WHAT'S THE STORY?

"What is it that makes you want to write songs? In a way you want to stretch yourself into other people's hearts. You want to plant yourself there, or at least get a resonance, where other people become a bigger instrument than the one you're playing. It becomes almost an obsession to touch other people. To write a song that is remembered and taken to heart is a connection, a touching of bases. A thread that runs through all of us. A stab to the heart. Sometimes I think songwriting is about tightening the heartstrings as much as possible without bringing on a heart attack." -Keith Richards

Why did Charles Dickens write the novel you're reading/reviewing? What in your analysis of literary techniques led you to this conclusion? (Make sure to include textual support illustrating Dickens' use of at least three techniques we've studied/discussed this year.)

Answer: When we got the journal topic that asked us to analyze the title, I immediately thought of Romeo and Juliet. A Tale of Two Cities reminds me of the bitter feud between two families, so this title makes me think there will be a fight between people in two different cities. Dickens continuously  uses paradox. Chiasmus is defined as "a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth (dictionary.com)." Dickens' famous quote to this story is "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." This quote reels readers in with its juxtaposition of words and this is an introduction for the rest of the book which is chalk-filled with paradoxes left and right. Since the sentence structure throughout the story is contradictory, this also tells me that there will be contradictions in the future, dealing with self (inner) conflict with characters around the protagonist.