As the first strokes are put down on paper, there is no turning back, no eraser, no white out, it is stuck. Luisa’s father had first laid down a strict and bold black word on her portrait, which read “Facts”. To Mr. Gradgrind, Luisa’s father, there is nothing more important to him than realizing facts are all important, “No little Gradgrind had ever learnt the silly jingle, Twinkle, twinkle, little star; how I wonder what you are!” Never had Luisa known that there was a world outside of the world of “Facts” Like all children, Luisa was attached to her parents, mostly her father

There were many signs in her surroundings that led her to such a conclusion. As she noticed the strokes around her, she began to realize that there was indeed a bigger and larger picture, than the narrow-minded thought of “Fact”. A comparison to one thinking that all paintings were basic and factual, for every painting in the world was based on the primary colors, just as Luisa had thought that the world relied on the basic belief of “Fact”. “'Tom, I wonder' - upon which Mr. Gradgrind, who was the person overhearing, stepped forth into the light and said, 'Louisa, never wonder!'“ Luisa knew that her father was quite against that fact of “wonder”, she knew about these things. Though before this, she had never known that not all must be happy to be this way. As ironic as it was, she later found out that not following the ideas of “Fact”, she was the beginning to live a much more happy life.

As her father figure started to fade away, as an old painting does when forgotten about, Luisa began to get her own ideas, formed and given to her by others around and her surroundings. When James Hearthouse enters the painting, there are many things that change along with him when he enters as well as Luisa’s thoughts, “What was there in her soul for James Hearthouse to destroy, which Thomas Gradgrind had nurtured there in its state of innocence!” Hearthouse is a fairly noble man, yet when around Luisa he gives her an idea and feeling of loneliness. She had felt this feeling many times before, but was never able to put a finger on the exact word that could describe her, in a more Factual way. As she began to realize her loneliness, she had no other choice but to confront the problem itself, the man of constant “Fact”, and the man of constant repetitions of “Fact”, her father, Mr. Gradgrind, “'of tastes and fancies; of aspirations and affections; of all that part of my nature in which such light things might have been nourished? What escape have I had from problems that could be demonstrated, and realities that could be grasped?'“

, and with this there was always a vision of Fact, acting as the supreme being in life. And as a child she never knew about “Fancy�

Some topics in this essay:
Gradgrind Luisa’s, Industrial Revolution, Thomas Gradgrind, Charles Dickens, , Hard Times, James Hearthouse, charles dickens, industrial revolution, own ideas, james hearthouse, luisa’s father, luisa obvious, “fancy” luisa, focal painting, father gradgrind, ideas “fancy”,