A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

This story is without a doubt my favorite Christmas story. I love to follow Scrooge as he makes his journey from being a money grabbing and mean man who hates Christmas to a nice and pleasant business man who tries to help others just from the goodness of his heart. How he is redeemed by seeing what was his past, what is his present and what will be the future if he continues being an old miser.

There's something just magic, for me, in people changing for the best and when we add the good feelings of the season and the christmas traditions all the better. It's an interesting thing that Dickens chooses to portray the true spirit of Christmas more connected to the good and moral feelings of kindness, good will and charity than on a strict religious level. In it's time the book was also a voice against poor working conditions, poverty and social problems and injustice. One of things Scrooge has to face is how poverty will affect the life of his employee Bob Cratchit and how he could change that so easily. By creating the character of Tiny Tim, who is such a loving child despite his health problems, he calls attention to the problems poor children faced and it's highly emotional when he finds out Tiny Tim will not live if things continue as they are.

I think the beliefs we see in this A Christmas Carol are pretty much the same we still have in out contemporary world and that's probably one of the reasons why the story is so beloved even today.

Grade: A