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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 message in the whole book to Victorian society at that time (1843)

“the insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry brothers in the dust” – Dickens highlights the irony of the insects argument. At the start of the book, Scrooge was the insect.

Fires are a symbol – the good have blazing fires in horrendous environment conditions, it is a symbol of their spiritual and emotional warmth and goodness.

Dickens honours the working class by showing Scrooge sailors, miners and other key working class groups who ‘turned’ the economy and helped Victorian society run and prosper but they did not become prosperous – the rich did. Dickens is highlighting the unfairness.

 

Want and Ignorance:

https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/dec/23/ignorance-and-want-why-charles-dickenss-a-christmas-carol-is-as-relevant-today-as-ever

 

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