Thawed by compassion
“Merry Christmas!” When this phrase is
said, the normal response back is “Same to you!”. But if you’re a grumpy old
man with a frozen heart, your response might be a cold “Buh Humbug!”. Ebenezer
Scrooge is just this man, who basicly has no care for anyone. But because of this, no one is really fond of
him. But when 3 sprits haunt him, they show him that his lack of compassion
affects his past, present, and future. The theme of the book A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is the necessity for
compassion.
Compassion is important because otherwise people know you
as the a heart-less person that shouldn’t be messed with. An example is how the
people in the town cast Scrooge aside because of his unkindness, as it says in
the book "Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome
looks, "My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come see me?" No
beggars implored him bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was
o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and
such a place, of Scrooge."Because of his irritable ways, people would
rather not be involved in any part of his life.
When
you have no compassion, people will see you like as a Scrooge, “…an odious,
stingy, hard, unfeeling man as Mr. Scrooge.” is a good example from the book of
Mrs. Cratchit talking about him. Scrooge is very stubborn, and if he were to
change his ways, even just a little, others wouldn’t see him as this.
A
different text that shares the similar theme of necessity for compassion is Stargirl. In this book, Leo likes a
strange girl, Stargirl, but when everyone in the school turns from her, he is
the only one that shows kindness towards her. Even when his friends turn on him
for being with her, Leo still stays with her because without him, she has
nobody.
Woods Runner also has this theme. When Samuel is hit in the
head with a tomahawk by in Indian, a small group of men take him with them and
take care of him while he is passed out. They could have just left him to die,
but they that realized that if it was the other way around, they would want his
help. That group had compassion by saving his life and taking him with them.
Compassion
is a strong thing. The necessity for it is what really keeps us together. When
Scrooge says “Humbug” to Christmas, he is haunted by ghosts to teach him the very importance of
this and why he should change. Maybe on
Christmas day, Scrooge’s heart will unfreeze from the cold and unkindness, warm
up with some compassion, and finally say “Merry Christmas to all!”
