Seventh Graders Benefit from the Timeless Lessons of Dickens’ Classic, A Christmas Carol

Caleigh+Morrow%2C+Michael+Glynn%2C+and+Brooke+Keen+present+roses+to+the+actors.

Caleigh Morrow, Michael Glynn, and Brooke Keen present roses to the actors.

Lexie Lewis, Staff Writer

The 7th graders had a great time on their field trip before the break, and loved to get the chance to see A Christmas Carol at Theatre Three in Port Jefferson! At the end, actors had the chance to interact with the audience, and answer any questions students had. A few students walked down to give roses to the actors for a job well done, and as a thank you from Babylon for letting us come to the play!  

A Christmas Carol is a remarkable play, adapted from the novel by Charles Dickens. Reading the play and seeing the play are totally different things to the eye and to the brain. This play takes place in Victorian London, a populated city with many rich, many poor, many homeless. The main character is Ebenezer Scrooge, a rotten businessman who lives for himself, breathes for himself, and works for himself. Scrooge is unwilling to donate to the poor, reluctant to give his employees a day off on Christmas, because he doesn’t believe that Christmas is a merry time of year. His gruff and harsh attitude takes over him around Christmas time, and Christmas time to Scrooge is foreclosing houses at a quicker pace. People like Bob Cratchit, his coworker, or his nephew and his wife Clara beg him to stop telling off the charity workers, and to put a little bit of love in his heart. He complains that a paid day off is theft, but yet it should only be a kind favor. On Christmas Eve, when he comes home at night, a figure bound in chains and a face of shame who identified as Jacob Marley showed up in Scrooge’s bedroom. Marley told Scrooge the reason for his visit was to warn him of three ghosts that will come visit him in the night. If Scrooge was not visited by these ghosts, when he died, he too would end up in chains just like Marley, for being a rotten businessman, and he needed to have a change of heart.

Reading the play in class or by yourself lets you envision what’s going on and allows you to be imaginative as you go. Also, you see an explanation of stage directions so you can imagine how seeing the play will be. Seeing the play onstage is a completely different experience. There are different dimensions you observe that you would not experience while reading the play. You can see facial expressions, tone of voice and action that you can only imagine while reading the play.

Even after the Christmas season is over, the message of the play can still stay with you, as it has done for many. For most who experience the play, reading or seeing, the lesson that wanting to change and be generous lasts all year round. A way to keep up a good heart is to help donate to a local charity or food drive. Some close by food banks are: Island Harvest 15 Grumman Road West Suite 1450 in Bethpage NY 11714. Their phone number is 516-294-8528 and their website is www.islandharvest.org. A local non profit charity is the American Legion located  22 Grove place in Babylon. Their website is http://www.americanlegionbabylon.com/ .  These are a few suggestions to keep up good cheer. The lesson of A Christmas Carol will stay with people year round with goodness in their hearts.