Choose one of the following and respond to it based on your own experiences as well as how it applies to A Tale of Two Cities:
“People shouldn’t be afraid of their government, the government should be afraid of their people”
"We
are told to remember the idea, not the man, because a man can fail. He
can be caught, he can be killed and forgotten, but 400 years later, an
idea can still change the world. I've witnessed first hand the power of
ideas, I've seen people kill in the name of them, and die defending
them... but you cannot kiss an idea, cannot touch it, or hold it...
ideas do not bleed, they do not feel pain, they do not love... "
"Artists use lies to tell the truth while politicians use lies to cover things up"
- from V for Vendetta
this is my reply because i could not post it directly on the blog:
ReplyDeleteOn the first page of the A Tale of Two Cities I was very intrigued by the first sentence, since it is often quoted and I did not know where it came from prior to starting the novel. But, after the initial excitement of Charles Dickens opening, the book let me down for a while with its tough dialogue and no characters I could personally relate to. Going into the book I expected it to be a wild love story but soon realized it was not as much of a romantic novel as it was a more serious one. Once book two started however it got more into Lucie and her many suitors it got more interesting, and Lucie became more of a character to connect with. The romantic plot of the book intertwined with the revolution made the book much more interesting and the initial frustration of the language and characters lessened, and I became very interested and invested in the characters.
What also really caught my interest was the theme of ghosts and being “recalled to life”. Dickens mentions this many time through out the novel, most obviously seen when Lucie finds out her father was never really dead, just locked in a prison for many years and him being rescued is a like a ghost coming back to life. Another instance when someone was “recalled to life” was when in the very end of the novel Carton takes Darnay’s place being executed, giving Darnay another chance at life. All around the novel was an interesting one once you got farther along in the plot.
-Juliette Vitale
“People should not be afraid of their government, the government should be afraid of their people.”
ReplyDeleteIn A Tale of Two Cities the French people held all of the power, not the government. If the people did not like the way that the government was working then they do something about it. For example, when the French lower class did not like the way things in France were being run; they joined together and fought against it. And they won, showing the government, and people in power, what they were capable of. I believe that the people hold all of the power in the government, because if there were no people than what role would the government have? In our society the people elect those who they find fit to be in government; the government is at their mercy. If the people decide that they no longer like who is in power, they are able to do something about it.
“People shouldn’t be afraid of their government, the government should be afraid of their people”
ReplyDeleteI chose this quote because I slightly touched on it in my review. In many parts of the book I underlined the clearly defined mob mentality. Throughout the second book there were many times when the crowd is chanting for someone to be killed or accusing someone of being a spy. The only time when the crowd is not calling for acts of violence is after Darnay’s well executed speech and the announcement that he is not to be guillotined. Even in this less violent occasion, the mob still has the same ideas and walks through the streets cheering for Darnay’s safety. Dickens even states in the novel, “For a crowd in those times stopped at nothing, and was a monster much dreaded” (156). I also feel as though the crowd has nothing to lose by pouring their heart and souls into a certain matter. There is a significant contrast between the poor and rich people, not only in material items but in political power. The poor people virtually have nothing in their possession or any political power to lose, but they have so much to gain in joining together in a crowd to overthrow the government.