Charles Dickens ' Hard Times For These Times

Amidst his essay, “Against School”, John Taylor Gatto conceptualizes that our academic facilities are designed as laboratories with sole purpose of producing uniformed consumers and stationary victims through compulsory schooling. A way of cyphering through the breeding grounds of our population and plucking the most desirable of species whom are pre-selected for specific positions. Moreover, insuring that our industrialization is grown through our children’s forced intellect. Ultimately, connecting Gatto to the concept that we should determine our education within ourselves, and not the one that was institutionalized upon us.

He attempts, and succeeds, in shocking readers into remembering their school experiences in a more negative light, achieved by juxtaposing the strict Prussian military system with our current educational environment. Gatto has no quarrels mentioning the rigid segregation this system is especially tailored to create between the powerful, yet numerically minute, elite and a gargantuan working class forced into general servitude. The sensitivity of such a topic and the long history of social stratification the United States has endured forces readers to understand that, beneath the colorful language and indefatigable tone, this article is a very serious analysis of educational corruption and the abuse of social class as it relates to educational background. A focal point of Gatto’s argument remains the already apparent lack of individuality within school systems. He does not write about how constricting school uniforms can be to an identity or the ability to express oneself being diminished. No, Gatto concerns himself, and his readers, with how students are treated as machines by administrative staff in schools. Students are to be pass produced, manufactured using interchange parts and fixed when something does not fit the mold. He writes about how children are used from the second they enter kindergarten as small cogs in a larger machine of conformity, a machine which exists purely to prevent the elite from being forced of their high horses. Stringing each of the myriad arguments he makes regarding the motive schools hide behind an encouraging positivity together into a magnificent tapestry of dissent, Gatto forces readers to reevaluate their own perspective on one of the most singularly fundamental aspects of their life and

In A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, isolation impacts Madame Defarge and Sydney Carton by altering their perception of life, influencing Madame to become obsessive with her vengeful goal of eliminating the aristocracy and damaging Carton by forcing him to contain his depressive emotions.

Humanity is inherently flawed. Charles Dickens illustrates this in his novel A Tale of Two Cities as he writes about the lives of the Manettes and the people they draw around them. In this novel, Dickens uses Sydney Carton, a main character in the novel and the lover of Lucie Manette, to reveal his thoughts about the inherent nature of humanity. The characteristics of humanity change and mutate with the experiences of each person and the workings of their own mind, as illustrated by Mr. Stryver’s inhumane and thoughtless treatment of Sydney, the first time Sydney saves Charles Darnay’s life, and Sydney’s love for Lucie Manette.

Adversity. A condition marked by misfortune, calamity, or distress. Adversity in most conditions is considered to be something should never happen. Adversity is the struggles of the poor and the homeless. Adversity is a hurricane and a tsunami destroying lives and homes. Adversity is, however, a rewarding experience. Not fun, not good, but rewarding. In the face of adversity, people tend to develop their character by uncovering new talents, making themselves stronger, and by becoming more understanding and compassionate.

Charles Dickens’ classic novella A Christmas Carol, focuses on the social responsibility of the wealthy to help the poor and less fortunate. Dickens, having lived in poverty as a child, knew of the many struggles of the lower class of London. As an author, he made it his goal to reform England as best he could. Many of his works ran in his weekly journal, Household Words, including "Christmas Stories" and Great Expectations. In a Christmas Carol, Dickens stresses the point that the writers of that time carried a special burden to speak out for those who lived in poverty and couldn't speak out for themselves.

The French Revolution was difficult to escape on the grounds that the aristocracy abused poor people, making them rebel. Tyranny on a large scale results in anarchy, and anarchy fabricates a police state. One of Dickens' most grounded feelings was that the English individuals would flare up at any time into a mass of bloody revolutionists. It is understandable today that he was wrong, but the idea was firmly planted in his mind, as well as in the minds of his peers. Dickens also feels bad for the poor but he does not agree with the violence that was used during the war.

A Tale of Two Cities has several recurring themes, including the failure of the French Revolution. In the book, the peasants defeated the aristocrats by imprisoning and murdering them. Although many of the imprisonments and executions were unjust, the peasants had gain complete power. The peasants’ revolution did not end the tyranny that existed with the aristocrats ruling, but created a new tyranny with lack of justice and mercy.

Charles Dickens utilizes themes in his novel, A Tale of Two Cities, to enrich the plot and intensify the meaning of the text to the reader. Dickens wrote the novel sixty years after the French Revolution; however, he compared his present time period to that of the past using universal themes and motifs. Even though Dickens uses many themes, one of the most important and most frequent themes is that of sacrifice. In fact, most of Dickens characters make sacrifices in the name of love. Dickens exemplifies the theme of sacrifice in the name of love with the sacrifices of several characters including: Doctor Manette, Miss Pross, and Sydney Carton.

Words are emptied of the concreteness and become a hollow, alienated, and alienating verbosity” (Freire 71). The student’s role is to memorize the information fed to them regardless of the content while ignoring the context it may have on their own culture. They become robotic, submitting to orders rather than carving their own path, thus, creating a society where abnormal opinions and ideas are shunned and rejected.

The French Revolution mainly took place in the city of Paris during the late 1700’s. The Revolution did not only affect the people of France, but also the citizens of England as well. The French Revolution is known as one of the most brutal and inhumane periods of history. If one studied the beliefs and views of the people involved at the time, one would see a reoccurring theme of “ being recalled to life”. Born from the world of literature, Charles Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities takes a deeper look at the culture of the late 1700’s, in both England and France. Dickens uses the character of Lucie Manette to further examine one of the major themes presented in the novel, consisting of the belief of one being

The fictional novel, Hard Times by Charles Dickens, concentrates on the Gradgrind family; of Mr. Thomas Gradgrind, his daughter Louisa, and son Thomas Jr. A major theme of friendship is portrayed in the books through the character of Mr. Gradgrind as he struggles with the idea of friendship between other characters. According to the Nicomachean Ethics, by Aristotle, it explains a detailed account of friendship and what it is to be a friend to others. In comparing the character Mr. Gradgrind in Hard Times, to the 5 basis of friendship written in the Nicomachean Ethics, Mr. Gradgrind cannot be a friend to others because he does not use emotion but rather factual evidence in his actions toward his children. The novel confirms Aristotle’s view of friendship with Mr. Gradgrind, proving that the standards need to be set up in order to have a proper friendship and relationship with others.

Charles Dickens’s novel Hard Times critiques the use of extreme utilitarianism as an acceptable means to governing a society in which citizens are able to lead happy, productive, flourishing lives. “Just the facts,”19th century English utilitarianism argued, are all one needs to flourish. Those answers that we can arrive at by way of mathematical, logical reasoning are all needed to live a full human life. Hard Times shows however that a “just the facts” philosophy creates a community inhospitable to the needs of one another, a society nearly void of human compassion, and one lacking in morality. Underlying the novel’s argument is the Aristotelian concept that the primary purpose of government is to

In Hard Times, Dickens presents life philosophies of three men that directly contradict each other. James Harthouse sees one’s actions in life as meaningless since life is so short. Mr. Gradgrind emphasizes the importance of fact and discourages fantasy since life is exactly as it was designed to be. Mr. Slearly exhibits that “all work and no play” will make very dull people out of all of us. He also proclaims that one should never look back on one’s life and regret past actions. Dickens is certainly advocating Sleary’s life philosophy because the subjects of the other two philosophies led depressing and unhappy lives. This is made clear when Louisa realises her childhood of fact without fancy has ruined her, when Tom’s life falls apart after leaving his father’s home in rejection of his strict parenting, and when Mr. Gradgrind himself realises the faults in his own philosophy and devotes the rest of his life to virtue and charity.

By having Sissy represent a life of fancy and fact, and Bitzer represents a life solely of fact than comparing the two Dickens is able to show the reader that facts may be nice to know, but someone can not only have facts without fancy. This is seen