Charles Dickens Reflects on Society

Fact, Question, Response

Use this organizer to keep track of your thoughts as you listen to the audio story. In the "Fact" column, record interesting or useful factual information you learn about the topic. In the "Question" column, write questions that occur to you as you listen. Finally, in the "Response" column, make a list of responses to the story, either as they occur to you or in relation to one of the facts or questions you’ve listed.

Language Identification

Listen closely and check off each phrase as you hear it.

• characters that brought to life the hardships of the working poor
• the 29-year-old paid a visit to the famous mills of Lowell, Massachusetts
• comparing it to the deplorable conditions of industrial England
• they worked in terribly dangerous situations
• in cellar apartments with raw sewage seeping through the walls
• nice boarding houses that were made and fresh young girls coming from the countryside
• years after his visit they would strike
• if he realized how much unrest there already
• it wasn't that long before that where there were riots and revolutions
• he'd never felt such power in his writing as before that time
• There's also a sense of complexity
• appetite for going after the hypocrisy, the greed that were underlying social oppression
• he always seemed to try to use that power to effect change
• he uses his wit as a weapon to effect change

Fill in the Blank

As you listen to the story, fill in the blank in each sentence below with the word or phrase that fits best.

• Oliver Twist, Scrooge, Tiny Tim, characters that brought to life the hardships of the working poor during England's .
• The words of Charles Dickens observing an American mill, and of course comparing it to the conditions of industrial England.
• Their strike paved the way for the modern movement.
• A voraciousness of appetite for going after the hypocrisy, the greed that were underlying social .
• He looks at the hypocrisy, the cruelty, the greed and he uses his as a weapon to effect change.