Hinano's English Blog: A Christmas Carol

"Oh, It's a wonderful pudding!" Bob Cratchit said. Everybody said something about budding. But nobody said it was a small pudding for a large family.

Today, I read A Christmas Carol written by Charles Dickens. This is one of the book in the series of Helbling Readers. Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” opens with the protagonist, miserly businessman Ebenezer Scrooge, working late on Christmas Eve in his London office when his nephew Fred drops by to invite him to Christmas dinner. Fred’s Christmas greetings—repeated annually and annually declined—send Scrooge into a rant against the holiday and those who celebrate it. When Scrooge’s clerk, Bob Cratchit, quietly applauds Fred’s inspirational defense of Christmas, Scrooge threatens to fire him. As Fred leaves, a pair of gentlemen collecting money for the poor call on Scrooge, but he quickly dismisses them with the reminder that he already supports prisons and workhouses for the poor.

I think that A Christmas Carol is a heartwarming story to read at anytime but especially over the holidays. It is a constant reminder to have a giving and loving spirit. The theme of watching out for your neighbors and families could make a difference in the world we now know. Dickens is trying to spread some holiday cheer and make the world a much better place in which to live. Instead of being greedy and whiny, make a change in your life and in others.