Symbolism
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In literature, symbolism is often used to give the reader a better feeling of the story and of the atmosphere surrounding the characters. Charles Dickens uses symbolism to that extent in his books. In A Tale of Two Cities, he uses such symbols as the color red, the honest tradesmen, and the golden thread. The one symbol of the three that stands out is the color red. The color red is used in many books to represent chaos, death, and change. Charles Dickens uses the color red to represent the despair, the revolutionizing, and the turmoil provoked within the two countries involved.
In Book I of A Tale of Two Cities, the color red is used to show the despair lurking within France. As the book goes on, symbolism from the color red will begin to create a better picture of what is occurring. In chapter 5, titled "The Wine-Shop", Dickens wrote:
"All the people within reach had suspended their business, or their idleness, to run to the spot and drink the wine some men kneeled, made scoops of their two hands joined, and sipped"(27).
This was the desperation which French people lived through, enduring poverty, famine, and dehydration...