The Ghost of Christmas Present (2007)

The Ghost of Christmas Present

A 2007 comparative look at Charles Dickens,  A Christmas Carol.

By Robert L. Hanafin, Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired 

With a bit of writer’s block, must be the Christmas Spirit, I was debating with myself what would be appropriate to write about on ‘this day.’ I said to myself, Self, how about religion, politics, or why not ‘the war.’ Myself said, “You mean however, one defines THE WAR.” With that response from Myself, WE concluded that focusing ‘solely’ on the ‘pros and cons’ of any of these aspects of Christmas Present would be just as hypocritical and inappropriate as our consumer society commercializing the Birth of the Christ Child into something worth buying, when it is the thought that counts.

The Ghost of Christmas Present: a 2007

These are the views of me and myself, and we are sticking to them.   Robert L. Hanafin, Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired     

On this Christmas Eve, we are reminded that not only has this Holiday Season become less about the birth of the Christ Child (regardless if one is a true believer or else), and more about retail sales in our consumer driven society. When one focuses on the positives side of this special day, it becomes a lot easier to ignore the negatives. That is not to say people should not forget the true meaning of Christmas, far from it, especially IF you a true believer.

However, that is even more reason to focus on the downside in order to allow the same ‘spirits’ of Christmas past, present, and future that stirred the imagination and message of Charles Dickens that his world (and ours) remains blind to ignorance and want. The only comments I will make regarding one of Dickens’ many themes in A Christmas Carol, is that ignorance and want equal never-ending WAR as opposed to Wars of necessity. In fact, if we took to heart the true message of A Christmas Carol, there would not be any necessity for war, because to result of never-ending wars or worse yet Holy wars are based on ignorance and want on a National, Regional, and International scale that as Dickens notes leads to Doom for all involved in never-ending Holy wars.

That said, what better time to oppose ‘any’ Holy War (be it Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhists, or one of the hundreds of religions that make up both the Christian and Muslim dominated worlds). Though not a religious scholar or writer, I do know Crusades when I see them. They never end, are NEVER in the name of ‘anyone’s God,’ and no one wins. The only loser is

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 The Ghost of Christmas Present                                        

A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas (commonly known as A Christmas Carol) was a novella written by Charles Dickens and first published on December 19, 1843 with illustrations by John Leech. The story was instantly successful, selling over six thousand copies in one week and, although originally written as a potboiler to enable Dickens to pay off a debt, the tale has become one of the most popular and enduring Christmas stories of all time. 

In fact, the story’s popularity played a critical role in redefining the importance of Christmas and the major sentiments associated with the holiday. A Christmas Carol was written during a time of decline in the old Christmas traditions. "If Christmas, with its ancient and hospitable customs, its social and charitable observances, were in danger of decay, this is the book that would give them a new lease," said English poet Thomas Hood. (<

     Dickens also wrote A Christmas Carol during a period of social unrest, a time ripe for planting the seeds of an uplifting moral tale in the public consciousness. The London Times dubbed Dickens "a writer of the people and for the people," and the people responded ecstatically. (Source Link: Charles Dickens: "He Knew How to Keep Christmas Well")

      The story line is about Ebenezer Scrooge and his discovery of the joys of sharing. Dickens also provides a harsh critique of conditions in England at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. In fact, I stumbled upon a teaching guide for public school teachers (and Home Schoolers for that matter), the TeachWithMovies.com – Learning Guide to "A Christmas Carol" intended to “help parents and teachers enhance the moral lessons of A Christmas Carol and discuss the harsh conditions in England at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.”

     A passage from the teaching guide reads, “The Industrial Revolution required large numbers of workers concentrated into small geographic areas. Thus cities, with their surplus population of unemployed refugees from the farms, provided an excellent location for factories. Machine made products replaced goods that had been homemade for centuries by artisans working in small shops. Ancient ways of doing business were left behind in favor of the more competitive methods of the new age. Scrooge’s first employer, Mr. Fezziwig, was unable to adjust to these changes. Scrooge adapted to the new environment, but lost his soul in the process.” (Source Link: A CHRISTMAS CAROL (A Home School teaching guide): SUBJECTS — Religions/Christianity; World/England; SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING Redemption; MORAL-ETHICAL EMPHASIS — Caring.)

     Can any of our readers relate to how this aspect of Dickens’ Christmas Carol applies even in the 21st century? Take for example Mega-Shopping Malls that wipe out not only smaller Malls, but also worst yet, small family owned businesses that cannot compete. One need not look only at California to find Agra-Industrial farms that use immigrant labor (legal and illegal) to wipe out family owned farms that cannot compete with an industrial farming giant using cheap labor.

     Dickens’ story also deals extensively with two of his recurrent themes, social injustice and poverty, the relationship between the two, and their causes and effects. It was written to be abrupt and forceful with its message, with a working title of "The Sledgehammer." Social injustice, poverty, and war remain three recurrent themes of the 21st century that any writer to could adapt A Christmas Carol to. Dickens touched upon moral and ethical issues that were relatively radical and revolutionary for Victorian England.  In the 21st century, continuous battles waged against social injustice, war on poverty noted in “The Sledgehammer” remain the most ‘noble causes’ to fight and die for far more noble and justified than never-ending wars that lack a static mission or criteria for closure.  

     The first edition of A Christmas Carol was illustrated by John Leech, a politically radical artist who in the cartoon "Substance and Shadow" printed earlier in 1843 had explicitly criticized artists who failed to address social issues. Dickens wrote in the wake of British government changes to the "Poor Laws" (welfare system), changes which required among other things, welfare applicants to "work" on treadmills, as Ebenezer Scrooge points out. Dickens asks, in effect, for people to recognize the plight of those whom the Industrial Revolution has displaced and driven into poverty and to provide for them. Failure to do so, the writer implies through the personification of Ignorance and Want as ghastly children, will result in an unnamed "Doom" for those of Scrooge’s social class and insensitive nature.

My Favorite Character the Ghost of Christmas Present still haunts the 21st century.

     The Spirit of Christmas present revealed to Scrooge two emaciated children, clinging to his robes, and names the boy as Ignorance and the girl as Want.  These same images are used to depict that same concerns in the 21st century. One needs only look to Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and yes even the U.S. of A where children still do go to be hungry. The spirit warned Scrooge, (You, me, U.S.) "Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy [IGNORANCE], for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased” underscoring A Christmas Carols’ social message that remains applicable TODAY. Take note what has become of the former British Empire about which Dickens was writing. England met its doom ‘as an International Empire’ during the mid-20th Century, due to never-ending wars, the aftermath of which had torn the British Empire asunder.

     According to Dickens’ novel, the Ghost of Christmas Present appears to Scrooge as a large man with a red beard and fur-lined green robe. He carried a large torch, made to resemble a Cornucopia, (a horn of plenty, and symbol of prosperity) and appeared accompanied by a great feast. He was given to outbursts of laughter. He could change his size to fit in any space. Although Saint Nicklaus (or Santa Claus to us Americans) was never mentioned anywhere in Dickens’ Christmas Carol the resemblance and meaning remain the same. How ironic, since this jolly ole elf is the bringer of not only joy, but warnings of doom. The Ghost of Christmas Present states that he has had "more than eighteen hundred" brothers, implying that he will only exist for a single Christmas, and disappear on the stroke of midnight. Tomorrow morning the spirit will have over two thousand and seven.

    Another irony of A Christmas Carol was that Dickens wrote it in an attempt to forestall financial disaster because of flagging sales of his novel Martin Chuzzlewit. Years later, Dickens shared that he was "deeply affected" in writing A Christmas Carol and the novel rejuvenated his career as a renowned author. At a time when Britain was the major economic and political power of the world, [A Doomed Empire] Dickens highlighted the life of the forgotten poor and disadvantaged at the heart of [the doomed] empire, even as Dickens, himself, was in [credit card] debt.

     Regardless, through his journalism, he campaigned on specific issues — such as sanitation and the workhouse — but his fiction was probably even more powerful in changing public opinion about class inequalities. [Morally, ethically, and spiritually changing apathetic public opinion was no easy task given the social caste system existing in England. A class system BTW that is still pretty much admired and aspired to in the 21st century and not only in Great Britain.]

     Dickens often depicted the exploitation and repression of the poor and condemned the public officials and institutions that allowed such abuses to exist. [In the 21st century, we still try to do the same with our society and U.S. Congress.] His most strident indictment of this condition is in Hard Times (1854), Dickens’s only novel-length treatment of the industrial working class. [The concept of Unionization of labor was born of the inspiration that Dickens even had on America’s Industrial Revolution leading to child labor laws, and other legislation designed to limit the abuses of Corporate America. American labor, and the Union movement may be down, but they are not out in the 21st century. Without Unions, there would be nothing noble remaining to stop corporate greed and war profiteering.]

     He used both vitriol and satire to illustrate how the marginalized social stratum of Dickens’ time was termed "Hands" by the factory owners. Meaning workers were not  really "people" but rather only appendages of the machines that they operated. In the 21st century, attempts remain to marginalize LABOR, and laborers, even as American corporations turn to outsourcing and cheap labor that further marginalizes U.S. labor. Dickens’ writings inspired others, in particular journalists and political figures, to address such problems of class oppression. For example, the prison scenes in Little Dorrit and The Pickwick Papers were prime movers in having the Marshalsea and Fleet Prisons shut down for inhumane living and working conditions. What is it that inspires (or a better word would be uninspired) Journalists and political figures as we enter the early 21st century America to turn a blind eye on problems of class oppression. For instance the inequitable burden sharing, lack of National commitment to the Bush administration’s War on Terror.

      Fighters against social injustice, oppression, and suppression of dissent noted that Dickens issued to the world more political and social truths than have been uttered by all the professional politicians, publicists and moralists put together. The exceptional popularity of his novels, even those with socially oppositional themes (Bleak House, 1853; Little Dorrit, 1857; Our Mutual Friend, 1865) underscored not only his almost preternatural ability to create compelling storylines and unforgettable characters, but also insured that the Victorian public confronted issues of social justice that had commonly been ignored.

     Enter the 21st century and Dickens’ fiction, with often vivid descriptions of life in nineteenth century England, continues to inaccurately and anachronistically globally symbolize Victorian society (1837–1901) as uniformly "Dickensian," when in fact, his novels’ time span is from the 1770s to the 1860s. In the decade following his death in 1870, a more intense degree of socially and philosophically pessimistic perspectives invested British fiction, such themes were in contrast to the religious faith that ultimately held together even the bleakest of Dickens’s novels. Dickens influenced later Victorian novelists, but their works display a greater willingness to confront and challenge the Victorian institution of ‘strict religion.’ They also portray characters caught up by social forces (primarily via lower-class conditions) but which usually steer them to tragic ends beyond their control.

Putting A Christmas Carol into perspective

     Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol among five diverse books dealing with the Christmas theme.  He wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843, The Chimes (1844), The Cricket on the Hearth (1845), The Battle of Life (1846), and his last Christmas book, The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain in 1848. His writings on themes appropriate for Victorian Era Christmas, as viewed by Dickens and an increasing number of British then International public ended before the American Civil War (a period in the U.S.A. that is considered the American Victorian Era). 

About the Author:  Robert (Bobby) L. Hanafin, Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired, is a member of Veterans for America (VFA), Veterans for Common Sense (VCS), Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), Military Families Speak Out (MFSO), Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), and writes for Our Troops Ladder.  You can email Bob at indythinker@sbcglobal.net

Related Sources:

• Serial publication dates from Chronology of Novels by E. D. H. Johnson, Holmes Professor of Belles Lettres, Princeton University. Accessed June 11, 2007.
• Ackroyd, Peter, Dickens, (2002), Vintage, ISBN 0-09-943709-0
• Dickens, Charles (1987). Dickens’ working notes for his novels. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226145905. 
• Drabble, Margaret (ed.), The Oxford Companion to English Literature, (1997), London: Oxford University Press.
•  Google Search: The messages within Charles Dickens – A Christmas Carol
• Hart, Christopher (May 20, 2007). What, the Dickens World?. The Sunday Times. Times Online.
• Hearn, Michael Patrick. The Annotated Christmas Carol: a Christmas Carol in Prose / by Charles Dickens, W. W. Norton and Co., 2004, ISBN 0-393-05158-7
• Hood, Thomas (1844). "Hood’s Magazine and Comic Review". 
• Kaplan, Fred. Dickens: A Biography (New York: William Morros, 1988).
• Meckier, Jerome Innocent Abroad: Charles Dickens’ American Engagements (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1990).
• Moss, Sidney P. Charles Dickens’ Quarrel with America (New York: Whitson, 1984).
• Patten, Robert L. (ed.) The Pickwick Papers (Introduction), (1978), Penguin Books
• Slater, Michael. "Dickens, Charles John Huffam (1812–1870)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006

Robert L. Hanafin

Readers are more than welcome to use the articles I’ve posted on Veterans Today, I’ve had to take a break from VT as Veterans Issues and Peace Activism Editor and staff writer due to personal medical reasons in our military family that take away too much time needed to properly express future stories or respond to readers in a timely manner.

My association with VT since its founding in 2004 has been a very rewarding experience for me.

Retired from both the Air Force and Civil Service. Went in the regular Army at 17 during Vietnam (1968), stayed in the Army Reserve to complete my eight year commitment in 1976. Served in Air Defense Artillery, and a Mechanized Infantry Division (4MID) at Fort Carson, Co. Used the GI Bill to go to college, worked full time at the VA, and non-scholarship Air Force 2-Year ROTC program for prior service military. Commissioned in the Air Force in 1977. Served as a Military Intelligence Officer from 1977 to 1994. Upon retirement I entered retail drugstore management training with Safeway Drugs Stores in California. Retail Sales Management was not my cup of tea, so I applied my former U.S. Civil Service status with the VA to get my foot in the door at the Justice Department, and later Department of the Navy retiring with disability from the Civil Service in 2000.

I’ve been with Veterans Today since the site originated. I’m now on the Editorial Board. I was also on the Editorial Board of Our Troops News Ladder another progressive leaning Veterans and Military Family news clearing house.

I remain married for over 45 years. I am both a Vietnam Era and Gulf War Veteran. I served on Okinawa and Fort Carson, Colorado during Vietnam and in the Office of the Air Force Inspector General at Norton AFB, CA during Desert Storm. I retired from the Air Force in 1994 having worked on the Air Staff and Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon.