2020: The Struggle to Find Joy

The year 2020 has been a year faced with hardships and has caused internal struggles for many to be able to be happy and find joy within themselves. As the year begins to wrap up and Christmas gets closer many often begin to wonder the many things to be grateful for, and many carry joys waiting for the day to unwrap the presents. This year has proven to be a year where many have struggled to identify the happiness, gratitude as well as joy due to the current world events. In this case the short story A Christmas Carol written by author Charles Dickens provides no exemption to such feelings. The story undertakes the effects that isolation has on humans and the importance that love and compassion on a person feeling. In the short story Charles Dickens uses Scrooge as the main example to showcases such effects of isolation, and Scrooge’s struggles at the beginning of the story. The following paper challenges the effects of isolation and the human desire for love and compassion to be able to feel gratitude and joy within themselves.

The feeling of isolation is a feeling many never wish to undertake, but it’s a feeling that once is felt can possibly turn someone’s world upside down quickly. Isolation can be defined as the act of separation from something or from someone. The feeling of long-term isolation can often come and present itself with long term effects that affect the human such as character and behavioral changes in that person. As the short story goes on, and Scrooge’s Character develops Charles Dickens quotes to the readers, “But what did Scrooge care! It was the very thing he liked. To edge his way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance.” (9) The quotation above showcases how Scrooge deals with no emotions and carries around selfishness and the lack of joy that all humans desire. He has isolated himself into an ideology of being alone in his feelings, and that regardless of how much and how many people do something Scrooge’s emotions are too selfish to allow himself to reflect and be thankful and show happiness. Scrooge has blocked himself off from everyone surrounding him and consistently ignored those who surrounded him in order to be able to continue his life feeling isolated. The story has shown the effects that isolation has on a human and the effects it carries over to those who were to surround you. What seems the most fascinating is when the author presents to the readers the Ghost of Christmas. The Ghost of Christmas can be seen as the light at the end of tunnel, and a character that changes the entire story mood. The Ghost of Christmas brought positive changes to Scrooge and allowed him to find a “new” Christmas spirit and find himself again. It serves as a reminder that while isolation can bring out a new personality in someone, and that hope is at the end of the tunnel.

Paragraph 3: The year 2020 has been one of the hardest years for me to personally navigate and has been a year full of hardships and challenges that have never present themselves in the short life I have lived. The current world status and the current mandates have brought many feelings of isolation where one struggles with themselves to find things that make them happy or things to look forward to. From Friday March 13 onward, every day has felt like a repetition, I go to bed and wake up and I feel as if I have already lived that day but I’m getting ready to repeat it. Just like Scrooge I have had difficulty feeling love and compassion from others. I often attempted to block it out and would use the current events to distance myself from others and use the “social distancing” as an excuse to keep others away. I often found myself blocking others out and had no interest in knowing what they either had to say or anything of that nature. This year has proven to be a ride of emotions as if we were on a rollercoaster, no constant emotion has stuck with me or made a significant impact. While reading the story the quote that must stuck with me was between a Merry Christmas Scrooge and his nephew had with each other; “when I live in such a world of fools as this” (10) pretty accurately describes my emotions towards this year. As the Holiday season is two weeks away, I can say I can relate to Scrooge and identify with the struggles he faced to find that happiness and joy many wanted him to experience. While 2020 has been one of the hardest years for me, I wish 2021 was a “reborn” year where everything changes into a year where just like Scrooge, I am able to find that happiness many of us wish and desire for and a year where we can all find the Ghost of Christmas.