Hard Times

.Hard Times

In the novel Hard Times, by Charles Dickens, we can immediately see the problems that occurred in England around the times period of the mid 18oo’s. Dickens shows us how the class system works and what the economy was then and what it would shape out to be. This novel is split into three books, the “Sowing”, “Reaping”, and “Garnering”.

In the first book, we can see that it is aptly named because we begin to learn about who the characters are and what they are about. The characters begin to “sow” or plant their identities, and we can now see the framework of the first book. In the second book, we can see that the characters are beginning to “reap” what sowed in the first book. They sowed seeds of unkindness, logic, fact, dishonesty, and discontent. For these, they reaped unhappiness, disillusionment and destruction, loneliness, and ostracism. Each character reaped a harvest of his own making. In the third book, we see the characters picking up the pieces of what is left of their lives. Mr. Gradgrind, after realizing the failure of his system, tries to help his children, and finally starts to act as a concerned father. At the same time we can see Bounderby, who was found out to be a fraud is left alone without his reputation. Each if the characters in the novel, sow, reap and garner what is left.

During the time period that this novel was written the industrial revolution ...