Oct 07, 2011 08:42 PM
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"Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it."
- A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
Christmas Carol was my birthday gift. I was curious about the book. But then, I also got RK Narayan, Roald Dahl, Judy Blume, Rabindranath Tagore. Since I already knew these authors, I preferred their books over A Christmas Carol. Finally, after finishing them, I saw this in my rack and decided to read it.
It was totally different from all other books in my rack. The language was so different from the rest. My mother told me that he was two centuries old author, and that made me realize the difference in language.
Plot :
A Christmas Carol is a story about miserly, cold, unfeeling and old Ebenezer Scrooge. He was a workaholic, who owned a firm. He was never nice to people. How his life changes after the conversation with four ghosts on Christmas Eve. How Bob received turkey as his Christmas gift and nephew had a surprise visitor.
The main characters of the Story :
Ebenezer Scrooge: Cold, hard, unfeeling miser. Visited by four ghosts on Christmas Eve.
Fred : Scrooge’s Nephew – Very kind to Scrooge, even though Scrooge wasn’t .
Bob Cratchit: A low paid clerk who works for Scrooge. He had a wife and children. A loyal, hardworking, honest worker. Scrooge never granted him leave or was kind to him.
Jacob Marley’s Ghost : Marley was Scrooge’s Business partner. After he died, he bore the the punishment of his sins. After seven years, he comes to Scrooge, helping him realize his mistakes, and mend his ways so that he doesn’t bear the punishment, that Marley had to. I think he was his true friend and real well wisher.
Ghost of the Christmas Past: It was a ghost who showed Scrooge all his past Christmas celebrations. Scrooge was a very jolly and innocent in his youth.
Ghost of the Christmas Present: It showed Scrooge the Christmas celebration by different people like the clerk and his nephew himself. He enjoyed watching them celebrate Christmas and enjoying their time.
Ghost of the Christmas Yet To Come : It was horrid journey for Scrooge. It gave him the shock of his life. It showed a discussion on death of some person. He realized that people were not very serious or sad about it, except his nephew. Few even made fun of the dead person.
It was a different experience for me. I loved reading this book as I could relate this story in many cartoons, movies and stories I have seen. The Barbie movie, Ghosts of the girlfriends past, a Christmas carol (Looney tunes), Uncle Scrooge (Duck Tales) are a few I immediately recalled when I was reading this book.
The language uses many phrases, idioms, similes and symbolic. I enjoyed reading some dialogues like “I wish I had him here. I’d give him a piece of my mind to feast upon, and I hope he’d have a good appetite for it”, said Mrs. Cratchit, reddening. The names of the Cratchit family children are very funny. The chapters are very well connected with each other, and so I had to read without stopping. Everything, incident related to Scrooge’s meanness and cruelty.
After reading this story I realized every sin bears its own punishment, but it is never too late to realize our mistakes and improve ourselves. There are people around us, who are our well wishers and always hope for our well being. We should never let down their hopes and try to live up to their expectations.
Happy Reading
MJ
