The ‘present’ Ghost reveals the two children from under his
robe, which represent ignorant and want, are very important to the
novel, especially the Boy. Dickens tries to illustrate the ignorance
of those who could help change things but choose to ignore them, and
also Dickens is trying to express that the poor are ignorant too and
that if they had a little help they would be able to help themselves.
Scrooge does change at the end of the story, once seeing the future
when he was at the graveyard. He helps the Cratchit’s and Tiny Tim
live, which represents light and warmth.
Annie Dillard, in “A Christmas Story,” demonstrates for the audience that is so easy to miss the true meaning of life. The story “A Christmas Story,” begins with a setting of a enormous feast. The banquet hall decorated with expensive materials, for example, “two thousand chandeliers hung from the ceiling, parti-colored floor of lumber.” The atmosphere was lively. There were many guests attending the banquet. The food that was served was a soup, which was said to have all the perfect ingredients as well as it “seemed to contain all other dishes.” The host of the banquet was a young man. The young man observed carefully as the people stuffed themselves and the young man thought, “No one person has seen nor understood the excellence of that soup.”
I wasn’t poor but I wasn’t rich either, I was surrounded by an environment in which many people where in need of shelter and food because their families could not afford both. Just like poverty played a major role in my life, so did an ambitious and hardworking environment. Because those people I would see every day on the streets without food or a home, were the ones that had a bigger passion than anyone else, to one day be able to have a stable job and home for their family. This has shaped me to be who I am today, because I greatly appreciate what I have and take advantage of the opportunities I am given because not everyone is lucky enough to have what one
The article “High Incomes Don’t Bring You Happiness” verbatimly states, “Beyond $75,000, money is important for life evaluation, but does nothing for happiness, enjoyment, sadness, or stress” (Kenney 4). Those who spend prodigal amounts of money disdain plebeians because they claim that money is the foundation to living a great life. However, money only helps one meet certain needs and does not contribute in instigating true happiness within oneself. Happiness comes naturally by one’s actions and accomplishments. Although, money helps buy the commodities which satisfy one’s life, it is not the direct source for obtaining glee within a
Some even have to turn to crime to get an extra income. This is shown
Charles Dickens’s, a British social reformer which has presented to an audience a brilliant novel: A Christmas Carol. The play is set in the mid 1900’s where the industrial revolution was introduced which resulted in inventions such as machines; people consequently were fleeing the countryside for work in city for good paying jobs, for good achieving business people this gave their business a massive amount of money but a small minority of people were underprivileged because money was distributed unfairly. The basis of the story is to show the audience that money alone cannot bring happiness, but it is how you use it.
The era surrounding the French Revolution was a horrifically bloody and violent period of history – the best of times and the worst of times. The violence enacted by the citizens of French on their fellow countrymen set a gruesome scene in the cities and country sides of France. Charles Dickens uses a palate of storm, wine, and blood imagery in A Tale of Two Cities to paint exactly how tremendously brutal this period of time was.
Scrooge in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens The novel, ‘A Christmas Carol’, is more than just a mere story instead it tries to expose the negative side of Victorian society and the reason behind this horror, the greed of the wealthy, through the development of the character Scrooge. All this while attempting to prompt readers with Scrooge’s similar wealth to make a change. As mentioned earlier, the development of Scrooge’s character is vital to this and I will explain how his character develops as the story proceeds and how it is used to accomplish the aim as mentioned above.
he can have. Dickens says he is a sinner so he hints that he is evil!
great joy in his life, or a great sadness. Sadly, Archibald was not a rich man
A Christmas Carol was written by Charles Dickens in 1843. Life for the lower class during this time was extremely hard because of enormous amounts of illnesses, young children worked and no education. A Christmas Carol was set in mid 19th century, during this time people had a really bad time; most of the people was unemployed and the people who were employed were paid deficiently, others were seasonal or casual, which meant they were when work was available so most of the families lived in poverty which means that they didn’t have access to nice food and clothes and children were also used for the family income so the children had to work in work houses. In contrast the rich people had access to doctors, plenty of food and didn’t have to work, had nice clothes to wear and had a nice life. Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol to highlight the plisht of the poor.
Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, in many ways alludes to the Gospels and has many deeper messages hidden underneath the surface. It is not only the story of a cranky man, who learns the true meaning of Christmas, but a story that enforces lifting up the lowly and redemption and second chances. A Christmas Carol, shows that Christmas is more than just gifts and a tree, and shows Ebenezer Scrooges’ transformation by enforcing many gospel themes.
The reason I choose Charles Dickens out of all of the British authors that I could have chosen from was that he made others feel like whatever was happening in their life could have an opportunity to get better. Time is all that matters in situations like these and you must acquire patience to help you better them. He gives hope to the hopeless and thankfulness to the unthankful. In A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge was the perfect example of how a greedy person can take for granted everyday luxuries that most people only see in their dreams. Scrooge only realizes this when he is visited in his dreams by ghosts which made him realize all the wrongs if was making morally. Then when he woke up and realized it was all a dream he was defiantly grateful that he had a chance to correct them. People had many different reactions to Scrooge some were amazed, scared, and some were even astonished by his actions they thought he had gone crazy. To them he wasn’t himself and in his own self interpretation was that he should just try to convince them that he wanted to right the wrong he had already done. Stories like these present the quality
Over the course of this class, my perspective on money and whether it makes us happy has changed. Before the start of second semester, I always believed that money did make someone happy, as most of my most memorable experiences are linked to money in some way. But, after reading several essays within the assigned class textbook, I concluded that was not the case. For example, in the short essay What’s so Bad About Being Poor, by author Charles Murray, he states that living in poverty is not such a bad lifestyle, and if anything, it builds character. He states that “To be poor is not necessarily to be without dignity, it is not necessarily to be unhappy” (P. 26). In this quote, he is explaining that individuals living in poverty are not automatically unhappy, and if they are, the fact that they do not have money is not linked to that. Murray explains that unhappiness stems from something that is much more complex than money. Author David Myers also
When one considers their future, it may to fully comprehend how it can unfold. Charles Dickens overcame his dark childhood, and let it inspire his insight behind most of his compositions. Fortunately he became a very influential and lucrative author, speaker and performer of his literature. His 40 works lead him to go on tours to the US, hold readings in public, and inspire England’s writers with his literature. Charles Dickens’ beginning as a poor child working to help his family influenced his compositions throughout his life as well as his readers.
Leading a life without much money does not entail that one has very little happiness. Happiness itself is a very broad and abstract term that is influenced by various aspects of life. Begley’s statistical data from the global survey provided evidence to the fact that there is more to happiness then just money. She established a comparison between American multimillionaires and people from the rural areas of Kenya and Greenland. Shockingly both groups from the opposite spectrum of the “money train” responded to the survey with the same average score of happiness. A third and more striking part of this survey was that homeless people of Calcutta reported a low happiness level score. We can understand why multimillionaires may be happy and satisfied