Charles Dickens Satire

In Hard Times, Dickens shows through satire that when you brainwash children like Louisa, Tom, and Sissy to be made of Facts, they become identical machines with no interest in topics that are illogical. The author criticizes Mr. Gradgrind’s way of teaching and shows how that affects the children to become very unhappy later in life. The overhanging presence of Fact invokes family conflict in the Gradgrind family and makes the kids afraid to wonder. Sissy falls to the power of Fact and has a difficult time learning and understanding facts. The Gradgrind family has always been about Facts, but when Louisa starts wondering about a fireplace, her mother catches her and says “Don’t stand there and tell me stuff, Louisa...talking in this absurd way about sparks and

She is the exact opposite of everyone else. She is bright and distinct compared to the monotonous Gradgrinds that have taken her in to teach her Fact. However, because of her imagination, her lessons are very difficult. She confides to Louisa, saying, “You don’t know what a stupid girl I am. All through school hours I make mistakes. Mr. and Mrs. M’Choakumchild call me up, over and over again regularly to make mistakes. I can’t help them’’ (Dickens 42). Sissy is starting to believe that her not understanding Fact makes her an idiot, and she can’t become anything like Louisa. She is trying to be more factful, which is making her forget her identity, who she is supposed to be. Here we have two sets of brainwashing done by the Gradgrinds. First their children, who have been taught the way of Fact their entire lives, and then there is Sissy, who has just started her path to self-destruction. Dickens uses these children to mock the brainwashing of kids and the idea that conformity is a good thing in his novel. He criticizes the way in which children are turned into machines. Fact. But is teaching children to be close minded really the way they should be brought