Hard Times By Charles Dickens Essay

Charles Dickens' Hard Times and David Lodge's Nice Work ----“Fact, fact, fact, everywhere in the material aspect of the town; fact, fact, fact everywhere in the immaterial.” – Charles Dickens In the early 1851, London staged the Great Exhibition to show the world, the achievements and inventions of the Industrial Revolution. Many people believed that this showed how much better, safer and healthier Britain was than its neighbours in Europe. People living in mansions amid lawns and fountains, with horse drawn carriages certainly felt that life couldn’t be better. However behind the publicity and the royal occasions there was another England, not so glorious.

The Industrial Revolution generated the perception that applying solely logic to everyday activities could maximize productivity and efficiency. Charles Dickens explores the dangers of neglecting emotions and imagination in his novel Hard Times. Dickens separates Hard Times into three books: Sowing, Reaping and Garnering in order to reveal the negative consequences of industrialization and forsaking imagination for facts through the events, settings, and characters in the novel.

Children are very impressionable during early years of their lives. They are drawn in by anything new, exciting and adventurous. They are easily convinced to believe anything. Even though they may understand it to not be true. As adults, we must be careful what we mold into the minds of children. They look to adult for answers to ease their curiosities and for the truths. In the story by Charles Baxter “Gryphon”, the students are encountered by the substitute, Miss Ferenczi, who enlightens them with untruthful tales and stories that spark their imagination. Charles Baxter, who once was an elementary teacher states, “a teacher can enter a classroom and teach anything facts or substitute facts without anyone knowing

Both Mae and Lloyd suffer from poverty. However, Lloyd is careless; he mindlessly looks after their pig and farms the land. He is highly dependent on Mae; besides, he is satisfied with his own status. On the other hand, Mae toils in ironing clothes in order to support herself and Lloyd; she is the sole breadwinner of the family. Additionally, she prepares food. Mae is unsatisfied with her own conditions; she yearns to improve herself and her life, and plans to escape from the sexual and economic exploitation of Lloyd. She is aware that her aspirations can be achieved through education. Consequently, she attends literacy classes at a school; she as Mala Renganathan expresses it, ' 'dreams of educating herself and making herself literate ' ' (2010, 8).

With both characters from each story, not knowing what to do now that their lives were changing, they clung to something to help them get by; education. In Education as a Weapon in the Hands of the Restless Poor, the teacher told the students, “Rich people learn the humanities in private schools and expensive

For the first time in Manzanar, Jeanne attends a school. She enjoyed the school, which is equipped with a blackboard, desk, reference books, lab supplies, and so on. Her school is depicted as a desirable environment for learning. She also has a good white teacher, who is strict, fair, and dedicated to teaching the children. “Because of her, when we finally returned to the outside world I was, academically at least, more than prepared to keep up with my peers” (105). Outside of school, the students like Jeanne are also introduced to many planned activities, such as camping, ballet, baton twirling, and so on for the students to explore and develop their own hobbies and interests. For example, Jeanne became passionate on baton twirling and for months she “practiced, joined the baton club at school, and even entered contests”

Walker may have set this educational difference up to show the dangerous that too much knowledge can lead to alienation, while the dangers of too little of an education can suppress a person’s fulfillment, which these two sister show.

Miss Caroline is a brand new teacher and has been trained to teach in a certain way. When she finds that Scout’s premature reading ability disrupts her teaching plan she has no idea what to do with her, and tells Scout not to read at home anymore. ‘Miss Caroline told me to tell my father not to teach me anymore, it would interfere with my reading.’ This shows how society is oblivious to individual situations and this can cause achievements to be frowned upon.

Although Rose Mary is formally trained as a teacher, in many ways she rejects the idea of traditional schooling for her children. Jeanette and her siblings grew up moving from school to school, and were often not enrolled in school at all. Rex and Rose Mary’s parenting methods are definitely controversial, as the children were often left to their own devices when figuring out the world. It is definitely shocking to imagine a 3-year-old cooking hot dogs in a room by herself, but the level of independence set upon the Walls children from early on, in many ways helped them to understand the world and their surroundings in more complex ways than usual. Rex and Rose Mary must have been doing something right, for when the children did happen to enroll in school, they always excelled in their classes. In the case of Jeanette and her sibling’s education, there may be certain aspects with which one disagrees; however, there is no denying the sheer results in how they were effectively being

The themes of the story include women’s role in society, life on the plains, and the importance of education. The theme of women’s role in society is shown as Lena and Antonia are determined to be independent and work hard to achieve what they want. The author also shows how hard the life on the plains can be, but it also shows how enjoyable it can be. The importance of education is shown through Jim. He attends the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and then went on to Harvard University becoming a successful lawyer.

Charles Dickens is one of the most renowned British writers with well-known and widespread work. Dickens was born in England in 1812 and died in 1870. During this time, Victorian England experienced an Industrial Revolution, which impacted his life tremendously. New factories and industrial machinery changed many lives of the lower class citizens. The family grew up impoverished and struggled to maintain a good lifestyle. The family’s financial situation was strained as John Dickens, Charles’s father, spent money that the family didn’t have. These societal factors were influential in Charles Dickens’s life, and the same themes present themselves in his works. When an author creates a work, frequently themes of their life events are incorporated into the theme of the book, consciously or unconsciously. Victorian Age industrial-influenced strife was a common theme in Dickens’s life and presented itself throughout Dickens’s books.

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

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

Charles Dickens is one of the most influential writers in history and was “born in Landport, now part of Portsmouth, on February 7th, 1812”(Priestly 5). Despite being the successful writer that he was in life, Dickens had very humble beginnings and because his Father, John Huffman Dickens, “lacked the money to support his family adequetly” , Dickens lived in poverty through out most of his childhood (Collins). Matters only got worse, however, when Dickens’s Father had to “spen[d] time in prison for debt” causing Dickens to have to “work in a London factory pasting labels on bottles of shoe polish” (Collins). It was a horrible experience for him, but it also helped him to no doubt feel pity for the poor, which is

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.