"A Christmas Carol" in Today's Terms

     A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, is a classic novel depicting the separation of people by class on a line dividing them between rich and poor. There is no middle class in the novel, where people can live comfortably and have some luxuries in their life with a little wiggle room in their finances. There is only the rich, the poor, and the homeless. Having been written and published almost 200 years ago, it would seem that too many things have changed for it to be any more relevant than another Christmas story. While the disparity between classes has lessened and programs exist today to help the less fortunate, there are still many lessons to be learned from the novel, and scenes that depict conditions similar to what some people continue to live in today. Most notable of these is the poor family, like the Cratchits in the book, and the streets that were "...foul and narrow; the shops and houses wretched; the people half naked, drunken, slipshod, ugly."

    The Cratchits are described wearing clothes that are threadbare and have been mended multiple times. At the first glance of Mrs. Cratchit, she is "...dressed out but poorly in a twice turned gown, but brave in ribbons, and make a goodly show for sixpence..." Many of the clothes the children wear are either too small or too big for them. The food they eat is less and cheaper, compared to the feast Mr. Fezziwig gives in the previous chapter. The family is clearly poor, but still has enough to not be homeless. Families such as the Cratchits still exist in today's time. One example of such a family would be family living in a mobile home or a single apartment because it is the only thing they can afford, and living on government assistance checks. There are differences between today's version of a poor family and the Cratchits as there are food and clothing banks that provide free items to assist them, but they still have considerably less money than a middle-class family and much less than a rich family. Like the Cratchits, because they have some sort of income or assistance, they have enough to not be homeless.

    The third spirit in A Christmas Carol shows Scrooge one scene of the most destitute areas of the city. Everything in the area is wretched, dirty, ugly, and the people are not described much better. The obvious example that would compare in today's terms is a homeless camp, where tents line the street and what we might view as garbage is strewn everywhere. Even though today the homeless have more than the homeless described in the novel had, it is still far less than most people have. To say they did that to themselves through the use of drugs and alcohol is beside the point. Substance abuse also existed in the novel, where the people are described as "drunken." Many things remain the same between the time period of the novel, and today's time.

    Despite being written 177 years ago, there are still many clear correlations between the depictions in the novel and what we can see in our own world. The novel was meant to display the wrongs and division of the world in moral terms. While things have changed for the better disparity still exists. Obviously everything wrong with the world cannot be fixed in a day by one solution, but small gestures of kindness and care towards the people who have less may have a big impact on their lives.

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