Comparison between Hard Times and the Star

Like the beginning of tall(prenominal) Times, the esthesis is virtually children and the way that they are treated. Although Hard Times was written a hundred years before the Star but both stories have similar messages and implications. The Star and Hard Times both stress what their authors fantasy about teaching in their times. An important theme in both stories is the importance of imagination. For Sissy Jupe in Hard Times, her imagination is what makes her herself. For the boy Cameron in the Star his imagination is a way of escape from the dystopian human beings around him.In both stories, these ideas are more important than the characters but I think that in Hard Times the characters play a practically more important role than in the Star, as they are described in much more detail and depth. Like Hard Times, the surroundings in the Star connote ideas of entrapment and claustrophobia. The phrase monotonous vault in Hard Times suggests a prison house like feeling to the scho olroom, while in the Star, enclosing tenements connotes a similar feeling about Camerons neighbourhood.An important message in both stories is that no matter how hard you try to suppress imagination, it will invariably resurface. In Hard Times, this is represented by the phrase, dost thou think that thou wilt always eliminate outright the robber Fancy lurking within- or sometimes only maim and distort him This message is also reflected in the Star by the child disobeying the teacher and swallowing the star instead of handing it to the teacher. Dickens describes his characters in large detail, using similes and metaphors.For example, there is a lengthily description of Mr. Gradgrind being likened a building in chapter one. In Hard Times, Dickens how a character will act is reflected in their name. Gradgrind suggests step by step grinding, which is what Mr. Gradgrind does he gradually grinds the children into his image of what a person should be. Dickens also hints to us how we a re meant to feel about real characters in his descriptions of them. I find that Gray doesnt describe his characters in the Star in as much depth as Dickens does in Hard Times.Gray spends more time on the descriptions of the images that Cameron imagines when he looks into the star such as the snow-flake. He brought it close to his eye. In its depth was the pattern of a fleck He looked through the flakes crystal lattice into an ocean of glittering blue-black waves under a leaf full of huge galaxies. I preferred Hard Times to the Star because the characters are described in more detail whereas descriptions of the star seem to make up most of the story in the Star. I also find Hard Times easier to understand, probably because it is more blatant than the Star.