In A Christmas Carol, I met two urchins named Want and Ignorance who were presented to the stingy Victorian Scrooge by the Ghost of Christmas Present. Both urchins teach Scrooge a very salient lesson he must learn: not to pursue money but to hold one’s family above everything else.
Understanding the Symbolism of Want
Want is about poverty, need, and tangible deprivation in the living standards of the underclass. Want symbolizes frank human suffering in society: hunger, not having a roof over their head, and not having the simple things. That is where the importance of Want lies: it so easily exposes systemic failures and insecurities in society. Want in today’s world is more than just a symptom of inequality; it is, in fact, a mirror of what we prioritize together. The questions all this begs are many: Why does want have to persist in an abundant world? What it calls for, then, is much more than quick fixes.
Deep and structural it will be, in how mechanisms and systems are going to be set up, pointing towards the equitable sharing of resources and the opening up of sustainable opportunities to one and all. There is another point with regard to Understanding Want: it also creates empathy. Understanding the plight of the needy, we would have to act with compassion—not just charity, but the fight for decent wages, proper policies, and educational and health opportunities. The presence of Want holds us together in human fellowship and binds us to the moral principle that we should wish good for everybody.
The Threat of Ignorance
Here, Dickens warns that Ignorance is the graver threat; it not only blinds society to injustice, but it also serves to perpetuate problems. As people willfully ignore the roots of inequality, they indirectly help to perpetuate suffering.
Today, this manifests in many ways: apathy about climate change, ignorance of systemic racism, and apathy toward labor practices that exploit others. It shelters the powerful and allows a haven in which greed may thrive unchecked. Working with ignorance is important for change. Education, transparency, and dialogue are ways through which one can clear the clouds of ignorance, creating a society based on understanding and fairness.
Breaking the Cycle of Poverty and Neglect
He makes Dickens personify that Ignorance and Want would never know themselves to part asunder, which he expounds to mean: to disregard one of the two, as a certain spur to the brutality of the other. Ignorance keeps Want in its dark womb by covering up causes; Want is increased by not knowing how to act for removal of the causes. They are, in another sense, the closed circuit of poverty and inequality that can be broken only through awareness and compassion.
What we need is an approach imbuing both empathy and education to break this vicious circle. Want calls our charitable action; Ignorance demands accountability and learning. These are not two parallel undertakings but interlocking and, if you will, building blocks of the more just and fair society.
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