The extract Murdering the innocents is the beginning of the second chapter of Dickens's Hard Times. The novel is very important because it is the way Dickens criticizes the Utilitarianism. In the novel, set in one of the industrial towns of the North, he emphasizes the dehumanizing aspects of the Industrial Revolution and call into question the influential philosophy of Utilitarianism, which relied heavily on statistics, rules and regulations, and did not at all highly value individualism and imagination.
At the beginning of the extract, the reader comes across the proper name of the main character, Thomas Gradgrind. As is to be expected from Dickens, the names of the characters are emblematic of their personality. The characters' names are almost always an immediate indication of where the character fits on Dickens's novels: Thomas Gradgrind, "a man of realities" is a hard educator who grinds his students through a factory-like process, hoping to produce graduates.
To tell the truth, the narrator creates the idea of a person who considers only the factual reality. As a result, the character becomes a caricature, who has disproportion, bulimic and made of number or figures. His personality is rendered in metonymic terms, which provides the disparate need to demonstrate that everything is true.
Instead, in the second section the narrator introduces a girl, who is initially identified with a number. It means a negation of personal identity. Her name is Sissy Jupe. Unlike the boy "Bitzer" (who has the name of a horse), Sissy is a nickname and she is the single female presented as a contrast to the row of mathematical men. Then, Thomas Gradgrind calls her Cecilia, because he argues that Sissy is not a name. Her last name, "Jupe," comes from the French word for "skirts" and her first name, Cecilia, represents the sainted patroness of music. Especially as she is a member of a traveling circus, we can expect Cecilia to represent "Art" and "Fancy". The narrator uses the language of emotions to describe Cecilia's behavior (she is afraid).
Then, Thomas Gradgrind comments on Sissy's father. He is a horse - riding circus entertainer. T. Gradgrind decides to test her by asking her to define a horse. While Girl number twenty knows what a horse is, she is unable to define one. Another child in the class, a boy called Bitzer, easily defines the animal by means of biological classifications. So, the reader understands apparently the teacher teaches her how to use the language, but instead, he teaches her to think in a certain way.
In conclusion, the reader feels a sense of pathos against Cecilia, because the reader feels superior. Instead, Thomas Gradgrind is an example of grotesque, because the narrator exaggerates in describing Thomas Gradgrind. As a result, the reader rejects the grotesque subject by taking the distance.