Literary Analysis Paragraph Sample

Prompt:

What hints are there that Scrooge may still change for the better?

Response:

Over the course of Act I, Scrooge is changing for the better. For example, at the beginning of the Act he mistreats a young boy outside his counting house who is singing

Christmas carols. After Past takes Scrooge to visit the Young Scrooge as a boy, Scrooge says to

Past that he wishes he had “given him something” (656). Scrooge as an older man identifies with how he mistreated the young caroler given how he was mistreated by the schoolmaster and his own father. These realizations are the first time he has opened his hardened heart to the feelings of pain and loneliness beginning the change within him. In addition to the changes that begin in older Scrooge because of the young caroler, he also begins to feel sorrow when he relives

Fezziwig’s Christmas party. Scrooge realizes that Fezziwig was a kind-hearted man who treated his employees kindly. Scrooge also comes to see that a few kind words and a few schillings spent for goodwill builds friendly, happy relationships and then ultimately feels sadness for how he treats his apprentice, Cratchit. Furthermore, Scrooge weeps over the death of his sister, Fan. This also shows the change he is experiencing, because when he is reminded of her kind heart, Past asks about Fan’s only son, Scrooge’s nephew, who comes by every Christmas Eve to invite

Scrooge over for dinner. Scrooge comes to see the nephew’s invite as another example of kindness and warmth in human kind. Scrooge’s heart clearly is affected by the visions of his past, and he is changing from a man with a hardened heart to one who sees the value in human compassion.