Consequences without an imagionation
Hard Times by Charles Dickens is set out in three different books: The Sowing; The Reaping; The Garnering. They are named so as it has a special reference to the education and upbringing of children. The titles collectively underline the basic plot. It suggests that the grounding children received in their formative years would directly affect their adult lives. This comes evident as pupils of the Gradgrind system of education is not ready to tackle situations, which require imagination or experience in life.
In Hard Times the two characters that are most affected by the Gradgrind system of education are Tom and Louisa Gradgrind. The Gradgrind system of education is the reason why Tom and Louisa are lacking in imagination and therefore are not ready to tackle every day human life. The Gradgrind education system was very common in Victorian times and was probably devised by the many rich powerful people ready to employ the pupils once graduated. As this type of education teaches its pupil's to be a passive unthinking work force, therefore the employers could manipulate their minds, doing whatever they were told. The system forces the pupils to intake pure hard facts, nothing else, therefore not exercising the imagination at all. Leading the pupils to be lost in the surrounding world when a difficult problem requiring experience or maturity arises, as the Gradgrind system of education denies access to this knowledge.
The Gradgrind system of education seems to wipe out any chance of any fiction or fantasy in the minds of the pupils. If Louisa or Tom happen to even have the slightest hint of fantasy or fiction it would be immediately destroyed by their father who was a teac...
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...is material, therefore losing readers. Also I think that was the reason why Louisa close relationship with Harthouse was justified by the way Bounderby treated her.
Summing up all the evidence I have deduced that the Gradgrind system of education was designed by powerful people to make an unthinking passive workforce so that they could take advantage of them and they wouldn’t rebel. The system was probably intended to produce people with no ability to think for themselves, with suppressed imaginations. The Gradgrind system of education has no interest in making pupils into well rounded people and is only an evil way of denying children their childhood for their own personal benefit. In Hard Times Dickens uses the book as the medium to express his bitter feelings against systems of education that were like Gradgrind’s, that were plentiful in Victorian Times.
...ild, when he would hide and daydream, up until his first years of college, when he would avoid areas that were difficult, the author recognized that there was important link between challenging the student on a meaningful level and the degree to which the student eventually produced. “I felt stupid telling them I was… well – stupid.” (Rose 43) Here, Rose shows an example of how poor preparation and low standards in the classroom can make a student feel inadequate. Indeed, one can see how many things seemingly unrelated do affect a student’s ability to learn.
Education plays a big role in our daily lives. Education is commonly defined as a process of learning and obtaining knowledge. The story takes place beginning in the late 1950s to the early 2000s. Jeannette Walls is the main character of the story and the narrator. She tells the events of her life living with careless and yet loving parents. This family of six lived in many cities and towns and went through tough states to stay alive. Her mother and father never kept a good steady job, but they had great intelligence. Jeannette and her siblings barely went to school to get the proper education they needed. In the book The Glass Castle, author Jeanette Walls discovers the idea that a conservative education may possibly not always be the best education due to the fact that the Walls children were taught more from the experiences their parents gave them than any regular school or textbook could give them. In this novel readers are able to get an indication of how the parents Rex and Rosemary Walls, choose to educate and give life lessons to their children to see the better side of their daily struggles.
due to weak funding in the educational system. Milloy makes the readers wonder why certain schools do not live up to the standards of others in nearby towns. Although a play ground was built for this school, Maurice may never be able to play on it because he must learn how to walk, talk, and eat all over again. People take forgranted the daily rituals of life and if put in the shoes of a parent of this boy, one would realize how tragic this accident was and even the effects the education system has.
Of the extraordinary amount of literary devices available to authors, Charles Dickens uses quite a few in his novel A Tale of Two Cities, which is set during the French Revolution. One of his more distinctive devices is character foils. The five sets of foils are Carton and Darnay, Carton and Stryver, Darnay and the Marquis de Evremonde, Madame Defarge, and Mr. Lorry and Jerry Cruncher. Dickens uses foil characters to highlight the virtues of several major characters in order to show the theme of personal, loving relationships having the ability to prevail over heartless violence and self-consuming vengeance.
Francine Prose is a mother, a writer, a book reviewer, and most importantly, a massive critic of the type of literature that is demanded of children to read in American high schools. In a very defensive essay, Prose discusses a variety of books that she believes are a wast of actual literature. She uses a variety of rhetoric to attract the reader’s attention, and uses it to also persuade her readers to see things the way she does. Throughout the essay it becomes more apparent that the author makes multiple inferences of what she believes will happen to the generations that will entire a corrupt educational system. In the essay that Prose writes, she explains that the lack of eloquent literature is causing a demise to the education of teenagers
eyes of a child so it will be memorable to him as he will never forget
In the Herland society education was a very important and valued aspect. Children were taught by the more experienced women of the society. Children appeared to enjoy their studies. This had a lot to do with how education was provided to the children. Learning was made to be fun and exploratory. It was hands-on and as the children progressed, their individual talents and interests were noticed and encouraged. “Beauty, health, Strength, Intellect, Goodness-for these they prayed and worked” (Gilman, p. 61). The theme throughout the novel indicated that the women were highly educated, and made every opportunity a hands-on learning experience. Even the arrival of the three men who were exploring became an educational experiment as they immediately began teaching the men their own language. Gilman noted that after capture, the men were each given a book to learn the Herland language, “we were indeed to learn the language, and not only that, but to teach our own” (p.
to be so different back then you used to be able to hit them but now a
In Bleak House, by Charles Dickens, Mr. Vholes is Richard Carstone’s legal advisor. Introduced to Richard by Mr. Skimpole, Vholes encourages and assists Richard as he attempts to unravel the mysteries of the Jarndyce and Jarndyce case in Chancery. Vholes, however, may not have the best intentions. Through descriptions of his gloomy physical appearance, suspicious actions, and unfortunate connections to English law, Dickens paints a vivid image of Mr. Vholes—a man who cannot be trusted. Vholes, therefore, is made up of multiple layers; as each layer peels away, the reader understands a little bit more of this secretive man. Surprisingly, Mr. Vholes is seen as more and more evil as readers journey to the center of his being.
10. Allingham, P. (2000) Charles Dickens’ Hard Times for These Times as an Industrial Novel [Online]. Available: http://www.victoriaweb.com [Accessed: 25th April 2005].
Our Mutual Friend, Dickens' last novel, exposes the reality Dickens is surrounded by in his life in Victorian England. The novel heavily displays the corruption of society through multiple examples. These examples, that are planted within the novel, relate to both the society in Dickens' writing and his reality. In order to properly portray the fraud taking place within his novels, Dickens' uses morality in his universe to compare to the reality of society. He repetitively references to the change of mind and soul for both the better and the worst. He speaks of the change of heart when poisoned by wealth, and he connects this disease to the balance of the rich and the poor. This is another major factor to novel, where the plot is surrounded by a social hierarchy that condemns the poor to a life of misery, and yet, condones any action that would normally be seen as immoral when it occurs in the aristocracy. It expands on the idea that only an education and inheritance will bring success in society, with few exceptions. Lastly, Dickens expands his opinions of society through his mockery of ...
Dickens, Charles. Hard Times. Ed. Fred Kaplan and Sylvere Monod. A Norton Critical Edition. 3rd ed. New York: Norton, 2001. 5-222
Charles Dickens utilizes his life for inspiration for the protagonist Pip in his novel Great Expectations. They both struggle with their social standing. Dickens loved plays and theatre and therefore incorporated them into Pip’s life. Dickens died happy in the middle class and Pip died happy in the middle class. The connection Dickens makes with his life to Pip’s life is undeniable. If readers understand Dickens and his upbringing then readers can understand how and why he created Pip’s upbringing. Charles Dickens’ life, full of highs and lows, mirrors that of Pip’s life. Their lives began the same and ended the same. To understand the difficulty of Dickens’ childhood is to understand why his writing focuses on the English social structure. Dickens’ life revolved around social standing. He was born in the lower class but wasn’t miserable. After his father fell into tremendous debt he was forced into work at a young age. He had to work his way to a higher social standing. Because of Dicken’s constant fighting of class the English social structure is buried beneath the surface in nearly all of his writings. In Great Expectations Pip’s life mirrors Dickens’ in the start of low class and the rise to a comfortable life. Fortunately for Dickens, he does not fall again as Pip does. However, Pip and Dickens both end up in a stable social standing.
The Victorian Education system as presented in Hard Times. From the early beginnings of Hard Times, we can tell that this novel was originally intended to shock those reading it. The education that these children receive is harsh and designed to stem any feelings of self-opinion. The adage of self-opinion.
...ggles. Mr. Gradgrind’s two oldest children, Tom and Louisa, are examples of how a utilitarian method can fail horribly. Tom and Louisa were never given the opportunity to think for themselves, experience an adventurous life, or even use their imaginations. True, they are intelligent human beings but do not have the capability to understand street smarts. Dickens uses irony as a comical device but also to show how ineffective the utilitarian method of teaching is.