Adapting Famous Writers 

A Christmas Carol: The Final Chapter

Scrooge woke up from his nightmare, immersed in his new reality. Beyond disoriented, Scrooge sat up and looked around. Enclosed by gray walls, no lighting, countless beds, and what seemed to be hundreds of people dressed in the same uniform, there Scrooge was, sitting in a workhouse. As he started to gain his bearings, trying to figure out how he even got here, he had a flashback to when the Spirit Of The Future showed him what his life would result in if he did not change his ways. His criticism of society and his lack of empathy used to protect himself from poverty, became detrimental to his fate. He came to the consensus that the Spirit Of The Future banished him to the workhouse due to the lack of acknowledging his criticism and cruelty to society. 

After a few weeks of being at the workhouse, Scrooge’s peers started to notice a change in his personality. Scrooge seemed to be more talkative. He would help out the older workers with the labor they were assigned, he gave the scraps of food he would get once in a blue moon to the younger children, and he became more kind to the people around him. One night the Spirit Of The Present appeared while Scrooge was by himself working. “The workers find you kind, but have you really changed your ways? Are you finding empathy since you are now the poor? You have nothing. You failed the Spirit Of The Future” Scrooge had a moment of realization: what was making him suddenly nicer, less cruel, and more empathetic? He didn’t care before about the warning of banishment the Spirit Of The Future expressed to him, but now he has changed after the consequence. Maybe it was that he lost all his money and realized he had nothing left, or maybe being surrounded by the poor who he once didn’t care about, allowed him to realize that gratitude can be found in the kindness you portray to others.

Reflection

In my adaptation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, I aimed to illustrate the guidance of The Spirits and how the Spirit Of The Future altered Scrooge’s life into the one he despised and frowned upon. Throughout the novel the presence of ghosts and spirits are very prominent, which shapes and develops Scrooge’s personality and character. I included spirits because I believe that Scrooge comes to a realization at the end of the novel about how he’s acted to society, and that realization comes from the Spirit Of The Future. Scrooge being the epitome of the wealthy in the 1800’s, treating the poor terribly, and the major economic divide between classes, the Spirit Of The Future gives Scrooge perspective upon his own life. 

He would help out the older workers with the labor they were assigned; he gave the scraps of food he would get once in a blue moon to the younger children, and he became more kind to the people around him. 

The quotation depicts Scrooge very contrasting to his old personality. A man who had shamed the poor, didn’t share, and didn’t interact with people around him. The Spirit Of The Future showed Scrooge that if he were to continue his ways, that he would make him regret it. The Spirit Of The Present also shows that Scrooge is making a difference in his presence at the workhouse through his kindness, and his peers are realizing that. The third person narration I include allows the reader to view Scrooge through an objective lens, seeing how he reacts and acts. Furthermore, when I state through the use of an idiom that Scrooge shared his scraps of food, which he receives “once in a blue moon” with the younger children in the workhouse, the reader is able to understand the selflessness of Scrooge. He is sharing food with children, which he barely receives, and is not using it for his own good. By taking everything he had and putting him in a workhouse, Scrooge was able to connect with the Spirit Of The Present and realize he has more to be appreciative of. While being poor and surrounded by people who do not have materialistic things to be grateful for, they find fulfillment within life itself, and Scrooge comes to personal realization as well.

Work Cited

Dickens, Charles. 'A Christmas Carol and Other Stories'. New York: Modern Library, 1995.