ACC Blog Post

  In Stave Two so far, Scrooge has now met the Ghost of Christmas Past, who has shown him his childhood, how lonely and neglected he was as a child and felt as if characters from books were his friends, how deeply he loved his sister, Fan, and the Ghost and Scrooge talk a little about how big of a heart she had, and her only child, Fred, is Scrooge's only living family left, whom he blames for Fan's death. He realizes that Fred has had it rough too, yet he's still happy, and how Scrooge needs to start having a relationship with his nephew. We read more in class today. They left the Christmas with young Scrooge and Fan and come to a Christmas when Scrooge was a young man, an apprentice for Fezziwig. Fezziwig had been old, round, and happy. He calls for Scrooge's former self and the other apprentice, Dick Wilkins, to have the shutters up and no more work that night because it was Christmas Eve. They cleared the floor for dancing, and then a lot of people came in. The fiddler, Mrs. Fezziwig, the three Miss Fezziwigs, six young followers, all the young men and women employed in the business, the housemaid, the baker, the milkman, and the boy from over the way came in. There was a lot of dancing, there were forfeits, more dancing, cake, negus, and a great piece of cold roast, great piece of cold boiled, mice-pies, and plenty of beer. Dickens goes on to describe how Mr. Fezziwig is the best dancer around, and only Mrs. Fezziwig was worthy to be his partner. Mr. Fezziwig is such a great dancer that he can jump, do the splits, and come up on his feet without a stagger.
  What we read here today in class must have been a really happy moment in Scrooge's life. We are a product of our past, so besides Scrooge's childhood, what else happened between this moment and the present that led to Scrooge now being so miserable and alone? Another thing is that Scrooge was an apprentice under Fezziwig, who was an accountant, but he's a completely different kind of accountant than Scrooge and Marley are based on what we read in class about him today. He's round, he's jovial and happy, he celebrates Christmas with loved ones, he and his wife are old together; basically the opposite of Scrooge in the present. The Scrooge we know in the present is miserable and alone, despises Christmas, and has no family except for Fred. Everybody seemed to love Fezziwig, and everyone seems to not want to be around Scrooge. I think in a way, it's strange and funny or something how they're both accountants, but they're entirely different people, and Fezziwig seemed to have no thought as to if he might fall into poverty, but Scrooge is sitting on a pile of gold and lives a very frugal life. I don't know, this is just my thoughts on comparing Fezziwig and Scrooge, y'all are entitled to your own opinions.