Miss Lynch's KS4 Class of 2019 English Blog

Even with the little they, the Cratchits are appreciative. They are not greedy. Word for the Cratchits Tiny tiny little atom Tiny Tim’s “withered” hand “half of half”   There is a real sense these people are not hoarding the planet or societal resources. The Cratchits represent the poor. The Cratchits pay attention to the sounds and smells of the food also and enjoy it. Dickens uses hyperbole when talking about the pudding to highlight how importance, rare and incredible and valued it is. Pudding – ”small pudding for a large family”. Bob’s positive perception – “called a circle, meaning half a one” The Cratchits family wealth: “two tumbler and a custard cup without a handle” – this is a symbol of their wealth and how they are viewed in society as people’s status is made up of their possessions. Their possessions are pitiful. “if none of these shadows remain unaltered by the future” This is perhaps Dicken’s key mess

Dicken’s decadent descriptions and listing of the food available for purchase show the greed and excessiveness of the rich, it then, due to his choice to then show the poor waiting in line for food donations- this juxtaposition further highlights the gulf between the rich and poor. Consider the underlying messages about the rich and poor that Dickens is giving through the contrasting food ‘situations’. “tumbling out into the street in their apoplectic opulence”. “Spanish onions, shining in their fatness of their growth like Spanish friars” – references to religion perhaps further being critical of the so called Christian Victorian society. Dickens often refers to the fatness and largeness of certain people – the capitalists. Dickens described the fruits that are mere decorations “pears and apples clustered high in blooming pyramids ”. There is an almost cruelty in the decorations and descriptions of the food which are deliberately there to entrance people – but ma

A Christmas Carol   First sentence in the text is about death – introduces a negative atmosphere and the theme of death. A negative beginning. In the first page there are many words in the lexical field of death. There are multiple references to death. Repetition of Marley was dead. Dead as a doornail – simile. Repetition of dead occurs often in the first page, even including the superlative “deadest”. This highlights the presence of death and further the morbid atmosphere. Dickens is highlighting the current awful situation Scrooge is in, also is he suggesting that the Victorian era is morbid and depressing. The word choice of “unhallowed” suggests sinful but also links to the theme of religion. Repetition of sole, sole = only. Introduces the theme of loneliness. In the first page alone the word dead is included 6 times. Furthermore the word “sole” is repeated five times furthering the theme of loneliness. The fact Scrooge does not spend the mon