I have recently completed this Dickens masterpiece, referenced in LOST.
A lesson to take away, firstly, is not to always read introductions first. This introduction gave away the ending. How dissappointing. Still, the journey was a well constructed piece of literature and the introduction (which I completed reading after the story) contained some useful insights.
Why couldn't my high school English class have studied this novel? To Kill a Mockingbird is great, but Dickens' depictions of the mob mentality and self sacrifice are so much more interesting than the effects of racism on a community (which does not do TKAM credit...but I am in a rush).
The mob mentality and two characters were what struck me most in this novel. The first, Sydney Carton, struck me as peculiar because by all rights and respects he is such a failure even to himself. He does not even choose failure, rather he accepts that he can't change it. It is intersting that his entire being is self sacrifice - his inelligence if used for himself and not for the benefit of Syver could have rendered him an incredibly high part of society. I don't believe he does this willingly, but it is noteworthy that his existance props up that of those around him, by his own doing or not. The second character that struck me was that of Jerry, and very simply and quickly, it is because of his change of attitude towards being God-fearing. The French Revolution can be described as bringing secularism to the forefront of societies, and it is interesting the contrasts Dickens provides (being of that God-fearing era) of the God-fearing and non God-fearing. Illustrated mainly through Defarge claiming 'Long live the Devil' but also when Jerry realises what Godlessness can do to society after witnessing horrors of the French Revolution. An intersting comment on society.
