A Christmas Carol Vs. The Industrial Revolution

A Christmas Carol vs. The Industrial Revolution
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Almost all of America has some point on Christmas Eve or even Christmas Day sat down in front of the TV and watched A Christmas Carol on one of the local channels. It’s like a tradition at my house and probably is at many other households as well. Charles Dickens created the modern Christmas, the Christmas we all know and celebrate today. When we watch the movie or read his book, people mainly focus on the story of Christmas and how Dickens creates that image in our head. One major story we miss by just thinking about the Christmas season is what the economy and society was like during his lifetime. Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol after the British government changed the welfare system
Another hardship during this time was the use of child labor for work in many factories and mines. Dickens’ novel personified the industrial revolution in a story with characters. This novel suggests two questions; what were people’s views of society during the revolution and what can be done about it? Dickens’ was in utter disgust of the lifestyle conditions for the working class. He portrays how the quality of life is complete polar opposites between the upper class and lower class in his diction. The well-to-do citizens live contented with their big pockets behind them, either holding a high position at a company or simply from inheritances. The working class, on the other hand, lives on edge with the stress of not knowing whether or not they will have enough money to put food on the table for their families each night. Dickens’ main character, Scrooge, symbolized the ignorance owners and managers of big companies had towards their employees’ well-being. Scrooge, like the managers, believe that because they are
The capitalists had the idea that “time is money” so the more workers they had working, the faster things would get done, so the more money big companies would make. They believed that “Industry enables men to earn their living; it should also enable them to learn to live.”1 Supporters of capitalism believed that men should work for “self worth”, that putting the lower class to work builds character and develops a since of discipline for people. They thought of it to be a form of nationalism. Men were made to work to elevate their social status… that is unless they were already born into one. Marxism represented those seeking revolutionary change in the economy. Marxist’s believed that to help with the number of child labor laws, poor families should stop having children. They believed the industrial revolution was bound to happen, it was the “product of a long course of development, of a series of revolutions in the modes of production and exchange”. Marxism had economics always as their main concern, which they shared with capitalists. A main belief of theirs was the “class of labor workers only live as long as they find work, and those who find work will only work as long as their labor increases capital”2. Christians on the other hand wanted to help those who were less fortunate. William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army in 1879, and his wife “devoted themselves to rescuing and rehabilitating the