EM Forster and Charles Dickens use their novels, Howard's End and Hard Times, respectively, to discuss social class inequalities. These inequalities are part of the different relationships between their characters and facts and knowledge. While Dickens's characters in the Gradgrind household are chained to bland facts, Forster's intellectuals use debate as a means of seeking larger truths. It is Forster's poor characters, especially poor Mr. Leonard Bast, who can only grasp simple facts. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on 'Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned'?Get Original Essay Dickens' Hard Times depicts its economic elite as a people of facts. Mr. Thomas Gradgrind is depicted as "burdened with a sinister mechanical substitute for the tender young imaginations which were to be swept away by the storm" (42). His logic is based only on facts. When Cecilia "Sissy" Jupe is asked what her father's profession is, he manages to create a more royal title for the circus performer by taking each individual task he performs and giving him a title that is unique to him. own. Gradgrind is not interested in the power of entertainment; however, after questioning Cecilia about the individual tasks of her father's job, Gradgrind finds some respectability in creating "a veterinarian, a farrier, and a horse trainer" out of Signor Jupe (43). Furthermore, the reader can observe that Gradgrind's reliance on facts is not limited to the older generation alone. Young Bitzer establishes that this same adherence to cold statistical evidence has permeated younger generations at the behest of their teachers. While Sissy fails to give a definition of the horse, an animal that his family knows very well, Bitzer is congratulated for his definition which consists of naming the different physical properties that make up a horse. Although Sissy, a representation of the poor, knows horses and has been around real horses, she only knows them through experience. Bitzer, meanwhile, a member of the most financially stable, creates his horse from numbers. He adheres to the idea that “you should not have anywhere what you do not actually see. What we call taste is only another name for the fact” (45). Unlike Dickens, Forster positions the Schlegel sisters, academic and economic elites, as women concerned with intellectual debate. Their quest is to find the truth through the process of debate. The simplistic idea of ​​good and evil does not concern them; instead, the idea of ​​factual good and evil is associated with the poor. "In his [Leonard Bast's] circle, making a mistake was fatal. The Miss Schlegels were not afraid of making a mistake" (109). It is in higher activities than mere facts that the Schlegel sisters remain interested. Therefore, they get involved and take pride in the debate. “The goal of their debates,” she suggested, “was the truth,” and yet it is the truth, not the facts, that wins; therefore, “it doesn't matter much what topic you discuss” as long as the discussion serves to bring those involved closer to a higher truth (104). For Forster's elite, truth is seen as something greater than facts. To find the truth, there must be interstitial connections. Different aspects of truth are revealed through debate and only by connecting these aspects can man find the truth. Margaret, representative of the educated elite, is not concerned with accumulating statistical data like Bitzer and his horse, but rather with establishing connections. “Just log in!” That was all » (90)..