Essay Questions

What important connotative information brings the editorial’s opening lines under considerable scrutiny regarding the long unquestioned sincerity of this famous piece of American journalism?

The opening salvo in this reply to Virginia’s question seeks to lay the blame for her newfound doubt regarding Santa’s existence on her “little friends” who have raise the possibility that he is a fraud. He suggests that their cynical attitude is the result of being influence by a “skeptical age.” While he may be completely right about this assertion, it is essential to remember and understand. First, remember that skeptics are not born, but made; one must be influenced by external forces in order to develop a skeptical attitude. With that in mind, understand that one of the foremost agencies pushing an agenda of skepticism toward things which had to be taken on faith was none other than the man who wrote the editorial. Until this particular piece was published, he was most famous for writing editorial casting doubt on religious faith and superstitious beliefs. In other words, he was one of the master engineers of the new age of skepticism which was being ushered in at the dawn of the 20th century.

How does knowing the editorial writer’s personal motto change potentially change one’s perception of his reply to Virginia?

“Endeavour to clear your mind of cant” was said to be Francis Church’s controlling directive advice regarding his editorial opinions. Among the various iterations of definitions of the word “cant” include “hypocritically sanctimonious language used for dishonest intent or purpose.” Rather ironically in light of his name, Church often wrote editorial opinions that railed against the empty language of theological sermons which sought engagement through sanctimonious appeals to emotions in order to disguise the lack of rational logic. Even more ironic is the single most opinion piece Church ever relies upon just those very things in order to push its argument for believing in Santa Claus not merely in spite of never seeing him, but because he has never been seen. Replace “Santa Claus” with “Jesus Christ” throughout this replay and the line “The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see” becomes a very precise example of exactly the type of cant that he urged readers to endeavor clearing from their minds.

Exactly why were Virginia’s “little friends” so skeptical about the existence of Santa Claus?

A significant piece of information left out of the published account also brings the reply under a shadow of skepticism itself. As indicated, Church lays the blame for the skepticism expressed among Virginia’s friends to the external influences of “the age” in which they were growing. While that is almost certainly true to an extent, there is a more directed and pointed element in Virginia’s recollections which alters the circumstances leading her to write to the newspaper in a considerable way. It wasn’t merely that some of her friends had come to doubt the existence of Santa Claus because of the questionable nature of his Christmas Eve activities. In other words, their doubts had stemmed not from the fact the mere fact that Santa is supposed to fly through the air in a sleigh pulled by magical reindeer so he can gives presents to children, but rather than from their own personal experiences it seemed that Santa was being inexplicably inequitable in this task. Virginia’s friends, in other words, had grown skeptical of the existence of Santa because he seemed to make a habit of giving an abundance of presents to kids who were already rich while sometimes not leaving anything at all for poor children.