A Christmas Carol

1. What specific actions does Scrooge take on Christmas Eve that show his isolation from others?

2. Why do you think Scrooge justifies his behavior by saying the poor should use 'prisons and workhouses' rather than accepting that he simply doesn't want to help?

3. What specific moments from Scrooge's past does the Ghost show him, and how does each one reveal something different about who he used to be?

4. Why does Scrooge try to extinguish the Ghost's light at the end of the chapter, and what does this tell us about how people handle painful truths?

5. Why does the Ghost use Scrooge's own words against him when he asks about Tiny Tim's future?

6. What makes Fred's family's response to Scrooge different from how most people handle rejection?

7. What's the difference between how people react to the unnamed dead man versus how they react to Tiny Tim's death?

8. Why do the businessmen, servants, and even the debtor family show no sadness about the mysterious man's death?

9. Why does Scrooge pass his nephew's door twelve times before knocking? What does this tell us about the difference between wanting to change and actually changing?

10. Scrooge starts with small actions—sending a turkey, finding the charity collectors—before the bigger challenge of facing his nephew. Why might this order matter for lasting change?