The Lonely Toiling :: Philosophy Money Papers

The Lonely Toiling My favorite book has always been A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. This work has an element of self-reinvention that I find attractive. Few themes are as interesting for me as the theme of a man or a woman, by strength of will, changing his or her stars and defying the convoluted schemes of the Fates. In this regard, I feel a special appreciation for Charles Dickens work because Ebenezer Scrooge is not reinventing himself for the interest group of material gain the sole purpose of Scrooges transformation is redemption. Dickens constructs a dichotomy in Scrooges situation that is one and only(prenominal) among literary characters. Ebenezer Scrooge is a man whose driving motivation is to cultivate affluence and wealth, yet these seemingly beneficial things are what cause him to lose his populace and suffer boundless misery and loneliness. As such, the story of Scrooge is a paradox in kind, where the striving for money and the attainment of happiness are not s ynchronous. Perhaps the reason that I feel so drawn to the character of Ebenezer Scrooge is that I also suffer greatly from this paradox. I stand at the forefront of those about to join the Investment Banking workforce security and power are the guaranteed welcome mats. However, I cannot help but ponder all the personalised sacrifice that this entry shall entail. The hundred-hour workweeks and the burgeoning pressure from superiors will make it all but impossible for me to foster a family or retain any semblance of a social life. Thus, as for Robert Frost, two paths have converged in the woods for me, and I need to choose the one that I shall travel by. To help guide me in this reconciliation between the personal and the professional, I am visited by my own respective literary ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future.I.The ghost of Christmas past arrives to me in the guise of Karl Marx. A short, heavyset German man with a thick beard and ruddy eyes, he takes me back to ninete enth century Belgium at the onset of the Industrial Revolution. I face workers toiling over produce that is ultimately taxed out of their hands. I witness the extent to which man is degraded as I look upon the rampant cannibalism caused by the extreme disparity between poverty and wealth. As I struggle to grasp the reasoning behind these sights, Marx explainsThe worker becomes poorer the more than wealth he produces, the more his production increases in power and extent.