The novella, “A Christmas Carol”, written by Charles Dickens, talks about Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly mister who despises the Christmas season but gradually transforms his views after being visited by three ghosts. Scrooge, a cold-hearted and money-driven business man, owns a counting house in London. One night, Scrooge was visited by the spirit of his deceased business partner, Marley, warning him of the upcoming visitations by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Presnet, and Yet to Come. The first ghost takes Scrooge back to his childhood, showing him his joyful younger self and the Christmas celebrations he experienced before as an apprentice. The second ghost, existing during Christmas, shows Scrooge how people celebrate Christmas across the world in various settings. The third ghost shows Scrooge a future where his death is neglected, with no one mourning his passing. The visitations of the three ghosts not only profoundly change Scrooge, leading him to become a kind and generous person, but also helps Scrooge reconnect with his empathy, compassion and the real essence of Christmas. This novella takes readers to discuss the ideas of Kindness, Change over time, Redemption, and Religious Beliefs.
Kindness is a key indicator of measuring personal and social health because it enhances emotional and social aspects of life. When people perform acts of kindness, they often experience increased happiness and develop senses of fulfillment. Scrooge is a wealthy old man only caring about money. Scrooge hates Christmas and he is not kind. He refused to donate money to the charity. He also doesn’t raise his worker’s money because he wants more and more money. Scrooge is a representation of Capitalism. He refused to do good things, show compassion, donate money, take care of others, or give a little bit of money to his workers because he just wants to keep money as much as possible. In Scrooge’s mind, money is everything or profit over people. He doesn’t need human relationships. Monetary transition is all he cares about. Because of this thought, Scrooge is in a bad situation of emotional isolation. He has no connection, no love, no cares for others. From Scrooge’s perspective, the more money the happier life he would have. Ironically the more money the more worried he would have that money might get stolen or people might make him waste his money. So Scrooge became cold and unkind toward others. Obviously, money gives him wealth but not kindness or happiness. Kindness creates a win-win situation; it enriches both giver and receiver because it leads to a feeling of joy and satisfaction.
The idea of change is actually supposed to be universal, and change itself encourages growth and learning. When people are motivated to change, they challenge themselves to step out of their comfort zones, learn from their errors, and gain new perspectives. Scrooge changes from a kind, innocent poor child to a cold-hearted businessman only caring about money and unkind to his workers or others. After being visited by three ghosts of Christmas of Past, Presnet, and Yet to Come, Scrooge changed back to a kind person making donations to people around him. Scrooge has a lonely, poor, and miserable childhood. Even though Scrooge has a good relationship with his boss or relatives, he gradually refuses to be good because his cold, sad childhood gets into his mind. He does not want to be poor anymore. In fact he chooses to stay away from being poor and becomes greedy for money. His obsession with money grows over time, which eclipses his love for Belle, his fiancee, leading to their separation. This makes him rich but no love, isolation, and unhappiness. The first ghost helps Scrooge awake by reflecting from the past. Scrooge gets to see what has happened in the past, understanding the reason for the sadness of childhood and its influence. Scrooge gets to revisit his childhood, which reminds him of his lost innocence and happiness. The second ghost helps Scrooge recognize the present. Scrooge sees the people around him who have connections with him. Scrooge could have enjoyed the time with others, like his worker Bob and his family who gives Scrooge warm or his relatives Fred and his family who shows him love. The third ghost has Scrooge confront the future, making him understand that when he dies how other people around him would look at him and how his life would end. After encountering three ghosts, Scrooge has transformed from a miserly, isolated businessman to a generous, compassionate individual. Everyone makes mistakes. People should try to tolerance and forgive his mistakes to encourage him to make change.
Redemption provides a way for people to enhance themselves by learning from their past experiences and evolving into better versions of themselves. It involves making amends for previous error, self-improvements, or obtaining forgiveness from others. After encountering three ghosts of Christmas of Past, Presnet, and Yet to Come, Scrooge redeemed himself by becoming a generous man, giving money or things to people around him, like increasing his clerk Bob’s salary and gifting his family a large turkey. Before Scrooge was not happy even though he owned a lot of money. But when Scrooge started to spend money in helping his clerk Bob and his family, he felt happy. The more money he spends, the more happy he is; Scrooge donates money and buys Turkey to Bob’s family. Scrooge’s generosity gains social satisfaction and love from people around which he lacked before. Fred, Scrooge’s nephew, gives persistent kindness and unconditional love, despite Scrooge’s rejections. Bob always shows joy, gratitude, and resilience in the face of hardship. Their actions at some point help Scrooge self-reflect and do redemption.Scrooge's transformation is made possible by the forgiveness of others: Without the forgiveness from others, Scrooge's redemption is impossible to be made. Scrooge’s attitude toward others changed from being cold-hearted to kind. Scrooge became liked, receiving appreciation and love, which made him even happier. Scrooge couldn’t have made his redemption without his friends forgiving him. Scrooge realizes that the more money he spends, the happier he would be. Through redemption, people not only earn forgiveness from others but also gain social fulfillment through happiness and love from them.
The Christmas spirit embodies a sense of hope and peace, reflecting on the positive aspects of life and encouraging people doing good things. It also promotes love, warmth, and togetherness among family and friends, highlighting the importance of relationships.Previously, Scrooge was not a believer for Christmas Holidays and had no Christmas spirit. With changing his views about money and making his redemption, Scrooge bought Bob’s family a large turkey and attended his nephew Fred’s Christmas party to celebrate Chrismans holidays. The Christmas spirit is doing something good, loving other people, helping others, forgiving others. Specifically, love others and help the poor. The poor deserve to have holidays as the rich. People need to show great love.This is the spirit of the Christmas holiday. It parallels with Christian teachings on repentance, forgiveness, and love. Scrooge's redemption mirrors a religious conversion. Scrooge realizes his sins, he wants to make change to make it up. He embraces virtues like charity and compassion. These are religious beliefs. It does not matter if you have a religion or not, the author combines religion and morality, encouraging people to become a good person to love, help, forgive, and share as well as developing their social responsibility to show generosity and compassion to others. The meaning of the Christmas Spirit is to share and give love to people around you and such spirit would last well beyond the holiday season.
The novella, “A Christmas Carol”, leads me thinking about kindness and its absence, people change over time, redemption and forgiveness, and Christmas spirit. The author uses the character Scrooge to make me think about the negative impacts of loneliness, greed, selfishness, and heartless attitudes. It also teaches me that although money is essential for people to fulfill daily needs, people cannot buy feelings and happiness through money. The author also presents three ghosts to help Scrooge to make change. Through these encounters, Scrooge confronts his own past, present, and future, ultimately leading to a profound change. Those changes, in turn, lead Scrooge to make redemption as well as rediscover his empathy, compassion, and the true meaning of Christmas.
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