Mrs. Caudill’s language arts classes have been reading A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley for the past few weeks. We started by watching the movie the day before Thanksgiving and finished one or two days after we came back. It wasn’t the original movie, but Mrs. Caudill says it’s the closest to the book. Then we read the book on Pearson Text with earbuds and a few different creative ways that I’ll get to later. But for now, let’s talk about the book.
In 18th century England, loads of poor peasants poured into London. Most of them worked in factories with very harsh working conditions. The few that owned a business, like Ebenezer Scrooge, were very wealthy. Those who weren’t as lucky, either lived in the streets or lived in union workhouses, which were terrible places. This is the story of how a wealthy man changed over night.
A Christmas Carol is about an elderly, selfish, money poisoned man. His business partner, Marley, who died about 7 years before the play took place, came to visit him as a ghost to tell him that if he doesn’t change his ways, he will be like Marley, doomed to never rest peacefully. Marley warns him that the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future will haunt him that night. Scrooge was visited by the spirits, and after the ghost of Christmas past came and showed him visions from the past, he regretted bad decisions that he had made previously, especially for letting his girlfriend go, but did not show signs of changing the future. The second ghost showed him the home of his employee, Bob Cratchit. Bob receives a very meager salary and has 6 children and a wife to provide for. His smallest son, tiny Tim, is lame and possibly about to die. Scrooge notices his mistakes and shows signs of changing, but he hasn’t all the way changed, for he has not found anything concerning him. Then the ghost of Christmas future comes and shows Scrooge what could happen. He spots his own body and, since he was selfish, starts to weep knowing that no one out of their own free will come to his funeral. This sort of shows that he won’t fully change unless something happens concerning his own welfare. The picture below shows what the ghost of Christmas future showed him, which scared Scrooge to the point that he wept! After this he goes back to his room and lays eyes on a boy outside. He tells him to get the biggest turkey in the butchers shops and deliver it to Bob Cratchet but not tell him that he sent it. Then the next morning, Christmas morning, Scrooge pretends that he hasn’t changed but then surprises Bob by doubling his salary. In the end, Scrooge learns the meaning of kindness and Christmas within himself.
