A Christmas Carol

I recently went to see the new Jim Carrey version of A Christmas Carol. It was incredible. I’ve seen this story of a miserly rich man visited by three ghosts many times and in many different forms, but never have I seen it so raw. I truly felt like I was seeing the story for the first time. I walked out of the theater anxious to get a copy of Charles Dickens’ story. I had never read it before, and I wanted to see what Dickens had in mind. My friend, Hot Carl, picked a copy up for me at a used book store. The book, by the way, was two bucks, which forced me to note that I don’t visit used book stores nearly as much as I should.

I read it immediately as well as an analysis by Katharine Wiley, an author herself, and I took several things away from this story of poverty and selective blindness. Katharine Wiley argues that A Christmas Carol is not a story of a cheap rich man but in fact a story of an era when the well-off chose to be ignorant to the plight of the poor man, woman, or child. There’s a scene early in the story where Scrooge is approached by two men looking to raise funds to make a meal for the needy at Christmas time. The two men inform Scrooge that the ongoing programs for the poor are so terribly inadequate that “many can’t go there; and many would rather die.” Scrooge responds by insisting that he himself doesn’t know that to be true and it’s not his business to find out if it’s true. Dickens’ story points to the possible fact that the well-off’s greatest sin is their decision to remain ignorant to the horrors of the poor so as not to have to deal with it. So as not to have to interrupt their own lives. So as not to feel a responsibility to their fellow man. Scrooge chooses to be ignorant. Ignorance, when chosen, is no excuse.

I find that I, myself, often choose to be ignorant so as not to interrupt my own life with the plights of others. I think Dickens makes an incredible point that chosen ignorance to the pain of our poor is absolutely unacceptable. Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843. Dickens submitted this commentary and, perhaps, challenge one hundred sixty-six years ago. I fear we haven’t met his challenge.