My Cringy Essays

Comparison Paper - December 20th, 2016

This essay is a comparison between A Christmas Carol and "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas".

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The story A Christmas Carol is a well-known novel written by Charles Dickens. In A Christmas Carol, a man named Ebenezer Scrooge, known by his last name, hates the idea of Christmas. Throughout the night, Scrooge is visited by three spirits; The Ghost of Christmas Past, The Ghost of Christmas Present, and The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. The ghosts convince him that his ways are wrong, and by morning, Scrooge is a new person who lives as if every day was Christmas. Similarly, there are many of the same elements found in Dr. Seuss' "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas". The elements of which are most similar would be the plot, setting, and characters. Speaking of which, the plot has a couple similarities.

The plot of "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" is like that of A Christmas Carol in the way of what the Grinch does compared to Scrooge. Dr. Seuss has to have taken ideas from A Christmas Carol. The two plots are just too similar for it to be otherwise. First of all, in the beginning of the movie, the Grinch decides to 'steal' Christmas from the Whovians. He swoops in at night and takes all their Christmas decorations and presents. The Grinch does this because Christmas annoys him so much because he can't understand why they would celebrate it. Likewise, in A Christmas Carol, in the beginning of the story, the main character Scrooge is confronted at work by some gentlemen who ask him to donate money to the poor. Scrooge, being stingy with money, tells them that the poor can go work at union workhouses, which at the time were horrible places to be employed at. Scrooge, like the Grinch, is quite annoyed by the idea of Christmas and doesn't understand why people celebrate it. Another example of similarities found within the plots is how the Grinch and Scrooge react near the end of the story/movie when they realize the true meaning of Christmas. The Grinch hears the Whovians singing and celebrating even though all their stuff is gone, and he races back down the mountain to return their stolen Christmas items. He even dines with them at the end of it all. In comparison, near the end of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is overjoyed when he returns to his room on Christmas morning. Scrooge then has a young boy buy a turkey for the Cratchits and he pays his clerk, Bob Cratchit, more money. Scrooge, like the Grinch, gives the Cratchits more after 'stealing' from them by paying Bob less than he should. While the plot has a couple similarities, some can be found within the setting.

The main setting in A Christmas Carol is the city of London, UK during the mid-1800's in winter on Christmas Eve/Day. Even though the main setting in "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" is in a small town, it also takes place in winter on Christmas Eve/Day. It's clear to tell this, because the settings are shown/described with snow on the ground, and cold wind whipping through the air. Now, there aren't that many similarities between the settings other than that so I had to search for this next one, and I admit it's a bit of a stretch. The other similarity that I found within the settings is where the Grinch and Scrooge live. For example, in Dr. Seuss' "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas", the Grinch lives in a cave that is dark and mysterious. Scrooge is described to live in a large mansion that is dark and ominous when he enters it on the night of Christmas Eve. So, both of the main characters live in a dark and creepy place. Enough about the setting, now onto the character similarities.

There are many characters in "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" that are like the characters in A Christmas Carol. For example, the way the Grinch and Scrooge behave have several similarities of their own. As stated in paragraph one, the Grinch hates Christmas and anything to do with it. Scrooge is shown to act this way too. In the beginning of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge's nephew Fred invites Scrooge to his Christmas party. Scrooge responds with, "Bah. Humbug!" which means he's saying that Christmas is blasphemy. The Grinch is shown to hate Christmas through the way that he devises a plan to 'steal' Christmas from the Whovians just because it annoys him. Two other characters that are also quite similar are the Grinch's dog, Max, and Scrooge's clerk, Bob Cratchit. Both of these characters are shown to have to do work for someone they'd rather not work for. In "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas", Max is forced by the Grinch to pull him by sleigh into Whoville. At one point, Max climbs onto the back of the sled and rests for a while until the Grinch notices him and throws him off back into the snow. Much like Max, Bob Cratchit works for Scrooge who pays Bob little money and forces him into tough conditions. In the beginning of the story, Bob is described to have a minuscule fire that just barely keeps him warm during work compared to Scrooge's fire. The final characters in "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" that are like ones in A Christmas Carol would be the Whovians and the Cratchits. The Cratchits in A Christmas Carol are poor folk with a large family. When The Ghost of Christmas Present takes Scrooge to see them, he shows the Cratchits sitting down to eat a small Christmas meal, but they are satisfied and happy. Much like the Whovians, that when upon discovering that their stuff had been stolen, gathered around the town square and began to sing carols celebrating Christmas even though they were considered to have little to be happy about. To sum it up, many similarities abound between the story and the movie.

In the end, the story A Christmas Carol and the movie "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" have many similarities. These resemblances include plot, setting, and characters. The likeness between these two versions shows that "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" is a retelling of A Christmas Carol. Both of these stories have an important theme; Anyone can change at any time, it's never too late to change your ways.