Question

Read the following passage from the beginning of Charles Dickens' 1854 novel Hard Times. In the passage, Mr. Gradgrind, a successful businessman and leader of Coketown, tells the headmaster of Coketown's school what kind of education he wants the school to provide: 'Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. . . ' The scene was a plain, bare, monotonous vault of a school-room, and the speaker's square forefinger emphasized his observations by underscoring every sentence with a line on the schoolmaster's sleeve. The emphasis was helped by the speaker's square wall of a forehead, which had his eyebrows for its base, while his eyes found commodious cellarage in two dark caves, overshadowed by the wall. The emphasis was helped by the speaker's mouth, which was wide, thin, and hard set. The emphasis was helped by the speaker's voice, which was inflexible, dry, and dictatorial. . . . The speaker's obstinate carriage, square coat, square legs, square shoulders, — nay, his very neckcloth, trained to take him by the throat with an unaccommodating grasp, like a stubborn fact, as it was, — all helped the emphasis. Make a prediction. Based on the passage, what themes, or central ideas, do you think will be developed in the novel? Describe at least two. Then explain why you think these themes will be developed. Be sure to use specific details from the passage to support your ideas.

Answer 1

All the public inscriptions in the town were painted alike, in severe characters of black and white. The jail might have been the infirmary, the infirmary might have been the jail, the town-hall might have been either, or both, or anything else, for anything that appeared to the contrary in the graces of their construction. Fact, fact, fact, everywhere in the material aspect of the town; fact, fact, fact, everywhere in the immaterial.

What is the main idea that Dickens is making in this passage?

Industrialization had caused environmental pollution.

Workers in the Coketown factory faced difficult conditions.

Every building in Coketown looked the same, no matter its purpose.

People worked long hours for little pay.

Answer is C

Answer 2

According to the text, one of the themes developed on the novel should be The Effects of Facts over Opinions on Children's Education. It is no wonder that facts are important to learn in order to build a frame of reference to construct one's own ideas, but the issue developed in the story comes when a powerful man wishes that children learn by facts alone. This practice will surely have a dramatic effect on the story, since at one point, the characters will realise the importance of considering other's opinions to generate proper and educated ideas to share.

The idea of The Impact of Private Companies on the Common Society should be included in the story as well, as it is a businessman that demonstrates the potential grasp of a few individuals over the livelihoods of many. For better or for worse, the ideas and experiences of one person can become the perceptive world for the rest if the right amount of power is possessed, and enough money is put on the table.