How do Charles Dickens in 'Nicholas Nickelby' and Laurie Lee in 'Cider with Rosie' present school life?

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How do Charles Dickens in ‘Nicholas Nickelby’ and Laurie Lee in ‘Cider with Rosie’ present school life?

        Nicholas Nickelby written in 1838 by Charles Dickens explores the life of a young school assistant at “Dotheboys Hall” and gradually explains how disgusted he felt. Laurie Lee later wrote an imaginary autobiography “Cider with Rosie” which is not just a factual account of the author’s life but also accounts of events and incidents. This reflected school life in a different, vivid approach because you got his personal opinion. Obviously, both authors would show differences mainly due to the difference in time. Both Dickens and Lee were born in different eras therefore studied at school at different times. Not only was time a major difference, but the types of texts written; Dickens wrote a novel and Lee an autobiography and taking into consideration-originality. “Cider with Rosie” and “Nicholas Nickleby” both are diverse because they are written by different authors but Lee’s diversity is shown mainly by it being first person, yet everyone has their own style of writing. Nicholas cared about the other children but Laurie just cared only about himself. He did not hate school because of schoolwork but because he did not have to do any, which was contradictory compared Laurie.  School life portrayed differently considering the eras of their birth therefore having an age gap and attending school at a contrasting period. Charles Dickens’s educational system from early nineteenth (1812 –1870) ran differently relating to Laurie Lee during later twentieth century (1914-1997), is a significant difference.

        Buildings in “Nicholas Nickleby” were described as “bare and dirty” and the ceiling supported like that of a “barn.” The inside would be cold consisting of “rickety furniture”; whish suggests that the school was poorly built possibly due to lack of money. Nicholas being accustomed to poverty (by the unfortunate speculations of his father) had taught him to make his own way into the world; he may have found the school conditions familiar. Long ago, schools and the educational systems were not considered as a priority; consequently, no effort was made to improve them. There is hardly any mention of the exterior of the building or the surrounding environment. In “Cider with Rosie,” it is complete reverse; the issue is different. At the beginning, there are a few pages with a description of the natural environment like the valley, which consists of “twenty to thirty houses” made from “Cotswold stone.” Most of the surroundings are clarified at the beginning. There is more mention of the background and seasons compared to the buildings themselves. The houses “ooze” over the hills like “thick layers of lava.” There is mention of a “Big Room” which Laurie moves into; from becoming an indolent child to "adult and tough” that justifies his growth during school; from primary to secondary school.

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        There is one distinctive difference and that is that in both tales; there is no real reference to buildings. Remembering that though, the earlier in time the worse the buildings were, the authors chose not to elaborate on this. Another difference is that there was increasing description of the countryside in “Cider with Rosie” that now may think he is boasting about the “beauty” of his hometown. The similarity is that there is not enough description about the interior of the classrooms.

Charles Dickens vividly describes the teachers as rude people who liked mistreating the children “please sir, ...

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