Hard Times 2
The one most necessary thing in education, according to Mr. Gradgrind, a retired hardware merchant of Coketown, was facts. In his harsh and somewhat closed view, all human events were susceptible of measurement; they could be reduced to balances with so many facts on one side and so many facts on the other side. According to him, admirations, imagination and even sentiment were useless and disturbing factors that had a tendency to destroy the balance, and should therefore, be eliminated by every possible means. The chief means for such elimination he believed, was education. On these principles, Mr. Gradgrind set up a school where just like with members of his own family, the principles of his "hard and fast system" were rigidly instilled in the minds of his students. Such pupils of the Gradgrind school were continually crammed with facts from day to day until they 'spilled over 'with them. Such facts were to remain in the mind, pressed down in all forms of memory until all finer sensibilities were deadened. As dramatic and unhearted as it may sound, that is precisely what Mr. Gradgrind wished to accomplish. In my opinion, however, he was not an unkind m
Since most existentialists believe that man is free to reflect, make decisions, and set goals, the circus definitely leaned more towards such philosophy than did an entrepreneurial man who created a strict curriculum of facts with barely any emotions. The circus which stayed in Coketown for quite some time was somewhat of an opposing body on a small, hardly noticeable scale to the works and intent of Mr. Gradgrind. It's emotional excitement by itself was contradictory to Gradgrind's teachings. Even though, the circus clown enrolled his daughter, Cecillia in the school (which was how she originally came to stay with the Gradgrinds), Mr. Gradgrind could not initially accept their behavior which I believe (below the surface) was more existential than his. Existentialism was also the most effective philosophical theory at the novel's end. Out of Tom, Louisa and Mr. Gradgrind, the only one who I view as truly being happy and making a change for the better, was Tom. Louisa was left in the same dreary monotonous state, but her only contentment now would be to know that Tom is happy in the New World where he is free to roam and commit himself to his own p
Some common words found in the essay are:
, Tom Tom, Gradgrinds Gradgrind, Tom Louisa, Gradgrind It's, Louisa Gradgrind, free roam, tom louisa, gradgrind school, stay gradgrinds, day day,
Approximate Word count = 794
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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