Short Story : The Christmas Miracle By Rebeca Curtis

Imagine a staged production of A Christmas Carol set in 1843. See the stage set in the exact time it was written by Charles Dickens. The foggy, crowded streets abuzz with carolers and shoppers, the children staring wide eyed into the shops and bakeries. Hear the bells ringing as a round of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” fills the gaslit streets with joy. As a child, going to see A Christmas Carol was one of my fondest Christmas memories. To witness Scrooge 's’ transformation from a mean, greedy old man to a joyous, loving benefactor always left me smiling and filled me with hope.

During Christmastime, the family trades simple gifts to one another. Francie attends a Christmas event for the underprivileged children, where all the kids are too proud to accept any of the offers. When a small child wants to give away one of her dolls to whoever is named “Mary,” no one stirs. Francie, not wanting to let the gift to go to waste, lies about her name to bring the doll home. Although all of the other children keep their pride, she loses it, and feel embarrassed.

As the story develops, the reader’s thoughts are guided by the structure of the piece in a way that Tan is able to share an important lesson through the form of a personal narrative. The opening text immediately introduces the narrator and her insecurities as she wishes for a “slim new American nose” (Tan 1). The story initially takes on a negative tone as Tan proceeds to have a negative outlook throughout the entire evening. Her overwhelming anxiety can almost be felt by the reader as she worries what Robert will think of her “noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners” and overall “shabby Chinese Christmas” (Tan 1). With the tone set, Tan continues to amplify each dreadful detail of her family’s traditional Christmas Eve dinner. This includes the actual meal, that of which appeared to be

It is curious that as children, humans have the ability to observe and remember details of specific situations and instances yet lack the ability to describe them. Truman Capote, as a grown man, took advantage of his vivid memories and composed the short work, "A Christmas Memory." The story begins in late November, a month symbolic of all the years gone by that Capote could remember beginning preparations for Christmas fruitcakes.

Although a sociologist can look at Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch that Stole Christmas in all three of the major theoretical perspectives, the main one expressed is symbolic interactionism. The Grinch that Stole Christmas is a story about a “who” who was not considered to be part of their “whoville” society due to the fact that he not only looked different from the rest of the people, but he acted in different ways than their norms. The story is merely about how the Grinch hates the “whos,” because of how they treated him; until, a little girl named Cindy Lou Who gains a curiosity for the Grinch and wants to give him another chance to be a part of their society. Throughout the story both of the main characters develop a deep connection to each other. Upon viewing the story from a symbolic interaction perspective view, I discovered how the story thematically symbolizes an important part of Christmas by giving people another chance; meanwhile, focusing on the relationship between the main two characters help them regain faith, and while the setting symbolizes their society’s purpose.

As Jack wonders through the forest he stumbles upon a doorway to Christmastown, he is impressed by the excitement and feeling of Christmas. Jack shows Halloweentown what he has found and tries to explain Christmas. He decides to take over Christmas by getting the residents of Halloweentown to follow through with his plan. Part of his plan is to get the kid trio to kidnap “Sandy Claws’’. Sally has a horrible premonition that Jack’s Christmas is going to go all

“The Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season! Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason. It could be that his head wasn't screwed on quite right. It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were to tight. But I think that the most likely reason of all May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.” (Seuss).

Robert Butler used setting and tone to establish thematic meaning in the story “Christmas 1910” by placing the setting at a very cold, isolated, and depressing house. This led to the thematic meaning because the main character, Abigail, is affected by the setting. If the house wasn’t placed where it was the story would be completely different.

When a person is happy and joyous on a special occasion like Christmas, they tend to overlook the things that they want in life and focus more on their family. The family only had three cups to use one of which was broken yet they still carried on as if nothing was wrong. The lack of cups still did not impede the Cratchits from enjoying their night. The family could have acknowledged it but they wanted to just spend the night reminiscing on past memories and enjoying the warmth and love of Christmas. Here the Cratchits reveal the theme because they were happily relishing each other’s company rather than talking about the lack of supplies the family has shows that money isn’t

In Spring Ford Community Theater’s production of A Christmas Carol, the rhetoric utilized by the director and actors in the creation of this play helps strengthen the argument that the tale is still relevant and connects to the modern era, which is proposed in Stephanie Allen’s Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” Told Uncomfortable Truths About Victorian Society, But Does it Have Anything to Teach Us Today?. Through the use of emotional appeals and the chronological progression of the play, this production makes the tale believable and reconnects it to common themes found in modern literature. The purpose of this production is to reinforce how these themes affect life and to display a positive outlook to the holiday season, which is done by the connection of this production with the viewer.

There is no best part of the holiday season. The holidays are a pile of overused Christmas songs mixed will divorced parents spoiling their children to make their kids like them over their ex. The large and ‘great’ holiday meals will fatten people up like its thanksgiving. The human race is crumbling under the stars of My 600 Pound life. Also, people get presents from multiple people pretending to be their friends, and the one family member they actually like. Then one will see all the children around the world awaiting some fat old man to creep into their house and steal their food. Next, one will see the bratty children running around with their new toys and screaming at the top of their lungs. One may see the author as a Grinch, but they

I get to put on my big jacket and my gloves, rushing to the school to launch poorly formed snowballs at my friends. Winter is all about Christmas though. I couldn't escape it, everything around me felt magical. My school always held activities involving Christmas somehow. Wether it be a lesson on the history of Christmas or just connect the dots that unsurprisingly managed to form a reindeer or jolly old saint Nicholas himself - it didn't matter. I was ecstatic for Christmas. When the day came, presents packed around the tree coated in fake snow, I ripped into each present with anticipation and excitement plastered over my face. A brand new update on the toys i owned. Then Christmas dinner at my grans soon after: the classic turkey and gravy shoved into my face, as my family told jokes and wore hats they got from the Christmas crackers. It was too big to fit my small head, but it was Christmas, there was no such thing as

But there were no gifts. Not one. "But we’ve got each other," Victor’s mother said, but she knew it was just a dry recitation of the old Christmas movies they watched on television. It wasn’t real. Victor watched his father cry huge, gasping tears. Indian tears.” (Every little hurricane p.22 ) .Now that topic, Christmas of course is usually associated with the general feeling of happiness and family and making other religions inferior ,but how Sherman Alexis interprets this holiday is not even relevant to the general idea of the pain and suffering these people are going through. If you are still following along you can see how emotions in this story can be exposed to represent so much more than what you originally never gave a second thought about. Victor's father is a great example because you have a father who wants to love his son ,but expresses it through neglect and alcoholism, it's a little confusing , I know, but a quote from the chapter “ Because my father said he was the only Indian who saw Jimi Hendrix “... It forced her to leave him. They fought each other with the kind of graceful anger that only love can create. Still, their love was passionate, unpredictable, and selfish. My mother and father would get drunk and leave the parties abruptly to go home and make love."Don’t tell your father I told you this," my mother said. "But there must have been a hundred times he

When Melinda started her first day of high school, she suffered from peer pressure with her best friend- who had just left her, and everyone had hated her because she ruined a party during summer break by calling the police. Melinda knew that no one knew the truth, but she was afraid to speak out about it. Laurie Anderson used the allusion of Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer

I think Christmas has always been one of my favorite holidays. Maybe because of the special atmosphere that you can feel everywhere, in shops, restaurants , pubs and even streets, where you can hear the magical carols, or maybe it's because of its religious background, but what I can tell you for sure is that I can't think of anything more exciting than the image of the entire family preparing the Christmas Tree or fixing the Christmas dishes.