Essay on A Tale Of Two Cities Best Or Worst Of Times

In the novel quot;A Tale of Two Citiesquot; Charles Dickens describes quot;the best of times [and] the worst of timesquot; (1) of the characters. France and England struggle through political confusion, which is one of the most disturbing periods of history. On the other hand, for the characters of the novel, these are the times of rebirth and revival. The author conveys the dual nature of this epoch by contrasting representations of light and dark, chaos and stability, doom and hope with the use of setting, characterization, foreshadowing, symbolism, and plot set up. The novel opens in the troubled year of 1775, with a comparison of England and pre-Revolutionary France. It conveys the sense of doom and chaos. Both countries go†¦show more content†¦Manette, his being quot;recalled to life.quot; (6) After eighteen years of imprisonment, he finds his daughter, and Lucie Manette finds her father who has been dead for her. Lucie Manette promises to him that they will quot;go to England to be at peace and at restquot; (40). Despite the social and political disorder, these are the times of hope for Lucie Manette and her father. The twofold nature of the novel, both light and dark, hope and doom, is reflected in foreshadowing and symbolism. The spilling of red wine is a premonition of blood to be shed in the Revolution. quot;All the people within reach had suspended their business, or their idleness, to run to the spot and drink he wine.quot; (24) There will be people in the Revolution who will, figuratively, drink the blood like the wine. Another foreboding of the long and hard road of the Revolution is the image of the mail that goes up the hill along the difficult and dangerous Dover road. No travelers who venture on it are secure. quot;If any one of [the passengers] had the hardihood to propose another walk in the mist and darkness, he would have put himself in a fair way of getting shot instantly by a highwayman.quot; (5) In the mist of the night road, there is the air of distrust and separateness. quot;The guard suspected the passengers, the passengers suspected one another and the guard, they all susp ectedShow MoreRelatedA Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens Essay1393 Words   |  6 Pagescritical acclaim, A Tale of Two Cities occupies a central place in the cannon of Charles Dickens’ work. A Tale of Two Cities, published in serial form starting on April 30, 1859, is a historical fiction novel. A dominant theme in this historical novel is the duality found in many of Dickens’ characters. Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities is somewhat autobiographical; emphasizes the key elements of theme, plot, and character; and has received extensive criticism. A Tale of Two Cities is told in three partsRead MoreA Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens1420 Words   |  6 Pagesviolent period of history – the best of times and the worst of times. The violence enacted by the citizens of French on their fellow countrymen set a gruesome scene in the cities and country sides of France. Charles Dickens uses a palate of storm, wine, and blood imagery in A Tale of Two Cities to paint exactly how tremendously brutal this period of time was. Dickens use of storm imagery throughout his novel illustrates to the reader the tremulous, fierce, and explosive time period in which the courseRead MoreA Tale Of Two Cities And The French Revolution1006 Words   |  5 PagesA Tale of Two Cities was a story about sacrifice and revenge before and during revolutionary France. Charles Dickens thought that if things did not change, then a violent revolution in England, similar to the French Revolution, was possible or in the future. 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In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens utilizes juxtaposition to add a depth of meaning, specifically to illuminate socioeconomic disparities and unrest during the French Revolution, which is evident through the first chapter, the excessiveness aristocrats and the anguish of the peasants,Read MoreTale Of Two Cities Analysis704 Words   |  3 PagesCharles Dickens, a brilliant author back in the 1850’s, wrote â€Å"A Tale of Two Cities† in order to describe the similarities between the forces that led to the revolution and the oppression and unrest occurring in England. The Fr ench revolution impacts history because the time period in which it takes place is before and during the French revolution. The French revolution signifies the essence of a rapid change, nevertheless, this change tore France right at the heart, where all the government wasRead MoreA Tale Of Two Cities By Charles Dickens1269 Words   |  6 PagesAs described by Charles Dickens through his novel A Tale of Two Cities, he states, â€Å"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times†. (1) The novel, set in 1775 is in the midst of the French Revolution, a time that was embodied by dualities. Love and hate. Misery and happiness. Light and darkness. Hope and despair. The novel utilizes devices such as juxtaposition and repetition to help add meaning to the novel. One such example can be found in the last passage of the novel. With the use of imageryRead MoreA Tale Of Two Cities By Charles Dickens1591 Words   |  7 PagesA Tale of Two Cities, the 1859 classic written by Charle s Dickens, tells the story of two men who look similar, but have different characters, begins with the famous verbiage, â€Å"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we hadRead MoreA Tale of Two Cities: The Victorian Era and the Abandonment of Spirituality865 Words   |  4 PagesJoshua Wohlgemuth A Tale of Two Cities: The Victorian Era and the Abandonment of Spirituality Throughout the early to mid 19th Century, a new and cultural age took hold of Europe, specifically Great Britain with the commencing of the Victorian Era. Marked by impressive achievements such as the Industrial Revolution, La Belle Epoque, and the beginnings of an urban middle class, this era was also plagued with child labor, poor hygiene, prostitution, the constant class distinctions, and a bloody revolutionRead MoreSymbolism of Alcohol in A Tale of Two Cities721 Words   |  3 Pages intrigue, suspense, and horror in A Tale of Two Cities. The theme of liquor establishes the lingering effect that an appalling event is going to transpire due to foreshadowing. Wine is used both as sustenance and as a symbol of blood. Throughout A Tale of Two Cities wine is paralleled to blood in order to portray the reason why the peasants started an uprising against the elite of the French government to gain equality and fairness. In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens uses alcohol to underscoreRead MoreThe Worst Hard Time By Timothy Egan1079 Words   |  5 PagesAccording to Egan, â€Å"Never let the kids see you sweat† (2006, p.1). The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan was announced as â€Å"a classical disaster tale† by the New York Times. This book was written to inform everyone about the untold story of those who survived the American Dust Bowl. The story documents how the darkest years of the Great Depression affected the economy and the people’s living environment as well. Egan’s book explains the importance of the Great Depression. Within this theme, Egan explores

Culture Jamming - Definition and Examples

Culture jamming is the practice of disrupting the mundane nature of everyday life and the status quo with surprising, often comical or satirical acts or artworks. The practice was popularized by the anti-consumerist organization Adbusters, which often uses it to force those who encounter their work to question the presence and influence of advertising and consumerism in our lives. In particular, culture jamming often asks us to reflect on the pace and volume at which we consume and the unquestioned role that the consumption of goods plays in our lives, despite the many human and environmental costs of global mass production. Key Takeaways: Culture Jamming Culture jamming refers to the creation of images or practices that force viewers to question the status quo.Culture jamming disrupts social norms and is often used as a tool for social change. Activists have used culture jamming to raise awareness of issues including sweatshop labor, sexual assault on college campuses, and police brutality. The Critical Theory Behind Culture Jamming Culture jamming often involves the use of a meme that revises or plays off of a commonly recognized symbol of a corporate brand (such as Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Nike, and Apple, to name just a few). The meme is typically designed to call into question the brand image and values attached to the corporate logo, to question the consumer relationship to the brand, and to illuminate harmful actions on the part of the corporation. For example, when Apple launched the iPhone 6 in 2014, the Hong Kong-based Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM) staged a protest at a Hong Kong Apple Store where they unfurled a large banner that featured the image of the new device sandwiched between the words, iSlave. Harsher than harsher. Still made in sweatshops. The practice of culture jamming is inspired by the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, which focused on the power of mass media and advertising to shape and direct our norms, values, expectations, and behavior  through unconscious and subconscious tactics. By subverting the image and values attached to a corporate brand, the memes deployed in culture jamming aim to produce feelings of shock, shame, fear, and ultimately anger in the viewer, because it is these emotions that lead to social change and political action. Sometimes, culture jamming uses a meme or a public performance to critique the norms and practices of social institutions or to question political assumptions that lead to inequality or injustice. The artist Banksy is a notable example of this type of culture jamming. Here, well examine some recent cases that do the same. Emma Sulkowicz and Rape Culture Emma Sulkowicz launched her performance piece and senior thesis project Mattress Performance: Carry That Weight at Columbia University in New York City  in September  2014, as a way to draw critical attention to the universitys mishandling of disciplinary proceedings for her alleged rapist, and its mishandling of sexual assault cases in general. Speaking about her performance and her experience of rape, Emma told the Columbia Spectator that the piece is designed to take her private experience of rape and shame in the aftermath of her attack into the public sphere and  to physically evoke the psychological weight she has carried since the alleged attack.  Emma vowed to carry the weight in public until her alleged rapist was expelled or left campus. This never happened, so Emma and supporters of the cause carried her mattress throughout her graduation ceremony. Emmas daily performance not only brought  her alleged assault  into the public sphere, it also jammed the notion  that sexual assault and its consequences are private matters, and illuminated the reality that they are often  hidden from view by the shame and fear that survivors experience. Refusing to suffer in silence and in private, Emma made  her fellow students, faculty, administrators, and staff at Columbia face the reality of sexual assault on college campuses by making the matter visible with her performance. In sociological terms, Emmas performance served to vanish the taboo on acknowledging and discussing the widespread problem of sexual violence by disrupting the social norms of daily campus behavior. She brought rape culture into sharp focus on Columbias campus, and in society in general. Emma received a heap of media coverage for her culture jamming performance piece, and fellow students and alumni of Columbia joined her in carrying the weight on a daily basis. Of the social and political power of her work and the widespread media attention it received, Ben Davis of ArtNet, the leader in global news about the art world, wrote, I can hardly think of an artwork in recent memory that justifies the belief that art can still help  lead a conversation  in quite the way  Mattress Performance  already has. Black Lives Matter and Justice for Michael Brown At the same time that Emma was carrying that weight around Columbias campus, halfway across the country in St. Louis, Missouri, protesters creatively demanded  justice for 18-year-old Michael Brown, an unarmed Black man  who was killed by a Ferguson, MO police officer Darren Wilson on August 9, 2014. Wilson had at that point yet to be charged with a crime, and since the killing occurred, Ferguson, a predominantly Black city  with a predominantly white police force and a history of police harassment and brutality,  had been raked by daily and nightly protests. Just as intermission concluded during a performance of  Requiem  by Johannes Brahms by the St. Louis Symphony on October 4, a racially diverse group of singers stood from their seats, one by one, singing the classic Civil Rights anthem, Which Side Are You On? In a beautiful and haunting performance, protesters addressed the predominantly white audience with the songs titular question, and implored, Justice for Mike Brown is justice for us all. In a recorded video of the event, some audience members look on disapprovingly while many clapped for the singers. Protesters dropped banners  from the balcony commemorating Michael Browns life  during the performance  and chanted Black lives matter! as they peacefully exited the symphony hall at the conclusion of the song. The surprising, creative, and beautiful nature of this culture jamming protest made it particularly effective. The protesters capitalized on the presence of a quiet and attentive audience to disrupt the norm of audience  silence and stillness  and instead made  the audience the site of a politically engaged performance. When social norms are disrupted in spaces in which they are usually strictly obeyed, we tend to quickly take notice and focus on the disruption, which makes this form of culture jamming successful. Further, this performance disrupts the privileged comfort that members of a symphony audience enjoy, given that they are primarily white and wealthy, or at least middle class. The performance was an effective way of reminding people who are not burdened by racism that the community in which they live is currently under assault by it in physical, institutional, and ideological ways  and that, as members of that community, they have a responsibility to fight those for ces. Both of these performances, by Emma Sulkowicz and the St. Louis protesters, are examples of culture jamming at its best. They surprise those who bear witness to them with their disruption of social norms, and in doing so, call those very norms, and the validity of the institutions that organize them  into question. Each offers a timely and deeply important  commentary on troubling social problems  and forces us to confront that which is more conveniently swept aside. This matters because viscerally confronting the social problems of our day is an important step in the direction of meaningful social change.

Deborah Tannen Analysis Essay Free Essays

Ap English Tannen Essay Section 1: Theory You Just Don’t Understand Women and Men in Conversation by Deborah Tannen is basically an explanation on how women and men converse. Tannens main goal is to give advice to the different genders in order for them to avoid as much conflict as possible. Tannen’s main ideas are to explain how differently women and men react to each other’s way of being. We will write a custom essay sample on Deborah Tannen Analysis Essay or any similar topic only for you Order Now It’s like they’re in their own little world while living in the same big world. Men tend to try to dominate situations and tend to always want to be at the top. Women do not tend to want to get into conflict but tend to show understanding. These big differences bring them into conflict. A Tannen explains, â€Å"What he wanted conflicted with what she wanted†. (40) Women and men are constantly clashing in opinions. Men are usually trying to be above each other which is something Tannen calls â€Å"one-up†. It is like men are always in competition with people around them. For example, in chapter 2, Tannen explains why men don’t ask for directions. She explains, â€Å"The fact that you have the information, and the person you are speaking to doesn’t, sends a metamessage of superiority. If reasons are inherently hierarchal, then the one who has more information is framed as higher up on the ladder, by virtue of being more knowledgeable and competent. † This shows how men are always trying to be at the top of every conversation. They want to know everything, in order to be at the top of everyone. Women have a completely different view point then men. They aim to be accepted by others, they try to avoid conflict, and they tend to show that they understand what the other person is trying to say. For example, in chapter 6, Tannen begins to explain how in a comic, the two boys are fighting while a girl named Debbie is trying to be the peacemaker. She claims that she is looking for someone but the boys say that the person isn’t there. Even though she knows the person is there, she acts like she doesn’t know anything to avoid conflict. Tannen explains, â€Å"Females play the role of being peace makers. †(162) This shows how women basically try to avoid any conflict with anyone. Section 2: Setting The setting of the conversation is at lunch in a restaurant for a reunion. There are three women: Cathy and Jeanne are sisters and Mary is their mom. The conversation is taking place at a restaurant called The Cheese Cake Factory at around 12:45. The women are having lunch because Cathy came down to visit them from Venezuela. The women haven’t seen each other in two months. They basically discuss their life styles and explain how their children act. Section 3: Analysis In this conversation, there are no men. Since there are only women, there is no conflict and they basically agree with each other in everything. They talk about their children’s behaviors and no one speaks more than one another. However, even though Mary does talk, she speaks less than her daughters do. The women only interrupt each other twice in the entire conversation but it is to add positive feedback to each of their issues. For example, Jeanne interrupts Cathy to say â€Å"of course†, when Cathy is talking about her conditions in Venezuela. Throughout the conversation, the topic basically stays the same. Unlike men, these women don’t try to be â€Å"one-up† from each other in anyway. No one brags about anything and they don’t try to put each other down. In fact, they agree with each other when they share different anecdotes. For example, Jeanne agrees with Mary when Mary says that it was hard to have 3 teenagers at once. Jeanne specifically says, â€Å"How the heck did you do that! † I think Tannens theory of women is proven by this conversation. Since there are just women, they each agree with each other and are very understanding of their concerns and opinions. Section 4: Reflection In this conversation, I completely agree with what Tannen would think of this conversation. Women always tend to agree with each other and then add feedback to the conversation. Also, men like to be straight to the point while women like to be detailed and concerned. This is exactly what the ladies are doing in this conversation. They do not try to be better than each other in any way; they are simply having lunch. No one tries to take the lead role of the conversation and neither one of them tries to act like they’re better than another. This book has opened my eyes to many things I never noticed. I never noticed why men and women clash so much with each other. Men and women are very different. For example, this book made me feel the need to analyze my parent’s relationship. They do fight because they have different views on how to deal with things. My mom seems to overreact to things in my dad’s eyes. However, my mom feels that my dad doesn’t care so much about her since he feels this way. I agree with her when she compares the genders. However, at times I felt that she would exaggerate. As a woman, I notice that I do many of the things she says in her book. I’m never looking for conflict and I don’t like to brag to people that I don’t really know because it seems like they’ll judge me. However, in this book, I feel that women look weak in her eyes. She feels that they are always willing to avoid conflict but this is not always the case. Women fight as well for what they want. At times, I felt her book had been inaccurate because the ideas were more stuck in the past. For example, the newspaper example in chapter 3. When I read this example, the first think I thought about was my grandparents. They always fight due to the idea of my grandpa always reading the paper rather than talking to my grandma. A lot of couples, nowadays, don’t have this problem. This to me shows that it’s inaccurate information. How to cite Deborah Tannen Analysis Essay, Essay examples