"Christmas Carol" is a representative novella by British writer Charles Dee, which tells the story of the selfish, miserly and greedy Skruggi on Christmas Eve, who spends a night of horror with three ghosts representing the past, present and future, and after dawn, he is inspired to become charitable and kind to others.
Before reading the book, I was curious about how Dickens's pen could arrange to turn such a completely miserly as Scrooge into a great benevolent person.
And all of this has to start with the horror night of Christmas Eve:
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > introduction: the beginning of a change of fate - a sinful good friend repents of the beginning, and atones for his sins while seeking hope for Scrooge</h1>
The selfish Scroogey has an equally selfish partner, Marley, and the story begins with Marley's funeral.
After finishing Marley's funeral with the least amount of money, Scrooge continued to live on a dime, harshly treating his only employee, his office cramped and cold, his residence gloomy and old, and his life not at all like a rich man.
On Christmas Eve, his nephew wished him a "Merry Christmas" and invited him to his house for dinner, but he ruthlessly refused, thinking to himself: Instead of going to his nephew's house, let him go to the ghost first.
So the wish came true, and When Scrooge, who hated Christmas to the extreme, returned to his residence after work, the ghost of his old friend Marley appeared and engaged in a conversation with him that was about to change Scroogei's fate.
Old Marley was bound by heavy chains, which consisted of cash boxes, keys, padlocks, books, steel wallets and other things he cared about most in his lifetime, and he confided to Scrooge that he regretted that he had taken money too seriously and was unwilling to help people, so that after his death, he indulged in endless regret and the torture he had caused by his own hands, and there was no moment of peace.
Di Updater's setup has several advantages: first, the attraction of ghost stories to readers is unquestionable, and second, Marley Sr. will be used as a negative teaching material to warn Scrooge and readers from time to time, laying the groundwork for Slughi's subsequent changes.
Marley and Scroogei are equivalent to a person standing at a fork in the road of fate, choosing to bury his head in obstinacy, Marley finally regrets everything after death, and begins his road of atonement - warning his only friend Sluggy on Christmas Eve, giving him a chance to change his fate, that is, on this night there will be three ghosts to haunt him, giving him the opportunity and hope to escape the punishment of fate.
At this time, Scrooge's heart was rejected, and although his heart was strongly frightened and shocked, his subconscious refused to accept all this. In the fear of ghosts and the luck of hoping that old Marley would lie, he ushered in the first ghost, "Past Christmas".
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the first ghost: it is a happy past that we cannot remember, but it is always buried by our own hands</h1>
The ghost Marley leaves the scene, the bell rings at midnight, and the ghost named "Past Christmas" appears.
This ghost has the body of a child and the gray hair of an old man, and the most special thing is that it emits a strong light above its head. It takes Scrooge back to a time he can't remember:
During this time, Scrooge saw the introverted and lonely child Scroogey who longed for fairy tales, the teenager Scrooge who cheered and looked forward to going home for Christmas, and the grateful young Scroogei who was still working hard at Christmas, And Scroogei saw "a thousand thoughts, expectations, joys and worries that he had long forgotten" from himself in the constant time period, this time called the past had the affection and love that he once cherished incomparably, but what made Scrooge become the selfish appearance he is now?
A passage from Scrooge's former fiancée when she broke up with him gave the answer:
"You're so scared of the world,...... You put all your hopes into the pursuit of wealth and don't be ridiculed for being poor. I watched as your noble ambitions fell one by one until making money completely occupied your mind. ”
Because of the deep fear of poverty in childhood, the young Skruggi realized early on that "the most difficult thing in life is poverty", the discrimination suffered from poverty since childhood made him miserable, has become his nightmare, seeing here I am sad for him, the experience of childhood is often extremely important to a person, when other children call friends to accompany the sleigh to Christmas, and he can only imagine fairy tale scenes in the dilapidated house, the seeds of poverty hatred have been quietly planted in the heart of this child.
With the increasing number of times he encountered the gap between rich and poor in the process of growing up, coupled with no one to guide, Scrooge gradually took a detour and entered the eyes of money, for which he did not hesitate to abandon his family and love, and his fiancée, who loved him deeply, said a word when he said goodbye to him:
“...... You will soon forget all about this past, as if you had woken up in time from an unprofitable dream and rejoiced. May you have fun in the life you choose. ”
The yearning for money itself is not wrong, most people have a yearning for a better life in their hearts to have the motivation to struggle. The reason why Scrooge has reached the point where he is today is that he has demonized money and formed an obsession in his heart, and the birth of money itself is to facilitate and improve people's lives, but the fear of poverty makes Scrooge live as a slave to money, just like the dragon of Western legend, guarding piles of gold and silver jewelry but useless, hurting his loved ones with words and actions, and finally only cold money and a body of sin are left.
After returning from the past, Scrutgi's money-corrupted heart has loosened a little, remembering the good times of the past makes him shed tears, but still says "a pimple" with his mouth, and uses the lamp-out hat to extinguish the light that symbolizes the good past on the top of the ghost's head, just as we deal with the old memories, the ghost leaves, and Scroogei is still the slave who surrenders to the feet of money.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the second ghost: happiness in this world cannot be absolutely measured by money</h1>
While the iron whiskers are hot, a second ghost, "Christmas Now", appears.
It implies that people will always spontaneously rush to the present, unlike the first ghost who needs to come to the door by himself, and the second ghost who stays quietly in another room, waiting for Scrooge to find himself.
It was an equally pleasant and kind ghost who took Scrooge to see how poor people spent Christmas.
The whole city is preparing for the day, with the abundant fruit supplies in the street shops, the people in the bakeries, the shiny ribbons on the clothes of the housewives who are struggling... Welcome to Christmas.
Led by the second ghost, Scrooge saw a joy he had never noticed before, and was interested in the games played by the poor people he knew and his nephew. At the same time, he also knew what he thought in the eyes of others: a poor guy who was annoying.
Although disgusted by his usual selfishness and indifference, on Christmas Day, Scrooge's clerk family and nephew's family still sincerely wish him "Merry Christmas". Unconsciously, Scrooge's mood became relaxed and cheerful, and he, who had previously disdained these "hypocritical" greetings, actually had the idea of thanking them.
The warmth and kindness of human nature further shook Skruggi's indifferent heart, human nature has good and evil, there are those who made little Skrugy once hurt the unbearable people, there are also shining points of humanity, willing to accept his good people, but he always selectively ignores this, turning a blind eye to warm people, only believing that he will not betray his money.
Fortunately, Marley's efforts were not in vain, and after realizing that the level of happiness was not necessarily proportional to the amount of money, he had begun to realize that his previous concept of respecting money was not necessarily correct. The more money does not necessarily mean that the happier you are, and the happiness of this world should be measured by money in the warmth and blessing of relatives.
But the poverty of his childhood was too deep, and at this moment, Skruggie was not completely enlightened.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the third ghost: the gloomy future is the whistle that comes to warn</h1>
The second ghost had just left, and the third ghost, which represented the "Future Christmas", came like a wind: it was wrapped in a dark robe, revealing only a pair of hands to show the direction of Scrooge, somber and mysterious.
At the behest of the third ghost, Scroogei saw his future: dying alone in his dwelling, bed tent, clothes, boots, blankets... Almost everything that could be sold was looted, leaving only a tattered sheet on his "looted, abandoned, unguarded, crying, and uncared for" body.
This was the most shocking scene of Skruggi, the breath of death had never been so close to him, coupled with the bleak scene after death made his heart even more frightened, the heart that was frozen by money began to awaken greatly, he begged and prayed to the ghost, begging it to return to reality, praying that his fate could be reversed, and under such a prayer, the ghost gradually disappeared and became a bedpost.
He woke up and found that today was still Christmas, and he still had a chance to save it!
After experiencing three ghosts, the awakened Scroogei is no longer the selfish, greedy, and unscrupulous Scrooge, he has understood the meaning of life, and has decided to use the wealth he has to bring happiness to others: he anonymously bought a huge turkey for the poor clerk's family, raised the clerk's salary, donated a large sum of money to the charity that had previously refused, and greeted each one with friendliness and warmth...
From the descriptions in the book, I can see that at this moment, he has reconciled with the obsession of his childhood, and while bringing happiness to others, he also feels a kind of happiness that he has never felt before.
I am glad that Scroogei was able to save himself in the end, and at the same time bring happiness to others, even if there is no happy and satisfying childhood, but will have a warm old age.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the relevance of "A Christmas Carol</h1>."
Di Xinxin is a great writer, in the story of a person's life condensed into one night to present, realist critical color and romantic atmosphere, writing skills can not be described as deep, insight and portrayal of human nature can not be described as profound. In the book, he deeply explores the meaning of money: if money is only used for hoarding, it is just a pile of metal paper, and only when it is really used and used in practice can money play its own role.
The three ghosts show the past, present and future events in front of Scrooge's eyes, and he watches himself grow from a happy child to a selfish adult, to reconcile with his childhood and rediscover himself, and experience the shock of the waves in his heart.
Looking at reality, we may have all experienced the baptism of these three ghosts, had a childhood that once had nothing but was extremely happy, and were also in the present where reality was obsessed with turning a blind eye to happiness, and at the same time holding a fearful and resistant attitude towards the future, trembling and walking majestically on the road of life, even if they already have a lot but no longer feel happy.
The pain that human beings experienced in childhood often requires a lifetime of redemption, making themselves happy is an ability, contentment is a way, and making others happy by helping others is a shortcut.
The so-called "give people roses, hands have incense", can help others, is the embodiment of our self-actualization needs to be satisfied, no matter how much money we have, we can't exchange for warm hearts, Scroogei is a lesson for the past, don't really wait until you lose this ability, and then regret it. As the book says:
"All these ghosts, obviously tragic, are because they want to help people, but they have lost this ability forever."