Happier In A Christmas Carol

In the novel A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens there is a character first portrayed as a selfish odious man. This character’s name is Ebenezer Scrooge and is a man who does not believe in christmas spirit. As time goes in the novel Scrooge takes small steps to become a happier man. In the present day researchers have been looking into what makes someone happy. One of these researchers’ name is Michael Norton. He has researched how money can buy happiness if used in a prosocial way. Second is a woman named Elizabeth W. Dunn. She has researched on how talking to a stranger could make you happier. Finally, Jacob Soboroff has researched what makes us happy in general. Recent research done on happiness has strong connections to what actions Scrooge

According to the TED talking Michael Norton, using money in a prosocial way makes you happier. This is shown in a study with Canadian undergraduates either buying for them self or for someone else. It is stated that, “The very same purchase, just targeted toward yourself or targeted toward someone else. What did we find at the end of the day? People who spent money on other people got happier.” (Norton). Example of this are also shown in the Christmas Carol. Later in the book during the final stave, the end of it, Scrooge decides to buy a turkey. Scrooge whispers followed by a laugh, “I’ll send it to Bob Cratchit 's.”(Dickens 102) This shows that Scrooge is filled with joy while thinking about giving the turkey of Bob instead of himself. Another time he states that he will buy something is in stave five when he gleefully tells Bob Cratchit that they should discuss more, “Over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop…” (Dickens 106) Due to Bob Cratchit’s low income Scrooge most likely means that he will pay for the meal. Finally, in the stave five Scrooge surprises Bob Cratchit by raising his salary, which goes against what he said in the first stave where he believes paying someone on a holiday is equivalent to