1. Why did the writer describe Mr. Gradgrind as a 'cannon?
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Answers
Step-by-step explanation:
In the extracts ‘The One Thing Needful’ and ‘The Keynote’ from Charles Dickens story ‘Hard Times’ (1854) we meet Thomas Gradgrind who is a leading citizen in the industrial city Coketown. Thomas Gradgrind is a strict man with many rules and he finds the use of the imagination a time-wasting distraction from the real world. He is strongly convinced that children should only be taught facts to become clever human beings and he claims to have brought up his children according to these principles. He is a man of realities, facts and calculations and he believes that his way of thinking is the right way.
Mr. Gradgrind is described as a square person, quite literally, and his strict way of thinking matches his simple and old-fashioned looks. His forehead is described as a square wall with the eyebrows as the base. The eyes are placed in two dark caves, which are overshadowed by the eyebrows and the forehead. His mouth is wide, thin and rigid and his voice is dictatorial and inflexible. His bald head is described with a discreet amount of hair that covers the shining surface of the head which could be seen as a protection against things from the outside that could disturb the tons of facts stored inside his head. His way of moving is obstinate and proud.
Mr. Gradgrind’s outer appearance reflects that he is a conservative, pessimistic and a rational thinking man who lives after the rules and facts he has stored in his head.
In ‘The Keynote’ chapter two - Murdering the Innocents, line 31, Charles Dickens describes Thomas Gradgrind’s way of thinking. “With a rule and a pair of scales, and the multiplication table always in his pocket, sir, ready to weigh and measure any parcel of human nature, and tell you exactly what it comes to.” This piece of text reveals that Thomas Gradgrind judges people by their way of thinking and sorts the people he meets into boxes. He sees the world in black and white and is not to be talked into believing in anything else. His knowledge and way of seeing the world is built upon facts, his stubbornness and his strong skepticism against new facts and ways of thinking makes it difficult for him to accept things, such as people with another way of thinking, that doesn’t fit into his norms.