Student S Name: Chan Wai Wang

The 29th Annual Book Report Competition For Secondary School Students

Class: 5A Name: Chan Wai Wang

Title of the book: A Christmas Carol Author: Charles Dickens Publisher: Commercial Press

The book talks about the life of an old miser who was named Scrooge. He was rich but never helped anyone. At the Christmas eve, he met the ghost of his old business partner, Marley, who passed away seven years ago . Marley told him there would be three ghosts coming to him. Just as expected, they came to Scrooge one by one. The first one was the ghost of the past, then was the ghost of the present and finally the ghost of the future. They all showed Scrooge his whole life, that is, his disagreeable past, his heartless present and his miserable future. They urged Scrooge to change his life in no time. He eventually chose to be a better man for his better future and promising future. He began to help the poor, and even he became an agreeable and generous man. Finally, he even said ‘Merry Christmas’ to everyone, something he used to think to be totally meaningless at all.

In the book, life is presented by Charles Dickens as very simple. It is composed of the past, present and future. The past is for us to explore and know ourselves. Like Scrooge, he looked at the lonely boy who was left alone in school during Christmas. At the moment, he knew the boy was his past and he figured out the reason why he hated Christmas. What I want to bring out is that knowing ourselves is the key to liberating ourselves. That was the reason for Scrooge’s sense of guilt to the poor boy who sang Christmas carols outside his office. His sense of guilt meant he had taken the first step to emancipate himself from the hatred.

For the meaning of future, it is for us to ponder who we want to be, to reflect on whether what we are doing now is right or not. Without seeing his own death, Scrooge might not want such changes in his life. Reading his name on the gravestone was the last straw on his stoned heart. It had broken him and rebuilt him to another man, a man who was generous, helpful and merciful.

No matter what, the present is the paramount, because it means a chance and a choice for us to choose and change our future so as to enjoy a better life and to be a better person. ‘Merry Christmas’ – Scrooge used the simple words to show his decision and the words brought him to the light. So, whether our past cast a shadow over us or not, whether our future will ignite us or not, we should live the best life now. We are the only ones who can control our lives.

To me, life is like driving for we may sometimes get lost, so we look back and find where we came from and where we are heading. However, our life should not be always filled with reminiscence of the past and we should never live in the memories without goals, because we may finally become someone who is pathetic and has never wanted to be. That is detrimental to our personal growth. It seems like driving. If we only look at the things behind us, we will easily get crashed or reach nowhere undesirably.

The present is a steering wheel. It decides our future and where we go. So, control your steering wheel sensibly and correctly, which is the key to securing a better life . It is a fact that we do not have a chance to foresee our future like Scrooge, yet we all have a chance to control the present to make a difference for the better life like Scrooge. That is of paramount importance. Our future may be good or bad, happy or sad. No matter what it will be like, we must try our best to strive for the best future as much as we can.

On the very surface, Scrooge was living by himself. He was the only one in his world. However, life is like an iron chain, we are only one of the loops. We never live by ourselves but with others. If we abandon people around us, the only consequence is that we will get abandoned and condemned. It is therefore the right time to help others in need when we are strong enough and others would help us when we are feeble. Otherwise, we will die miserably and lonely like the fatal and tragic death of Scrooge projected by the ghost presents to him.

Life is a journey. Hold our steering wheel tight, safe and sound. Life is a chain. We are bound by duties and responsibilities. Learn to live with others with respect and love like the awakening Scrooge.