Hannah A Christmas Carol Book Report

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is a wonderful novel filled with holiday spirit and important life lessons. This novel is a magnificent representation of the real meaning of Christmas. This book takes us on a journey with Ebenezer Scrooge through his past, present, and yet to come Christmases. Scrooge is a very wealthy man who hates everything about Christmas time. He doesn’t give his employees any benefits; even though he could pay for an extra lump of coal for his employee’s fire, he doesn’t and the worker’s tiny room is frigid. Scrooge does these things just to spite anything and everything.

One evening, Scrooge begins to see Jacob Marley’s face in everything he looks at. (Jacob Marley was Scrooge’s old business partner who died seven years earlier). This freaks Ebenezer out but he shakes it off as food poisoning or something along those lines. Soon enough Marley shows up as a transparent figure in Scrooge’s room. He comes to tell Scrooge that he has suffered the last seven years because of all his sins and he comes to tell Scrooge that three ghosts will visit him in the next three nights. The three spirits will come to save Scrooge from Marley’s very fate.

The three ghosts visit Ebenezer and through and through he transforms into a new man. He realizes that life is short and he should enjoy other people’s company and love towards him. The first ghost took him to his past and showed why he began to hate Christmas- because he was always left alone at that time of year and he hated everyone for that. The second ghost takes him to the home of Bob Cratchit, one of his employees; the spirit shows Scrooge how poor this family is. The Cratchits also have a son who is crippled the family can’t afford to take proper care of their son. Scrooge begins to feel compassion towards this family and wonders if the son will make it to next Christmas. The third ghost is a Grim Reaper who takes Scrooge to the graveyard where he is buried and Scrooge becomes fearful of his future. Through these visits from the ghosts, he realizes that he isn’t very nice and there are bigger things in the world than just him, he also feels great full for the second chance at life.

I personally loved this book. It was a great novel to read over winter break because of the theme and it was a fun book to read as well. This novel is written in allegory form, which is the use of symbolic representation. This representation was in the form of the three spirits who all represented something different in the big meaning of the text. The Ghost of Christmas Past represents memory because of his glowing head; the Ghost of Christmas Present represents generosity, empathy, and the Christmas spirit; and the reaper-like Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come represents the fear of death.

I loved the way this book was written. The book flowed between each of the spirit’s lessons through Ebenezer’s life, past, present and future. With the allegorical style, the representations helped me understand and begin to love the book. I love this book because it teaches everyone the real and true meaning of Christmas and the way that everyone should be thankful and feel blessed for their lives. Scrooge realized that he was living his life in a negative slump and through the journeys of the three ghosts he realized that he needed to get out of that slump and be thankful for his life. This lesson really touched me and made me realize that you can’t look at everything in a negative way.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants an uplifting, fun and easy read. The journey through Ebenezer’s life is enriching and inspirational.