The story of A Christmas Carol, written by Charles Dickens, is one that almost everyone knows. It is released during the holidays in a huge amount of variations. The basis of each variation is the same. Ebenezer Scrooge, our main character, is a cold-hearted man. It's Christmas Eve, and as Scrooge closes his office, his nephew comes in to wish him a Merry Christmas. Scrooge, being as "cold" as he is, simply thinks that Christmas is a time when people spend money. Scrooge lives alone. His partner, Jacob Marley, has been dead for seven years. Scrooge gets ready for bed and all the unused bells in his house start to ring. The ghost of his deceased colleague, dressed in chains, crates, keys, etc., appears in Scrooge's room. He sits down and tells Scrooge how, throughout his life, he has never done anything good for anyone else. So now, in his death, he must constantly travel without sleep and without relief from the horror of the guilt he feels. Marley says that Scrooge has a chance to change his life and that he will be visited by three spirits who will show him how to do it. They will all appear within a glance of each other, and Marley will be gone. Each ghost represents a different moment in Scrooge's life; the ghost of Christmas past, the ghost of Christmas present and the ghost of Christmas to come. After the events that happened that night, Scrooge realizes that he can change. Ebenezer Scrooge has a change of heart about the holidays, Christmas, and he never returns to his old ways. (Goldstein 1). In the story of A Christmas Carol, different themes and symbols are presented throughout. There are moral lessons involved, some being the real me... middle of paper...ick. 2nd ed. Chicago: St. James Press, 1991. Literary Resource Center. Internet. December 8, 2013. Goldstein, Marc. “A Christmas Carol.” Masterplots, fourth edition (2010): 13. Literary Reference Center. Internet. December 8, 2013. Holderness, Graham. “Imagination in a Christmas Carol.” English Studies: Great Britain, United States 32.1 (January-March 1979): 28-45. Rep. in 19th-century literary criticism. Ed. Kathy D. Darrow. Flight. 211. Detroit: Gale, 2009. Information Resource Center. Internet. December 8, 2013. “Realism.” Review of a short story. Ed. Janet Witalec. Flight. 63. Detroit: Gale, 2004. Information Resource Center. Internet. December 8, 2013. Saltmarsh, Sue. “Spirits, miracles and clauses: economics, patriarchy and childhood in popular Christmas texts.” Articles: Explorations in children's literature 17.1 (2007): 5+. Literary Resource Center. Internet. December 8. 2013.