1. Over the break I read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. The story is about a greedy business man name Scrooge who basically isolates himself from society, people. even his family. One night he is visited by the ghost of his past business partner, Jacob Marley. Who reveals that has been forced to suffer a torturous afterlife. He then informs Scrooge that he must change his ways and that he will be visited by three ghosts that night. The first is Christmas's past which takes him back to Christmas as a child where he is alone and depressed. Christmas present is the second which takes him to Bob Cratchits's house his assistant, there they are celebrating with the little they have. Bob's son Tiny Tim is very sick and Scrooge begins to feel sympathy for Bob and worried for Tim. The finally ghost, the ghost of Christmas's future takes scrooge to his funeral where people are rejoicing in his death. After that Scrooge begs to have a second chance at things and the next morning he walks up a new man, kind, giving, and thankful.
2. The theme of this novel is to be careful what you do and how you treat people, because you can never go back and fix the mistakes you make, like Jacob Marley.
3. The authors tone changes throughout the course of the story according to the change developing in Scrooge. The further into his journey the more the tone switches from sharp and anger to happy and caring.
“Christmas a humbug, uncle!" said Scrooge's nephew. "You don't mean that, I am sure?"
"I do," said Scrooge. "Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? what reason have you to be merry? You're poor enough.”
“Christmas is a poor excuse every 25th of December to pick a man's pockets.”
“I don't know what to do!" cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the same breath; and making a perfect Laocoön of himself with his stockings. "I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school-boy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to every-body! A happy New Year to all the world! Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo!”
4.Charles Dickens incorporates a number of literary devices in his novel to help develop the overall meaning within the story such as similes, metaphors, personification, allusions, symbolism, pun, allegory, diction, syntax, and theme.
"There are some upon this earth of yours," returned the Spirit, "who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all out kith and kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us."
"External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty."
"Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it."
"You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!"
"The school is not quite deserted," said the Ghost. "A solitary child, neglected by his friends, is left there still."
"It is required of every man," the ghost returned, "that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide; and, if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death."
“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.”
“I wear the chain I forged in life....I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.”
“For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.”
“Marley was dead: to begin with.”
“He went to the church, and walked about the streets, and watched the people hurrying to and for, and patted the children on the head, and questioned beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of homes, and up to the windows, and found that everything could yield him pleasure. He had never dreamed of any walk, that anything, could give him so much happiness.
“And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!”
Characterization
1. Dickens uses indirect characterization a number of times within A Christmas Carol, particually when first describing Scrooge he often times uses other characters like Scrooge's nephew and the charity collectors. However there are times where he uses direct characterization like when writing about the actions and feelings of Scrooge as he takes the different journeys with the ghosts.
2. No the authors syntax and diction did not change as the author switched focuses from one character to the next, and this is because the story is primarily told though the voice of one character, Scrooge.
3. The main character Scrooge is definitely a dynamic character. Throughout the course of the story he witnesses a huge characterization transformation. However at the same time I wouldn't classify Scrooge as a round character but as a flat character because there isn't much too his personality, thoughts, or feelings.
4. After reading the book I do feel as if I've met a character and not just read about a fictional or nonfictional character/person. "It is required of every man," the ghost returned, "that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide; and, if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death."
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