A Christmas Carol Scrooge S Journey with the Ghost of Present

Name______Per. 9 Mason/Camacho English 7 A Christmas Carol – Scrooge’s journey with the Ghost of Present

Directions: Scrooge travels through time with the Ghost of Christmas Past. (71-95) He visits a different situation on the SAME Christmas Eve. How is he changing? What is the evidence for this change? 1. Scrooge says: “I went forth last night on compulsion, and I learnt a lesson which is working now. Tonight, if you have aught to teach me, let me profit by it.” (72) How does this quote represent a change in Scrooge?

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2. Why does Present sprinkle kindness? How does it affect the people?

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Scrooge asks Present about Tiny Tim’s fate. (81-82) Scrooge: Spirit, tell me if Tiny Tim will live. Present: I see a vacant seat in the poor chimney corner, and a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved. If these shadows remain unaltered by the future, the child will die. Scrooge: NO, NO! Oh, no, kind spirit! Say he will be spared. Present: If these shadows remain unaltered by the future, none other of my race will find him here. What then? If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. Scrooge hung his head to hear his own words quoted by the spirit, and was overcome with penitence and grief.

3. How does this passage exemplify a change in Scrooge? (be sure to provide a before and after)

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______Present: …Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die? It may be, that in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man’s child. (83)

4. Paraphrase the above quote. What is Present saying to Scrooge?

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5. What is the tone of Mrs. Cratchit’s response to Bob’s toast to Scrooge?

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Present takes Scrooge to visit his nephew, Fred, and Fred’s wife.

Fred: He said that Christmas was a humbug, as I live! He believed it too!... He’s a comical old fellow, that’s the truth: and not so pleasant as he might be. However, his offences carry their own punishment, and I have nothing to say against him… Wife: I have no patience with him. Fred: OH, I have! I am sorry for him; I couldn’t be angry with him if I tried. Who suffers by his ill whims! Himself, always. Here, he takes it into his head to dislike us, and he won’t dine with us. What’s the consequence? He don’t lose much of a dinner. Wife: Indeed, he loses a very good dinner. Fred: Well! I’m very glad to hear it, because I haven’t great faith in these young housekeepers. I was going to say, that the consequence of his taking a dislike to use, and not making merry with us, is, as I think, that he loses some pleasant moments, which could do him no harm. I am sure he loses pleasanter companions than he can find in his own thought, wither in his mouldy old office or his dusty chambers. I mean to give him the same chance every year, whether he like it or not, for I pity him. He may rail at Christmas till he dies, but he can’t help thinking better of it--- I defy him --- if he finds me going there in good temper, year after year, and saying Uncle Scrooge, how are you? If it only puts him in the vein to leave his poor clerk fifty pounds, that’s something; and I think I shook him yesterday. … He has given us plenty of merriment, I am sure; and it would be ungrateful not to drink his health. … A merry Christmas and a happy New Year to the old man, whatever he is! He wouldn’t take it from me, but may he have it, nevertheless. Uncle Scrooge! (88-91)

6. Find and highlight two examples above to show that Fred and his wife are not negatively affected by Scrooge. How does Fred really feel about his uncle?

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7. What is the tone of the conversation about Scrooge between Fred and his wife?

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______8. Look back at the text on 90-91. Find two ways that Scrooge is showing a change in his attitude.

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Present’s time with Scrooge is nearly done. However, he has one more message for Scrooge – the gnarled children who have been hiding under Present’s robes… Scrooge asks who they are…

Present: [The children] are mans’ and they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. The boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is DOOM, unless the writing be erased. Deny it! Slander those who tell it ye! … Scrooge: Have they no refuge or resource? The spirit turned Scrooge’s words back on him for the last time. Present: Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?

9. What is the symbolism of “man’s children?” ______

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10. Why does Present warn Scrooge to “beware” them both, but the boy most of all?

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