“Grief is like the ocean; it comes on waves ebbing and flowing. Sometimes the water is calm, and sometimes it is overwhelming. All we can do is learn to swim” says Vicki Harrison, the author of Dressed to Thrill. Learning to swim is something that almost everyone can accomplish. Much like swimming in the ocean, no matter how overwhelming it can become, everyone can learn to cope with their grief. For the main character, however, he strives to take on his grief without learning to swim. Throughout the story, three ghost visit Scrooge and help him realize that he needs to change how he acts toward other people. The ghost of Christmas Past shows the readers that Scrooge has lost three women whether it was by death or abandonment and that is why he is bad-tempered and grumpy. His …show more content…
After losing the women in his life that make him happy, Scrooge becomes depressed and lonely. Scrooge begins his childhood without a mother figure because she died shortly after he was born. His mom was the first of three women that Scrooge lives the rest of his life without. Without a mom around, his father tends to treat him terribly. Scrooge’s father believes that he is the reason that his mom died. His mom died while having birth to Scrooge and throughout his life, he seems to agree with his father that he caused her death. Because he believes this for almost his entire life, he allows his father to be rude to him. His father sends him to an overly strict boarding school and appears to treat Fan, Scrooge’s sister, better (Roberts). As Fan comes to pick Scrooge up from school in order to bring him home, she tells him that “[he] is so much kinder than he used to be” (Dickens n.pag.). Fan is implying that her father has been angry all of their lives except when Scrooge leaves. Now that he has become nicer, he is allowing Scrooge to come home. Scrooge’s father is unfair to him because he blames their mother’s