Opposites Attract

*Authors Note- This is my Christmas Carol Essay, please comment and give advice! Preferably on my conclusion.*

In Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol”, the humble Bob Cratchit; a poor old man with a big family and a big heart, worked for the evil and arrogant man, Ebenezer Scrooge. Cratchit, on top of his troubles, had a son, Timothy Cratchit, but the family called him Tiny Tim. He was a cheerful boy, who sang and enjoyed going to church, but of course he was ill. In fact so ill he was going to die. Bob, being the poor man that he was, could not pay to have the boy cured of his sickness.

When Ebenezer is visited by the “Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come”, he sees that Tiny Tim passes away, and Bob, with tears in his eyes says,”Life is made up of meetings and partings; that is the way of it.“ This shows Scrooge that if he does not change his ways, death could be a factor of his greed.

This quote has an important irony to the book. All of his life, Scrooge was a man of business, he had no time for foolish nonsense, and that included family. Back when Scrooge was young, his older sister died during child birth, leaving behind only one nephew to him; Fred. Scrooge never spoke of Fan, although she was his elder sister. When it came to Fred he often ignored him, and otherwise shooed him away, always counting his money in the process. So when it came to “meetings and partings”, Scrooge just liked to pretend that they were never there. After all, he had more important things to do than fuddle around with family.

So in a way, Bob Cratchit and Ebenezer Scrooge were very much alike, in the logical sense. Maybe that is why in the conclusion of the book, Scrooge and Cratchit become friends, more like brothers? It’s funny what can happen when humble meets arrogant. I guess it’s true what they say, opposites attract.