Stave 3
Reading skills: identifying details
Literary devices: humor, hyperbole,
foreshadowing, juxtaposition, personification
Literary Devices
• Purpose: To make story more enjoyable
• To help you understand the story
• To make the story more powerful, interesting
and memorable
• For fun!
Details: picture the scene
• Scrooge’s room
• Cratchit women clothes
• Do now: sketch in your notes what one of these
scenes looks like. Imagine the colors.
Hyperbole (exaggeration)
Humor
• It was a million degrees outside!
• Everyone in the stadium noticed giant
streamer of toilet paper, like a banner behind
an airplane, hanging off my shoe.
• Scrooge’s fear on p. 81
Foreshadowing: a hint of what’s
to come
• Had I known then what I know now, I wouldn’t
have been able to face the day.
• “Bob’s voice. . . Trembled more when he said
that Tiny Tim was growing strong and hearty.”
Juxtaposition: two things side by
side making them both clearer
• Two people.
• Red next to green makes both sharper.
• Mean Scrooge and kind Fred.
Foil
• Foil: When two people are next to each other
to make a character trait stand out.
Personification: inanimate object
with feelings; give ideas human form
• The moon smiled down on the lovers.
The dog slunk away with his
tail between his legs. The
dog slunk away guiltily.
Example of
personification from ACC?
Ignorance and Want
as two bedraggled
children.
Ignorance and Want
• The boy is Ignorance; the girl is Want – the
boy is more dangerous
• Why does Dickens believe this?
• What did he do in his life to fix ignorance?
Review – Literary Devices
– Details
– Hyperbole
– Juxtapositon
– Personification
– Forshadowing
– Foil
Stave 3 “Team Talk” Questions
• 1. How is Scrooge’s room transformed by the
arrival of the Ghost of Christmas Present?
• 2. What is a “twice-turned” gown? What does
it mean that Mrs. Cratchit and her daughter
are “brave” in ribbons? What do these details
convey?
Stave 3 “Team Talk” Questions
continued…
• 3. The Spirit reveals that Tiny Tim will die “if these
shadows remain unaltered by the Future.” Why is
Scrooge “overcome with penitence and grief”?
• 4. According to Scooge’s nephew, Fred, who always
suffers from Scrooge’s “ill whims”?
Stave 3 “Team Talk” Questions
continued…
• 5.Humor in writing taps into the human disposition to
laugh at the ridiculous, the ludicrous, and the comical.
Hyperbole is exaggeration used for humorous effect.
How does dickens use humor and hyperbole to help
the reader understand how frightened Scrooge is of
the second Spirit? Give me some SPECIFIC examples
from the TEXT.
“Team Talk”
• 7. Foreshadowing is ahunt or a clue an author
gives to suggest something that may happen
later in the story. What might Dickens be
foreshadowing in this passage: “Bob’s
voice…trembled more when he said that Tiny
Tim was growing strong and hearty”?
“Team Talk”
• 8. Juxtaposition is the act of placing two things side by
side in order to make characteristics of the two things
more distinct. For example, Dicksn juxtaposes the
setting of black house fronts, furrowed streets, gloom,
dingy mist, and soot with the cheerfulness of the
people in the houses, emphasizing the contrast. Find
another example of juxtaposition in Stave 3.
“Team Talk”
• 10. Personification gives human form to
abstractions. How does Dickens personify
ignorance and want (poverty and oppression)
in Stave Three? Why do you think he chooses
to personify these abstractions as he does?
“Team Talk”
Digging Deeper…
• 11. Of the Cratchit’s Christmas celebration, the narrator
states:
“There was nothing of high mark in this…But they were
happy, grateful, pleased with one another, and contented
with the time…”
Despite having barely enough to fill everyone at a meal,
every Cratchit is thankful and refrains from even hinting that
the pudding is small. Why do you think that is?
“Team Talk”
• Read Philippians 4:12-13. What does Paul say
is the “secret” of being “content in any and
every situation”?
“Team Talk”
• 12. The Spirit takes Scrooge from place to place and to
many homes. What personal qualities or traits are
demonstrated for Scrooge through these encounters?
• Read Galatians 5:22-23. What are the fruits of the Spirit
listed in this passage? Compare this list to the list you
made in the previous question. What are their
similarities and differences?
• To what extent can we cultivate these qualities in
ourselves, and to what extent are they gifts from God?
Comic Strip - Model
• To keep track of the many places (at least 8, some
people count 10) the characters visit, draw each scene
(stick figures are fine, but each “scene” needs to have
details).
• Include the setting and the characters
• Label the scene (maybe you’re not a great artist and I
won’t be able to tell!)
• Fold your paper to make nice squares, use pencil or
colored pencil. No pens or markers.