The purpose of the essay is to relate what happened in the stroty with they way in which people are living now. The idea is also to show the actual reality through literature. Consequently, literature depicts reality and it mainly impies to state that there is a huge problem in society which is not unfamiliar to students’ life.
Having explained what the essay is going to be about and having mentioned the aim of it, it becomes important to give details of the story.
The Signalman is set in the mid 19th century and it tells the story of a ghost that has been haunting a worker. Each spectral appearance provokes a tragic event on the railway on which the signalman works. The signalman's work is at a signalbox in a deep cutting near a tunnel entrance on a lonely stretch of the line, and he controls the movements of passing trains. When there is danger, his fellow signalmen alert him via telegraph and alarms. Three times, he receives phantom warnings of danger when his bell rings in a fashion that only he can hear. Each warning is followed by the appearance of the spectre, and then by a terrible accident. The worker seemes to be afraid of something, which caused that the narrator to believe he had an "infection in his mind" (p.741). The first accident involves a terrible collision between two trains in the tunnel. The final warning is a premonition of the signalman's own death. Charles Dickens wanted to confirmate that modernity is a concept that brings benefits for some people but at the same time represents a lack of growth for others.
As it has been pointed out the signalman’s work is always the same. He is in charge of preventing accidents. His life is entirely oriented on his labor. Indeed, he lives in a box. The box is the representation of the main setting of the story. He is right beside a train tunnel where he spends the whole day letting trains go thorugh. Certainly, the time in which it was written reproduces the idea of modernity and progress. For instance, the train exemplifies development of society in terms of having a better life.
According to my interpretaion of the reading, the railway which is a central element in the story, illustrates the progress, modernity and comfort. The signalman is helping for the progress but he is not part of it. In fact, he becomes a slave of his work what causes his mental disease and his inmobility. Subsequently, there are some other factors like lonelinness and stress which contribute to his mental illness. As result of the pressure of his work, he notices the presence of a spectre. Therefore, one question came to my mind is modernity allowing interaction among people? If we think in the signalman, he does not have possibilities for expressing his fears, wishes and doubts. He works alone. So, in that sense modernity is not promoting interaction among people even worse it is fomenting individualism.
This story is a mirror for our society. Eventually, in our Chilean reality is occuring a similar situation. People prefer to have hi-tech stuff rather than having good interpersonal relatioships. Even worse, people are just working or studying, living by ourselves and just that. So, what is our purpose in life?
Individualism is the reason which demonstrates that our manner of living is not being the appropriate. We do not care about others and we do not know ourselves. For instance, empathy is not considered part of us.
It is important to mention that during the course we have pointed out so relevant topics that literature contributes in their development. As we have concluded so far, “as we become more self-aware, we gain a clearer sense of ourselves” (2004). Furthermore, the first step is to create your self- knowledge in order to know what you feel and how you make choices.
The Signalman is showing a reality that it is a living example of how human relationships are being destroyed by modernity which leads to materialism. As I have been observing in my internship, students’ wishes, doubts and fears are left out of the classroom and they have to be concentrated on their work which is to acquire the subject rather than sharing experiences and what they feel with heir classmates and teachers.
One activity for working in class with students is the analysis of this story because it promotes their cognitive development. In other words, the analysis gives students an opportunity to apply skills and strategies, such as identifying the themes discussed in that narrative. The idea is to give them quotes for discussing in groups. In that way they are going to contrast the story with their own experience.
To conclude, teachers have to encourage students to build their personality based on the respect through social communication by means of literature. We have to promote self-awareness in the classroom as a tool for having clarity about who students are and what they want and why they want it. If students are able to recongize that, they will be empower to consciously and actively make decisions.
Secondly, it becomes essential to find what you. I strongly believe that being successful is not just an issue of making lot of money. On the contrary, it implies to love what do you in order to reach happiness. The real joy of life always comes from your inner being not the one that comes from what others think is good for you.
Finally, knowing yourself in a future will lead to success. If people are able to make the right decisions they will find what they really love and also as important is the fact that they will be happy. It is our mission to educate children to care about others, to respect others’ opinion in order benefit from the relationship among people.
Work Cited
“Essay Writing”. The owl at Purdue. 1995-2009. Purdue University. 29 Nov 2009
Marshall, Claudia, and Stern, Robin. Understanding Emotions in the Classroom. New York: Dude, 2004.
“The Signalman”. Coursework.info. 2009. 29 Nov 2009
“The signal man”.Page by Books. 2004. 29 Nov 2009.
