Education and Industrialism Essay

Hard times is a novel about people who lived in English factory towns at the height of the industrial revolution. In the opening chapters, Dickens shows the brutally- practical philosophy of utilitarianism could influence life in schools and factories. He shows how pupils be educated in a school thresh by Thomas Gradgrind, and then goes on to describe the fictional town of Coketown, and the appalling conditions its factory workers had to endue.The novel Hard Times is divided into three books, the offset of, which is called sowing. Dickens calls the first book this to refer on the one hand to plants how they are treated when going affects their development for example, if you leave a plant in a cellar with no water its not going to be as healthy as a well looked after plant. This is the same for children if they are brought up by just facts then when they are adults theyre not going to be healthy mentally emotionally for the creative side hasnt been fostered.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. In this address from the first line of the book, the word facts is repeated to emphasise the heart of the speakers spatial relation to teaching children. We later learn the speaker is named Mr. Gradgrind. Dickens gives his characters names, which channelise their personality, for Mr.Gradgrind grinds children down with facts. From the first paragraph, the reader learns about the opinion of Gradgrind not the character or place. The tone is crisp, and no-nonsense, which helps suggest the attitude of the speaker to give the children as umpteen facts as possible. In the second paragraph the words plain, bare, monotonous convey the depressing environment of a school room. Dickens describes Mr. Gradgrind with features to also show his attitude and personality.For example, he describes parts of Gradgrinds appearance as being solid (square also being ass ociated with mathematical precision). The speakers obstinate carriage, square coat, square legs, square shoulders, which indicates maths and facts. He also uses metaphorical language to create irony because you cant just use words literally in real life hair, which bristled on the skirts of his bald head, a plantation of firs to keep the wind from its shining surface.