~The Society of Avid Young Readers~

Dec. 16, 2007

Stave II

I am curious to find out how many of you have read any of Dicken’s works before. I have only read David Copperfield, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, and A Tale of Two Cities. Which ones have you read (if any)?

Discussion Notes

We read the part where the Ghost takes Scrooge back to his past. The experience seems to really affect Scrooge emotionally. It's strange to see him get so emotional about things when he's already been portrayed as a miserly and un-feeling old crab.

Here is one of the passages from the reading that struck me as important:

   "'Another idol has displaced me; and if it can cheer and comfort you in time to come, as I would have tried to do, I have no just cause to grieve.'
   'What Idol has displaced you?' he rejoined.
   'A golden one.'
   'This is the even-handed dealing of the world!' he said. 'There is nothing on which it is so hard as poverty; and there is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth!'"

I think this is the answer to the first discussion question from Stave I ("Why is Scrooge so 'scroogy?'"). Belle says that he has found another "idol" in his life. What is it? Money.

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. ~ 1 Timothy 6:9-10 NKJV

Greed and selfishness began to consume him so much that he couldn't even appreciate the good things in his life. I think that, to an extent, something like that has probably happened to all of us at some point. We get caught up in our own affairs and ignore the people who are closest to us--like our family. It's a huge temptation for me to do my own thing and get irritated at my family when they get in the way of my instant gratification. I think that was what happened to Scrooge in a more serious way. Money started taking precedent in his life, and he lost what was really important.

Discussion Questions

1. How did Scrooge's childhood shape him into the man that he became?
2. Why do you think that Scrooge wished he had given something to the boy at his door? Why did he want to "say a few words" to his clerk?

Tomorrow, make sure to read Stave III: "The Second of the Three Spirits," and then come back on Tuesday to post in the discussion.

Enjoy the Lord's Day!
~Sylvia

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Comments

Dec. 16, 2007 - Untitled Comment

Posted by sweetpotato

1. I think if Scrooge had reacted differently to his childhood he would have been a much different man. If he had even remembered the good lessons he learned as a child, he would have been different. But somehow avarice pushed that stuff out of the way. It mentioned somewhere in the text that he had grown up in poverty. Perhaps that was why he was so obsessed with collecting money--he reacted wrongly to his poverty as a child.

2. I think all of a sudden he could relate to them. He saw himself in that little boy, and after seeing how lonely he was as a boy, he wished he could do something for this other little boy.

And then, after seeing the joy that his master brought to him as an apprentice, he saw himself in his clerk, and wished he could bring the clerk some of that joy.
(Is that as clear as mud, or what?)

Edited by sweetpotato on Dec. 16, 2007 at 10:35 PM

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