12-15-20

My son got it into his head that the only books worth reading in “school” are classics. Maybe, somehow, this is my fault. My father used to call me a literary snob. It’s true — to a degree. I can’t tolerate bad writing, and I do appreciate many of the old books. However, I still read middle grade and young adult literature. I enjoy good writing regardless of the reading level. I have never, not once, thumbed my nose at books written for kids. I’m the one who introduced my son to Harry Potter. I have been reading the C.S. Lewis books with him. We read Lois Lowery, Kati DiCamillo and other Newbery winners together. Awhile back, I bought him the Gregor books which were written by Suzanne Collins, the same woman who wrote The Hunger Games. Through the years, I have modeled reading all kinds of literature. In fact, I just finished reading a middle grade book. But my son has no interest. “If you’re teaching me,” he informed me over the summer, “then we can read classics. And only the classics” 

Don’t misunderstand me. I’m excited he wants to familiarize himself with some of the most well-known storytellers of all time, but he’s ten, and I think a mix of classic and modern would be best. However, when he begged for Charles Dickens, I relented. Oliver Twist, which he really wanted to read was too long, so I convinced him to settle for A Christmas Carol. It’s short, more easily digestible, and it would allow him to cross Dickens off his must-read-author list. 

The book proved to be challenging for him. We ended up reading much of it together, but it did spark some very interesting conversations, especially about poverty and the afterlife. When we finished, I had him read “The Little Match Girl,” one of my favorite stories which is written by one of my favorite authors. While I cry every time I read the story, he didn’t. The girl dies, and it crushes me every time. But my son didn’t find the ending sad. He argued that it was happy because death is the only happy ending she could have had. “And her grandmother came to take her to heaven, Mama. She’s with the only person who ever loved her. Why do you think that’s sad?”

After reading, I asked my son to write an essay comparing A Christmas Carol to “The Little Match Girl.” He grumbled about it, but when the grumbling subsided he said, “If I’m going to write this, I want to do it all on my own.” He rejected help with an outline and he didn’t want any guidance at all with the organization. I did, however, insist that one draft wouldn’t be enough. I gave him the time and space to write an initial draft all on his own. When he finished, I made a few comments and suggestions on how he could tighten it up and add more detail. For the most part, he incorporated my suggestions. Overall, I think he did a pretty good job.

Here is his essay:

A Comparison of Christmas Stories

In A Christmas Carol and the “Little Match Girl” there are a lot of similarities. Some of the same themes are poverty, joy ending, and Christmas. Charles Dickens and Hans Christian Anderson, the writers of these two stories were, contemporaries. Since Anderson wrote his story after a Christmas Carol, and that they are similar, I suspect he got ideas from Dickens. 

AChristmas Carol begins with Scrooge, a lonely sad man who wastes no money so he can horde it all. He never celebrates Christmas because he thinks it’s stupid, for reasons like you just find yourself a year older. On Christmas Eve, four specters come to change his mind about the holiday. They are successful. 

The “Little Match Girl” begins with a little girl trying to sell matches in the bitter cold on New Year’s Eve. She lights four matches and in the light she sees four joy filled images

A Christmas Carol has a main character that is very wealthy and finds joy in nothing. In the “Little Match Girl,” the main character finds joy in just four matches. The little girl in the “Little Match Girl” is oh so wonderfully happy when she sees those images. Scrooge has all the money in the world and he spends none of it. He thought having money could make him happy. It did not. The last difference I found was the “Little Match Girl” takes place in a city in Denmark, but a Christmas Carol takes place in London, England. 

Scrooge (in AChristmas Carol) is met by Jacob Marley an old business partner who tells him that three spirits will come to change his mind about Christmas and life. If Scrooge didn’t change he would have to travel the world in death and see people suffering through poverty. He would not be able to help then. The Ghost of Christmas past showed him how much he loved Christmas when he was young and when he began to love money more than anything else. The Ghost of Christmas present showed him how people who have nothing still find ways to celebrate Christmas. Finally, the Ghost of Christmas future showed him how nobody mourns for him when he is dead. By seeing these images, Scrooge forces himself to love Christmas and his family. The ghosts teach him to donate to the poor because he is very wealthy and he should help the less fortunate and love life.  

The first image the “Little Match Girl” sees when she lights a match is a very warm stove which makes her warm when she is freezing. The second image is a cooked zombie goose which makes her full when she is starving. The third image is a giant Christmas tree which gives her all the happiness in the world. Finally, in the fourth image, she sees her Grandmother, the only person who ever loved her, and she takes the little match girl up to heaven.     

Poverty is essential to both stories. In the “Little Match Girl,” it focuses on a girl who is poor and dying. If poverty wasn’t as common as it was back then, the story would have been less likely to have been written.  A Christmas Carol focuses on a man who has a lot of money and won’t give even one shilling to a poor man. After the spirits come, Scrooge gives the largest turkey in London to Bob Cratchit, his poor clerk. The resolution for the poor in A Christmas Carol is they get money from Scrooge. In the “Little Match Girl,” she just dies.        

So even though the stories are very much the same, the endings are very different. Scrooge becomes a nice man, but the Little Match Girl dies and enjoys the after life.               

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