Concetti Chiave
- The narrative is structured around three agricultural metaphors: sowing, reaping, and garnering, symbolizing the stages of planting facts, harvesting results, and picking up the remnants.
- Themes include childhood education and social criticism, contrasting industrial Coketown with the world of the circus, highlighting issues like pollution and utilitarianism.
- Thomas Gradgrind, the protagonist, is a strict educator and father who eventually realizes the flaws in his philosophy and finds redemption through charity.
- Louisa and Tom, Gradgrind's children, suffer under the rigid system, while Sissy, an adopted child, thrives and finds happiness, illustrating the system's impact on individuals.
- Coketown is vividly depicted with unnatural colors, mechanical noise, and dehumanized people, emphasizing the harsh industrial environment.
Hard times
Three sections (names of agricultural processes)
1) "Sowing"- planting the seeds of facts (students become "pitchers")
2) "reaping"- collecting the crop (of the seeds planted)--> starts revealing the faults of the system. Louisa is forced to marry an older man that she doesn't love and her emotional break down. Tom starts robbing a bank and he becomes a criminal. The crop is actually this and not how Thomas expected. Sissy doesn't seem to be affected by this system (she ends up having an happy family)
3) "Garnering" - pick up the pieces that are left behind-characters try to restore a balance in their lives--> Louisa never marries againbut she is close to sissy's family
Themes- written after Oliver Twist and we can see this difference in the themes he deals with.
-childhood (education)
-social criticism
World of coketown (Thomas Gradgrind) vs world of the circus (sissy was rescued)
1) factory system (attacked with a sarcastic tone
2) Pollution
3) Utilitarianism (philosophy of facts)
Characters
Thomas Gradgrind (grind=turn into powder, to destroy) - protagonist
He's a father and educator and a founder of a school where he works. He becomes a MP.
He truly believes that his philosophy really works so that he implements it in every aspect of his life.
He Storms away his children imagination. But at some point he becomes aware of the limits of his system and he changes his mind and he becomes involved in charity works--> happy ending
Tom, Louisa (real children)
Sissy (adopted)
Coketown- Chapter 5
• Described through Colors- unnatural red( because of the blackening of the pollution), black (canal) , purple (river)
• Noise - comes from machinery (rattling and trembling), high pitched monotonous noise.
• Smell-
• People- dehumanized, conformed, they look like one another
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