Ignorance and Want

Cards (10)

  • role in novella
    Allegory - a metaphor that provides a message
    to show how poor children don't get treated the same as rich children
    represent the poor
    they aren't happy (as we expect children to be)
    the children are the responsibility of mankind
  • scrooge's reaction
    'Is that a foot or a claw?'
    ? - confusion
    that - objectifies
    claw - dehumanises the children, makes them seem undesirable like the rest of the working class
  • scrooge's reaction
    Scrooge started back, appalled'
    'back' - moved backwards trying to escape
    'appalled' - adjective, disgusted
  • 'they are mans'
    they - 3rd person - the children
    'mans' - noun - the children are the responsibility of mankind
  • 'but most of all be aware of this boy'
    'but' - conjunction - the sentence takes a more serious turn
    'most' - adjective - important, don't underestimate ignorance
    'be aware' - warning
    'this' - specific, implies ignorance is dangerous
    'boy' - ignorance is more dangerous then want
  • 'Are there no prisons?... Are there no workhouses?' - Ghost of present
    'prisons' - debtors prisons - the children are the responsibility of the poor
    'workhouses' - poor conditions, tries to get rid of there presence (like how the government tried to get rid of the poor's reliance on the by creating the Poor Law)
    this mirrors Scrooge's language from Stave 1 - taunting his arrogance against the lower class
  • 'yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish'
    list of adjectives
    'yellow' - unclean, disease
    'meagre' - weak, pathetic
    'ragged' - unkept - clothes not to standards in the harsh winter conditions
    'scowling' - unpleasant expression on their faces
    'wolfish' - dehumanises - hairy, dangerous, cunning, sly
    dehumanises and shows how they are neglected - sympathy
  • 'This boy is Ignorance. The girl is Want'
    'This' - specific
    'boy', 'girl' - children , implies youth - they don't understand what is happening or why they get treated this way - sympathy
    'Ignorance' - to be oblivious to anything in order to get your way (rich)
    'want' - the desire to have something
    '.' - pause - makes you think about ignorance
    Ignorance is a boy - male = stronger - shows how Ignorance is stronger and more dangerous then want
  • 'monsters'
    adjective
    dehumanises
    makes them seem inhumane
    people need to change or they are monsters
  • 'On his brow I see that written which is doom, unless the writing can be erased'
    'his' - 2nd person - talks about Ignorance as girls weren't allowed to go to school (stay at home and cook)
    'written' - verb - poor people were uneducated (pay for school)
    'doom' - noun, disaster - shows how society is doomed because of the inequality in the educational system
    'erased' - verb - unless mankind changes and 'erases' its actions, it is doomed - rectify sins