HT: Discussion

The titles of the three books in Hard Times are "Sowing", "Reaping", and "Garnering".  How might these titles represent different ideas, concepts, metaphors, or themes to different characters, especially to such opposites like Louisa vs. Tom, Blackpool vs. Slackbridge, and Sissy vs. Mr. Gradgrind?

HT: Analysis

     In this passage, Stephen Blackpool is spending his last moments on earth with Rachel; being a victim of the "Old Hell Shaft" adds him to the list of dark stories concerning the area.  In the last monologue before his death, he mentions how the poor "die an no need, one way an another - in a muddle - every day" (263).  Throughout all of Stephen's life, he has had a steady stream of bad luck, however, he has maintained a pure and moral personality in spite of it; his is the "Starlight" in the chapter title whose spirit burns bright and brilliant.

     Stephen's adherence to ethics is Dickens' contrasting of the poor vs. the rich; many of the wealthy characters in the story like Tom and Harthouse imagine themselves as superior to the poor, yet display acts of immorality with impudence.  The religious allusions at the end of the passage reiterates Stephen's sanctity, as his story parallels St. Stephen, widely considered the first Christian martyr.  As such, Stephen's death can be examined to have Christ-like properties; Stephen's final moments before death finds him the "God of the poor" (265) who, through "humility", "sorrow", and "forgiveness" (265), leads him to the "Redeemer's rest" (265).  These religious allusions respectively can be compared to Jesus's journey with God, his spiritual values, and the fact that in Christian theology, Jesus is often referred to as a Redeemer with "rest" (265) representing Stephen's salvation.  Much like how Jesus died for humanity's sins in Christianity, the affluent aristocrats are the ones whose irreligious and hypocritical lives of sin - much of which is spent "sowing", "reaping", and "garnering" money from the poor - condemn Stephen, a man of divine virtue, to a dark end.

HT: Appreciation

"'How could you give me life, and take from me all the inappreciable things that raise it from the state of conscious death?  Where are the graces of my soul?  Where are the sentiments of my heart?  What have you done, O father, what have you done, with the garden that should have bloomed once, in this great wilderness here!'" (208)

Louisa's repetition of questions to her father is truly a sentiment to Dickens' masterful writing.  In demanding the whereabouts of her emotion, passion, and all that gives individuals humanity, each question stabs at the reader with an increase in tension.  In the final sentence where Louisa asks of where her "garden" is, Dickens' exquisitely captures the desperate symbolization of her oppressed self, creating an aura of absolute anguish.

HT: Outside Connection

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_dfjovzvis

This song from Godspell is called All Good Gifts and it is in response to the biblical parable following the story of a sower going to sow seeds.  The "seeds" represent the different people and their moral choices.  This can be related to Hard Times because the characters are faced with decisions that ultimately define themselves.  The seeds or characters are "planted" into the societal lifestyle that influences their individual outcome as adults.  The book titles play a fundamental role in mirroring the character development particulary in characters like Louisa and Tom who's progression is shown through their initial ubringing into the specific lifestyle as well as how they turn out in the end.

HT: Analysis

In the context of Hard Times, as well as harvesting terminology, to garner can be defined as reaping the benefits of a given action.  Although the third book essentially illustrates the outcomes due to societal systems, there are noted "benefits" that can be found in character growth.  At the beginning of book three when Louisa is recouperating from her trauma due to the realization of her upbringing, she finds comfort and relationship bonding though Sissy, "In the innocence of her brave affection, and the brimming up of her old devoted spirit, the once deserted girl shone like a beautiful light upon the darkness of the other. Louisa raised the hand that it might clasp her neck and join its fellow there. She fell upon her knees, and clinging to this stroller's child looked up at her almost with veneration. 'Forgive me, pity me, help me! Have compassion on my great need, and let me lay this head of mine upon a loving heart?' 'O lay it here!' cried Sissy. 'Lay it here, my dear." (220).  Although Louisa is clearly distressed, she is finally able to express her true emotions and relay them to another human truthfully.  Sissy provides love and compassion for Louisa.  This type of character development can be attributed to the title, "Garnering", because it is showing the effects of the societal systems and the way in which characters progress.

HT: Discussion

 How does the students upbringing in the Sowing effect their lives in the Reaping and Garnering and how does Dickinson use literary techniques to show the cause and effect relationship?

HT: Discussion

The title of the books in Hard Times are Sowing, Reaping and Garnering. They all have metaphorical meanings that can be related to peoples development in the text. Which of the characters in the book follow this sort of development though the text cite specific times when they demonstrate their development?

HT: Analysis

My definition of reaping is the outcome of one's actions. The second book of Hard Times has a few examples of those seeing the results of their actions. For instance at the end of Chapter 8 of Book  2, we see Tom break down into tears after his sister leaves. Tom's own mistakes and behaviors are what led him to be put into the situation in which he was. He caused himself more separation from his sister, but still dependent on her. It is not until the end of Chapter 8 when it appears he finally realizes the harm he is causing his sister: "tearing his hair , morosely crying, grudgingly loving her, hatefully but impenitently spurning himself, and no less hatefully and unprofitably spurning all the good in the world" (186). He "grudgingly" loved her meaning he loved her so much as a sister but could see that they were starting to lose their close connection. Tom is finally starting to see the result's of his actions making this just one example of reaping in Book 2.

HT: Appreciation

"This country, gradually softening toward the neighbourhood of Mr Bounderby's retreat, there mellowed into a rustic landscape, golden with heath, and snowy with hawthorn in the spring of the year, and tremulous with leaves and their shadows all the summer time" (164). Dickens is able to write so fluidly that these words seem to roll off the tongue. By using words like "gradually softening", and "mellowed" Dickens smoothly transitions into describing the scenery. There are also a few contrasting elements in this quote that add to its beauty. Those include the comparison of seasons "snowy", "spring", "shadow" and "summer", but Dickens does not made an argument defending any of these seasons or concepts but instead is able to wind them together to create and even more beautiful description.

HT: Appreciation

"All the journey, immoveable in the air though never left behind; plain to the dark of her mind, as the electric wires which ruled a colossal strip of music-paper out of the evening sky, were plain to the dark eyes of her body; Mrs. Sparsit saw her staircase, with the figure coming down. Very near the bottom now. Upon the brink of the abyss" (203). This quote drew my attention because of the mysteriousness that Dickens seems to use in this description. He uses a movement throughout by using words such as "mind", "electric wires", "evening sky", "staircase", and "the figure coming down"; words that make the reader feel alive and active. Some of these words also add to a sense of mystery such as "air", "dark", "figure", and "abyss"; they create another element that causes the reader to feel a movement/mood.

HT: Appreciation

"She sat at the window, when the sun began to sink behind the smoke; she sat there, when the smoke was burning red, when the colour faded from it, when darkness seemed to rise slowly out of the ground, and creep upward, upward, up to the house-tops, up the church steeple, up to the summits of the factory chimneys, up to the sky" (123). I found this quote particularly beautiful because I could visualize it clearly in my head, and even enjoyed visualizing it in my head. The change in words from "sink", "sat", and "faded" to "rise", "upward", "summits" and "sky" causes the imagery to flow smoothly from one idea into the next. One is able to follow the eye of Mrs Sparsit and actually feel as if one is Mrs Sparsit looking out the window.

HT: Outside Connection

Matthew 25, Lines 14-30

The Parable of the Talents

 

14“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. 15To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ 21His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.  You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 22And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’ 23His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 24He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ 26But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

http://esv.scripturetext.com/matthew/25.htm

NOTE:  A talent was a monetary unit worth about twenty years’ wages for a laborer

Connection to Hard Times:

This Bible parable describes people who make something more from what they started with, and those who choose do not use what was given to them.  The first two servants in the passage, when given several "talents" or huge amounts of money from their master, work hard to trade and make more money, while the third "wicked and slothful" servant buried his talent and hid it away.  Characters in Hard Times also display traits from one of the servants, "slothful" and "good and faithful".  Tom has been born into a wealthy family and has gotten an education, but he chooses to be lazy and gambles all of his money away; characters such as Stephen may have been dealt a bad hand, but he continues to build on what he started with by strengthening his realtionship with Rachael and uniting his fellow workers in the factory, which makes Coketown function as a whole.

Another major connection the passage has to Hard Times are the use of "sowing", "reaping", and "gathering", in the second part of the parable as well as the titles of each book in Dicken's text.  The third servant accuses his master of reaping and gathering where he did not sow, as if he is trying to thrive without any foundation, but the master argues that the servant should have taken what he did have--a talent--and grown from that, building on what he does have.  This idea connects to Stephen well;  he was born poor, and with no education is forced to work in the factory, is stuck with an insane wife, but yet he tries to make something from what he does have with Rachael and his influence on his peers in the factory.  Tom has a foundation of money, yet he gambles it away.  Lousisa was not "sown" with the tools to be inquisitive and creative, and though it seems to burn within her for awhile, she degrades eventually.  It's all about what you do with what you have been given, if you were "sown" and if you decide to "reap" or "gather".

HT: Appreciation

"In this strife I have almost repulsed and crushed my better angel into a demon.  What I have learned has left me doubting, misbelieving, despising, regretting, what I have not learned; and my dismal resource has been to think that life would soon go by, and that nothing in it could be worth the pain and trouble of contest." (210)

In this beautifully woven quote, Dickens masterfully captures the crumble of Louisa, as her fragile soul can no longer bear the pain of oppression; she has been denied the natural aesthetics in life, and in doing so, has oppressed her soulful "angel" into a tortuous and wrenching soulless "demon".  His continuous use of adjectives like "doubting, misbelieving, despising, regretting," drag on much like Louisa's unending despair.  Dickens' drives the point home with Louisa's declaration that "life would soon go by", and that nothing's worth the "trouble" of doing anything, fully emphasizing Louisa's depressing outlook on life.  Through this combination of techniques, he admiringly captures Louisa's desolation.

HT: Analysis

         The passage is at the end of book 2 when Louisa confronts her father. She no longer knows what to do or how to do anything in her position. She falls to the ground telling her father not to help her but to let her fall because she will die if he holds her up. This passage can be seen as a reflection on the character Louisa and her father. It also eludes to the names of the books the Sowing and the Reaping. The passage begins with her coming in and spilling her guts about how lost she is. “I do not know that I am sorry, I do not know that I am ashamed, I do not know that I am degraded in my own esteem”. The list and repetition on the words “I do not know that I am” emphasize that poor Louisa can no longer act on her own to deal with the situations at hand.  She is lost and has returned to her home, to her Father in particular to make it known to him that it is his fault for this occurrence. Now the allusion to the Sowing is realized when Louis goes on to say “All that I know is, your philosophy and your teaching will not save me. Now, father, you have brought me to this”. The seeds planted in Louisa’s mind have failed to grow into something that can be yield any worth. Louisa’s father failed with his ideas of facts only. He wasn’t able to Sow Louisa correctly. The connection to the final book is the end of the passage that will lead into the Garnering. Here Mr. Gradgrind looks down on his daughter as a failure to his system. He won’t be able to gather anything from the “insensible heap” that lay by his feet. The heap is his "dying" daughter who has given up on her father’s beliefs. 

Information

Mrs. Roush, York Community High School, Period 8, 2012-2013 "I Want Facts!" Group 2