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Focus on Books:
Christmas narratives over the years
Professor Sunanda Mahendra
It is a common occurrence that most religious leaders and their
religious doctrines give vent to creative narratives such as legends,
stories and parables. The Buddha and Jesus Christ have passed down their
ideologies via such means.
Where the most significant factor is the test of their existence of
the centuries. In turn most well known and well remembered parables and
tales have taken the form of layer narratives such as short stories and
short novels or novellas.
It is recorded that some of the greatest story writers have
contributed the best Christmas stories over the years. The best examples
come from such creative writers as Charles Dickens, Leo Tolstoy,
Theodor Dostoesky, Hans Christian Anderson and Maxim Gorky. One of
the best remembered narratives by Dickens is called ‘A Christmas Carol’
a short novel which has charmed and inspired millions. There have been
scores of editions and translations, and many stage, television and film
adaptations, making it one of the best loved stories of all time.
The Central experience revolves round a certain miserly man who had
denounced the generous and pious qualities of human beings stooping down
to a selfish frame of mind. This central character named Scrooge later
comes to grips with loving kindness and learns the true spirit of
Christmas.
The reader is shown the manner of the ghosts of Christmas past,
Christmas present and Christmas yet to come.
The story, as critics have often stated, is a fine example of the
conflict between the sensitivity of an individual and the nature of the
insensitivity that forges him to be unkind.
According to Dickens, every time he dipped quill pen into ink, the
character seemed magically to take life. Tiny Tim with his crutches and
Scrooge lowering in fear before the ghosts, Bob Cratchet drinking
Christmas cheer in the face of poverty.
‘A Christmas Carol’ became one of the most popular books in the
English speaking world. Later Dickens had said about his creative
process that ‘I was very much affected by the little book’. Thus he
wrote to a newspaper journalist ‘that he was reluctant to lay it aside
for a moment’. In fact Dickens was also known by the term ‘Apostle of
Christmas’.
Tolstoy had the habit of rewriting for the Russian reader some of the
age old legends of Christmas. He too had recreated some of the parables
as found in the Bible.
‘God sees but waits’, ‘In Exile’, ‘What men live by’ and ‘The Grain’
are some such examples recreated from Biblical sources fused into
folktales heard by him.
Dostoevsky too followed the same creative path where he depicted the
lives of village folk admiring the bliss of Christmas and its glory.
Most children and adults are made to die in the piercing winter of the
Christmas and its glory. Most children and adults are made to die in the
piercing winter of the Christmas by some writers. One example is the
story of ‘The Little Match Girl’ by the Danish writer Hans Christian
Andersen
The little girl who makes a living by selling match boxes, gradually
finds the severe winter chill quite unbearable for her as well as her
grandmother. The girl makes all the efforts to keep her granny alive is
wasted, and both of them are elevated to a higher divine plane where
they could lead a better life devoid of suffering.
The alternate short story comes from the Russian writer Maxim Gorky
via his creative piece ‘about a little girl and a boy who died freeze to
death’. Here Gorky makes the reader feel that struggling soul in the man
can overcome the external life and the grim surroundings despite the
daily barriers.
He seems to believe that a good narrator cannot afford to be dreamy
and fanciful about Christmas. The real Christmas atmosphere according to
Gorky should lie in the inner spiritual stance of an individual. Though
quite a number of Christmas stories have been written over the years by
great writers, essence of the narratives rest on the happiness of the
message of the gift and mutual sharing and caring for the fellow beings.
It is also recorded that some of the saddest Christmas tragedies are
those involving children who suffer because of their belief in Christmas
legends. Sometime ago a news item was flashed to state that a little boy
was fatally burned while calling up the Chimney to Santa Claus on
Christmas eve.
This would not have occurred if the legend was realistically
explained by the creative adults clarifying who Santa Claus and what he
does during the Christmas season. A medical doctor commented on this as
‘kill the idea that Santa Claus comes down the Chimney.
Tell the children he come b y sleigh and has a key to the front
door’. This implies that the creative writer should have a special
mission as regards his expression, especially on the reconstruction of
legends to suit the children. While retaining the excitement and the
world of fantasy the child reader should be made to gather more
realistic insights.
‘Christmas stories’ as they are denoted, occupies a special genre in
world literature. Several volumes have appeared in the bookshelves over
the years.
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