MURDERING THE INNOCENTS - Charles Dickens (analysis)

Murdering the Innocents is an extract taken from Hard Times written by Charles Dickens. Right from the title the extract underlines the name and the surname of the main figure as if he is well-known. The beginning of the text has an anaphoric use of the language. The idea the reader gets by reading this initial part is that Thomas Gradgrind is a materialistic man.  He calls his students with numbers as if they haven’t got any identity. He has an assuming personality and doesn’t accept any other point of view but his own. He uses a language that comes from the semantic field of business. Such choice underlines his materialistic attitude to life. The narrator is a third intrusive person type which gives the reader the choice to either believe or refuse everything is said.