A Christmas Carol Short Analysis

Author's Note: This is a short analysis of a passage in A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. I had to analyize the purpose, the meaning, and the tone of this passage. I would like feedback on my abilitiy to pick apart text and create connections to it. Thanks!

There was nothing of high mark in this. They were not a handsome family, they were not well dressed, their shoes were far from being waterproof, their clothes were scanty, and Peter might have known, and very likely did, the inside of a pawnbroker's. But they were happy, grateful, pleased with one another, and contented with the time; and when they faded, and looked happier yet in the bright sprinklings of the Spirit's torch at parting, Scrooge had his eye upon them, and especially on Tiny Tim, until the last.

Page 68-69, A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

Christmastime is a time of joy, of love, of happiness, for all people. Or, at least, for most people. A person that didn't agree with the love and joy of Christmas was Mr. Scrooge. He didn't understand what Christmas meant, and how people could enjoy the holiday season without any money. In this passage, the tone of the paragraph is a tone of what Christmas is supposed to mean, gratefulness for what we are blessed with, and not having greed for more. Tiny Tim's family didn't have a lot of money or extra means, yet they loved each other and had a sense of gratefulness for what they have. The meaning of the paragraph is to figure out what you have and be thankful for it, and to not take anything for granted, not to have a desire for unnecessary means. If you do, you will miss out on the true Christmas spirit. Charles Dickens wrote the passage to give a purpose to Stave Three of A Christmas Carol. That purpose was to attempt to have Mr. Scrooge learn how to be thankful for what you have, and to not have a desire for money and extra needs. This is exactly what Mr. Scrooge didn’t understand how to do.

Life as We Knew It Theme Essay

Author's Note: This is my theme analysis of my group's novel. I said that the primary theme was the importance of family, and how sometimes traumatic events heighten the theme and the connects the characters have with their family. I would like feedback on my content. Thanks!
 

                Every author can create a varied world for the reader of their novel to live in. Authors also create a leading theme in a book to have the reader ponder. In Life as We Knew It, by Susan Beth Pfeffer, the primary theme is the importance of having a family, especially during unsettling times. In the beginning of Life as We Knew It, the foremost theme isn’t really that prominent. Only until the characters realize that family life is the most important concept in this terrifying new life is when the theme becomes a main part of the book. 

                In the beginning of Life as We Knew It, all of the characters led lives outside of family life. Of course they still loved each other dearly, yet they weren’t a crucial part of each other’s lives. Once the meteor crashes into the moon, though, that begins to alter. Susan Beth Pfeffer is able to develop the primary theme by having awful events happen to each character that makes them love family life even more. For example, Miranda, the main character, didn’t really love her pet cat very much. She always felt that he was an annoyance. During the middle of the nighttime, though, she lets the feline out for a bathroom break. He doesn’t come back. Miranda panics, and that panic makes her see how potent her infatuation with her pet is. Susan Beth Pfeffer has to create a traumatic occasion for Miranda to realize that, and doing so makes the primary theme even more potent.

                Even though Susan Beth Pfeffer seems to create a world that no other author would be able to design, there is another writer that made a novel with the same primary theme as Life as We Knew It. That author is Susanne Collins of The Hunger Games. In The Hunger Games, the prime individual of the novel is Katniss. Katniss is like Miranda in many ways, and just a single example of that is how family affects her. In the start of The Hunger Games, the only two beings she truly loves are her best friend, Gale, and her younger sister, Prim. Katniss doesn’t feel almost any affection for her Mother. Susanne Collins develops the theme of importance of family by forcing Katniss to take her sister’s place and go and fight in the outdoor arena. Once she’s placed there, Katniss begins to have feelings of love evolve for her mom, and a newfound feeling of respect for what she’s gone through. Susanne Collins develops the leading theme by arranging awful predicaments to happen to the main character, just as Susan Beth Pfeffer does.

                       In our world, we see many awful disasters. Tornadoes, tsunamis, and hurricanes are just a few of those events. In the aftermath, what happens to the living? Usually, we begin to realize what truly matters in life, which is our family. After disasters, humans figure out that family is and should be the most potent theme in their life. That is how Susan Beth Pfeffer and Susanne Collins develop their themes in Life as We Knew It and The Hunger Games, by having terrible events happen to the primary characters. This makes them feel more affection for their family members, and has them understand that family relationship is the most leading theme in life.           

 

Life as We Knew It Character Analysis

Author's Note: This is a character analysis of the main character in my novel, Life as We Knew It. I analyze Miranda and then connect to the main character of another novel, Matched. I would like feedback on word choice. Thanks!

Miranda, the primary character in Life as We Knew It, is a very complex person. She has many different emotions, and with all that's going on in her life, Miranda is struggling to deal with it all. So, she has begun to close herself off from the world. Miranda hasn't spoken to her best friends in weeks, and pick fights with her mom about topics that aren’t very important to her (page one hundred and eleven and page one hundred and two). Her actions have affected the events of the story because when she fights with her mother, she adds stress into her life. That means that Miranda is placed under more stress, since her mother's emotion end up affecting hers, as well. She's not just harming herself; Miranda is harming all of her family members.

The main character’s actions in this novel remind me of another character from the story Matched, Cassia. Cassia had a problem handling all of the changes going on in her life, so she snapped at her younger brother, Bram. Doing this made the whole family tense for a few days, and it damaged her relationship with her little sibling for a long time. This is precisely what Miranda is doing to herself and her family. If she doesn’t figure out what is happening, the relationship between her and all of her loved ones will never be able to be the same again. Even though Miranda is turning herself away from others, I know that she doesn’t want that to happen. Hopefully, Miranda is able to realize that and change, to benefit her family.

Author's Note: This is a response to a journal entry we were assigned. The journal was to choose an event in your novel, and show how it would have been told in a minor character's point of view. The part I chose is Miranda not wanting to have contact with her friends, and the minor character I chose to be have her point of view shown is Miranda's mother.

In Life as We Knew It, Miranda brings a certain flair to the novel that interprets the way the reader ponders the book. For example, on page one hundred and eleven, Miranda makes judgments about her friends and says it doesn’t matter that she has not seen them in weeks. Since it's in her point of view, most readers simply agree with her, and don't think about the topic any further. If the author had put this scene in another character's point of view, like Miranda's mother, the reader probably would have thought about it different. Her mother felt that making sure Miranda had people to relate to other than family during these times were very important, and would have said that it was crucial for her to visit them. Obviously, Miranda didn't feel the same way. The reader of this novel probably would have thought of the event in a different light if Miranda wasn't the one narrating the story.

Life as We Knew It Minor Character Response

Author's Note: This is an reply to a journal we were assigned today. That journal was to choose a event from your book and say how it would be told in a minor character's point of view. I chose when the main character, Miranda, was rearranging her house so her family would be warmer. The minor character I chose to say the point of view of was her cat, Horton.

Rearranging your home usually comes with a certain aura of stress. Yet when you are rearranging your home so your family member don't die from freezing cold, the stress obviously intensifies. Though no one thinks about it when reading this event in Life as We Knew It, moving around their home affect Horton, the family's cat, just as much as it affects the rest of the family. All Horton can see is his beloved ones shifting around where he lives as if their lives depended on it. He doesn't understand the reasoning behind it, just the changes. It actually makes him more upset than the rest of Miranda's family, and that's something they can't see.

Life as We Knew It Predicting Piece

Author's Note: This is a piece about my group book, Life as We Knew It, by Susan Pfeffer. I wrote about my prediction and how it might be wrong because of something that happened to another main character in another book. I would like feedback on my text evidence. Thanks!

Life as We Knew It by Susan Pfeffer is a complex book that keeps the reader guessing about what will come next.  After reading a hundred and ten pages of this book, I think that Miranda, the main character, will begin to sever ties with anyone that is close with her, and close off into herself. In Life as We Knew It, Miranda has already not seen her two best friends in weeks, and hasn’t even thought about them or missed them. Then, she began to pick fights with her mother and then retreat into her room, where she would stay for the next day or two.  Finally, Miranda hasn’t thought about any other family member that doesn’t live with her, and it’s beginning to seem like she doesn’t care what happens to them.

However, in another book I’ve read that’s extremely close in content to Life as We Knew It, The Hunger Games, Katniss, the main character, closes herself off from the world and shows no emotion in the outdoor arena. Or so it seems. In reality, Katniss did care about people inside and outside of the Games, and came out of her shell when she found the person in the arena that she had feelings for. While reading this book, you think that Katniss will win the games coldhearted, with no show of emotion. Truthfully, she had and showed feelings of love and affection, after certain events brought them to life. Since The Hunger Games is so like Life as We Knew It, this connection has me wondering if my prediction will be correct, or if Miranda will come out of her shell into herself, just like Katniss did.